Doctor Who, "Season 23"

 

This has been an interesting walk down a path untraveled. Some Season 23 story outlines were never adapted in this format, and a couple of stories included were never exactly intended for the original Season 23. What we have here instead is a weird Frankenstein hodge-podge.

Thanks to the able work of Big Finish, it feels like they do make up a sort of cohesive season with a similar tone. Colin and Nicola always give it their all, elevating even the worse material. I can't blame Big Finish too much for the bad ones, since they're based on old drafts. Can't polish turds into diamonds, after all. The good ones transcend those limits, and probably would have been Colin classics if their TV counterparts had resembled the audios at all.

In the alternate reality where Season 23 came out looking like this, would it have been better or worse than Trial of a Time Lord? I have no way of knowing yet; Trial is now the last season of Doctor Who that I've never seen before. I'll need to check it out and make that judgement for myself.

Here's the score breakdown.

The Nightmare Fair - 5.00

Mission to Magnus - 2.00

Leviathan - 7.00

The Hollows of Time - 8.00

Paradise 5 - 8.00

Point of Entry - 9.00

The Song of Megaptera - 8.00

The Macros - 5.00

Best episode: Point of Entry - 9.00
Runner-up: Paradise 5 - 8.00
Worst episode: Mission to Magnus - 2.00

"Season 23" average: 6.50

Best guest appearance: David Garfield as "Professor Stream" (The Hollows of Time)
Best mental image: The green rust consuming the fog-laden USS Eldridge (The Macros)
Best musical score: Paradise 5 (Simon Robinson)

Before I do discover what Trial has in store, however, there's just one further stopping point on the way. Slipback is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 2 June 2024.)

The Macros [Doctor Who, Diversion 46]

 The Macros by Ingrid Pitt & Tony Rudlin
June 2010

​ 

 

One thing about all these Lost Stories is that they're somewhat on the longer side. With many of them running over two hours, it can be a bit of a time commitment, though generally they have enough incident to make up for this. Even though The Macros is significantly better than Mission to Magnus, I regret to say it's the first of these stories that really has noticeable pacing issues.

I was a little surprised to find that the story is based on the "Philadelphia Experiment". This is an urban legend I've heard since I was a kid, so it's pretty amusing that Doctor Who took a spin at it. The opening minutes on the deck of the USS Eldridge call the beginning of Carnival of Monsters to mind and are genuinely quite creepy and unsettling. Accordingly, I was disappointed when this aspect of the story fell out of focus and we started to get scenes on an alien world.

Capron isn't exactly the most lovingly sketched world we've ever seen in Doctor Who, and the characters failed to stick with me for the most part. The closest is the villain, Presidenta Osloo, who is at least entertainingly evil. The rest flitted away from my mind almost as soon as I was done.

As soon as the story shifts primarily to Capron, things become much less interesting, with the sole real highlight being Peri getting mistaken for an opera singer and getting ushered out on stage in front of thousands. As a true fan, I remember Nicola's contribution to Doctor in Distress and immediately know where this is going. Hilarity was had by all. It was also nice to hear Peri talk about what parts of traveling with the Doctor she actually likes, something which is far too rare. That scene was very nice.

Otherwise, there's not a whole lot else to recommend here, except the bonkers ending that prefigures Boom Town. (Or does it post-figure it? I'm never sure what was part of the original script or outline and what was a latter-day Big Finish invention, for these things.)

Altogether a somewhat disappointing note to end this range on, for now. Don't go anywhere; our round-up for this alternate Season 23 is coming up now.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 2 June 2024.)

The Song of Megaptera [Doctor Who, Diversion 45]

 The Song of Megaptera by Pat Mills
May 2010​

As I near the end of this pseudo-season, I've begun to get a little twitchy, looking forward to returning to TV again. Still, not one to let impatience get the better of me, I sat down last night and listened through the last two Lost Stories audios.

In case we forgot this was the Eighties, here's a save the whales story. In fact, The Song of Megaptera has a pretty long and strange life, since it was proposed as a script for the Fourth and Fifth Doctors as well, but obviously never made it to screen. Pat Mills is best known as a comic strip writer, and I can kind of see that here. This script is a witty one, and certainly loves its humorous dialogue.

The first scene of the TARDIS team opting to save the Galeen and then getting caught in the Orcus' disassembly system is really good. We start to get to know the ship's crew pretty early on, and they end up being one of the better casts of side characters in this range. My favorites are the gung-ho Chief Engineer and the rather neurotic computer. I had myself a good laugh of disbelief when it started spouting post-Nineties video gamer jargon as a result of a virus.

One detail which appeared in the previous story, but which I failed to mention, is the Doctor's trusty new tool, the sonic lance. A version of this tool appeared back in Attack of the Cybermen, but I must have already been rendered near-vegetative by the time it came out, because I didn't notice. It is interesting that after the effort taken to remove the screwdriver from the Doctor's kit, a similar tool was just brought back again for Attack. I wonder if the usage in these audios is a part of the original plan for this season, or if it's just a case of the audio adaptations taking a page from the New Series playbook.

Poor Peri is put through the wringer again, almost getting herself Hoothi'd by a Touthon and reduced to delirium as she begins to go all fungal. Nicola does a good job with the dialogue she's given there, including her plea to the Doctor, "Can I still be your friend even though I'm turning into a mushroom? I can still grow on you if you let me." Aw, bless. There are some other memorable Peri moments in this story, including her happily talking about her little cousin, Peter, the bit where she cheekily accuses the Doctor of chauvinism when he blames the TARDIS for getting them stuck in messes, or when she talks about going to a Slayer concert.

Perhaps the biggest topic to talk about here is environmentalism. This is a subject which already came up in Doctor Who as early as Planet of Giants, way back in 1964, but also notably in 1973's The Green Death. The Song of Megaptera isn't a much more subtle commentary than either of these, and it wears its convictions on its sleeve.

The clearest statement of its ethos comes in two halves, one from the first part of the audio, and the other from the last. Toward the beginning of the story, the captain defends his whaling practices by saying that they make use of every part of the whale. "Everything but the song," the Doctor mournfully replies. And then, toward the end of the story, the captain justifies the deaths of people as collateral for his last hunt by saying, "Parasites, protein, people... Not much difference at a molecular level." We could say, then, that the story is acknowledging a dimension beyond the merely physical that makes nature worth more than its simple material value - a worth measured in beauty, diversity, and enrichment of the spirit.

All in all, as heavy-handed as it can be, the message is a positive one, and the story itself is very charming. I enjoyed it a great deal. The Macros is next.

 

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 2 June 2024.)

Point of Entry [Doctor Who, Diversion 44]

 Point of Entry by Barbara Clegg & Marc Platt
April 2010

That's quite a dream team there in the authors line! What should have been Barbara Clegg's sophomore Doctor Who story is fixed up and adapted for audio by Marc Platt of Ghost Light fame. Maybe I was biased from the start, then; I thought this was a stellar story.

Somehow managing to mix together both Elizabethan England and Aztec legend, Point of Entry is a dream come true for a history nerd like me. Using Kit Marlowe instead of our old friend Shakespeare as our celebrity figure this time around is a nice choice.

While I don't know a whole lot about Marlowe except that he (probably) moonlit as a spy, he's sketched really well here, his darker side that brought Doctor Faustus into the world coming out in full force under the malignant influence of Lorenzo Velez and his Omnim masters. He seems willing to do almost anything to continue seeing glimpses of past and future in order to fuel the spark for more plays, such that he's almost an antagonist himself at times, albeit a tragic one. His lamenting about selling one's soul for the sake of fame is, in this case, quite literal.

It would be remiss of me to review this story without invoking its older cousin, The Aztecs, from way back in Season 1. Although the stories don't have a lot linking them on the surface except for the Aztec connection itself, there is at least one thread that I can trace between them: imperialism and violence it brings.

Secondary antagonist Sir Francis Walsingham points us in the direction of these threads in a couple of different ways. Firstly, I note that his position as spymaster and interrogator (only one of his many, many roles at Elizabeth's court) reminds me a little of our old friend Tlotoxl. Although he's no priest, Walsingham seems just as convinced that his various tortures, bloodlettings, and sacrifices keep the machine of state running. Their roles aren't as different as you'd first assume. The Doctor draws the comparison himself after finding "Mad Jack" with his mutilated tongue, bemoaning the barbarism of this allegedly civilized time and place.

Walsingham also, humorously, tells the Doctor with arch superiority that England isn't the one that victimized Spain by sending an Armada against it. This is funny in particular because, although it's never mentioned in the story, Elizabeth did send her own "English Armada" the year before this story was set in order to press the advantage from the defeat of the Spanish Armada and raid the Spanish treasure fleets. It was a military disaster, to put it mildly. The listener who knows history will understand that this epoch didn't really see plucky underdog England surviving the cruel assaults of the continental superpower of Spain; their long stretch of wars in this period were a conflict between two imperial powers over who would get the greater share of the world's plunder. The supposed Elizabethan golden age, whose luster is tarnished in this story's eyes, was built off of this piracy.

The treasure fleet connection is appropriate, as it's English raids of Spanish ships which ultimately bring the story's central artifact, the Aztec dagger forged from an Omnim meteorite, to England, importing the bloodshed it once wrought on hapless sacrificial victims to a new setting - virgin soil, you might say. The visions that play of London descending into chaos, the Thames running red, and the Virgin Queen herself being led out for the sacrifice are all very striking images which stick with the listener for a while. I also note Peri's turn impersonating Elizabeth, which is just wonderful, particularly her knighting of an unsuspecting sailor, much to the Doctor's chagrin. This is also a send-up of the iconography of this period, albeit a more humorous one.

I may just be making connections here where none actually exist, but considering Platt's acerbic commentary on imperialism in Ghost Light, I'd say that I'm at the very least onto something.

Leaving aside all thematic questions for the moment, the story is admittedly a little on the long and slow side, which I saw was a bit of a sticking point for reviewers online. I really didn't take issue with this at all, as I thought a slower and more methodically paced story was appropriate for sketching the historical setting and characters in as much depth as they deserved. It felt more like a long, pleasant walk to me than a dragged-out crawl as some reviewers would suggest.

Velez is a fantastic villain, played with relish by Luis Soto. His progressive skeletonization through the course of the story is awesomely ghoulish stuff, but probably never would have flown on TV... Nor could they have pulled off the - so garish it's actually wonderful - metamorphosis of Velez into Quetzalcoatl at the climax of the story.

Colin and Nicola are as on fire as they always are in their audio appearances together, and both get due focus and some damned good writing here.

I can't imagine a world where this serial actually got finished and broadcast in 1986, but its inclusion more than justifies the existence of this Lost Stories range, both as a look at what might have been, and as a fantastic audio in its own right.

The Song of Megaptera is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 31 May 2024.)

Paradise 5 [Doctor Who, Diversion 43]

 Paradise 5 by PJ Hammond & Andy Lane
10 March 2010

"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans." - Allen Saunders​

I was a little surprised when the above quote popped up in Paradise 5. It wasn't in this exact format, but rather, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans," a variation popularized by John Lennon's song Beautiful Boy. It jumped out to me because of my recent Lennon review, but I think it's a pretty good summation for this story's ethos. Paradise 5 takes place on a space station where guests dream their lives away... quite literally, in fact.

Interestingly, the Doctor and Peri decide not to just show up somewhere for once, and instead put some thought into infiltrating Paradise 5, whence yet another of the Doctor's very old friends(!) disappeared some time ago.

Peri takes the most risk by getting herself hired on as a hostess, putting herself under the scrutiny of sadistic station manager Gabriel, played by a certain Alex Macqueen. Peri gets a lot of great scenes due to this higher focus on her. My favorite is a moment where she confides in a fellow hostess that she feels some anxiety about when she'll get to start deciding the direction of her own life, something I think we really could have stood to see with her TV counterpart.

The slow realization that the Cherubs are former guests who have been converted into forms that can no longer speak is a chilling one, in particular the case of one Cherub who has been helping the Doctor, whom we learn to be the Doctor's friend, Albrecht Thompson. There's a fair bit of body horror inherent to this, and it makes for a nice, dark touch.

The alien villains of the week, the Elohim, are visually and conceptually quite cool. I wish we could actually see them for real. Their illusory garden has a serpent in it - because of course it does. Kinda all over again, just with less Buddhism.

The guests, beaten down by the humdrum of workaday life on Targos Delta, a planet so focused on finance that it's all but made of futuristic ticker tape, seek escape and seclusion from other people on Paradise 5. In the process, they lose themselves in a false Eden, some even physically regressed into childlike bodies. Escaping from the real world is something we all need from time to time - but it is possible to go so far that you never quite return.

My thoughts on this one are almost as disorganized as my notes, so I'll leave it at that. I really enjoyed Paradise 5 and think it's the strongest of the set so far. Point of Entry is next.

 

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 30 May 2024.)

The Hollows of Time [Doctor Who, Diversion 42]

 The Hollows of Time by Christopher H. Bidmead
18 February 2010

In keeping with the first two stories of this lost season, The Hollows of Time also brings back recurring villains. In this case it's the Tractators and the Gravis, and... hm... what was that fellow's name again?

The continued usage of recurring villains is unsurprising in light of the continuity-laden Season 22, but I have already sort of gotten tired of it. Having a story in Leviathan where there were no recurring characters (albeit in a rather familiar setting) was somewhat refreshing. I didn't dock points from The Hollows of Time for having these recurring elements yet again - mostly because I rather like Bidmead's writing - but I am raising my eyebrow and wondering how many more of the others will do the same.

Taking place principally in a small English town, it is interesting and a little refreshing to see the Sixth Doctor interact with everyday people. Ones that aren't aliens, at any rate. Scenes like the jumble sale, or Mrs. Streeter fussing over Reverend Foxwell, or the Doctor getting stuck in a rose bush are all quite charming.

The guest cast are a little more memorable than Leviathan's, but whether for good or ill is in the eye of the beholder, I'm sure. A young boy named Simon is the most constant companion to the Doctor and Peri through this story, and a lot of the negative reviews I've read mentioned how annoying he was. Child characters don't really faze me, so my experience wasn't the same as theirs. Just the same, I did slap my forehead a few times when he manages to get them into trouble.

Foxwell and his supposed former Bletchley Park colleague "Professor Stream" call to mind The Curse of Fenric, particularly the latter's story of losing the use of his legs after a sporting accident. I wonder if concepts from this were reused?

The Tractators end up being more of a plot device in the end, with the conflict principally surrounding Stream's attempts to hijack the Doctor's TARDIS, first by way of his red herring chauffeur android, and then himself once the mask comes off. I admit, with some small shame, that my first suspicion when I heard about a car traveling in the time vortex was, "Drax?" I really am too far gone. I was on the right track once I heard "My dear Doctor..."

The story is framed as an imperfect recollection of the Doctor's and Peri's after the completion of the adventure, with narrative inserts inside the TARDIS. Due to the necessary decision to never properly reveal the real identity of "Stream", this lends some ambiguity to the story that probably helps it overall in the end. It's a mess, but an intriguing one. I'd probably call it my favorite of this pseudo-season so far.

That's it for now. Paradise 5 is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 29 May 2024.)

Leviathan [Doctor Who, Diversion 41]

 Leviathan by Brian Finch & Paul Finch
21 January 2010​

By this point, Doctor Who is no stranger to faux-medieval settings. The Androids of Tara, State of Decay, and even the non-official Visions of Utomu have all passed us by over the course of this marathon. It's not really anything new by the time we get to Leviathan, so I was a little skeptical from the off. However, being something of a fan of Celtic horned deities, the presence of Herne the Hunter was enough to make me tentatively interested.

I was pleasantly surprised. While the side characters and even the villains aren't really too memorable (though I did enjoy the spiky Eada), this story's setting on a massive spaceship with a world in its bowels (the titular Leviathan) is a little different from the previous two instances and definitely a cool mental image. This is sort of the same idea as The Ark way back in 1966, and it would also turn up thirty-one years later in World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls, which is a fun coincidence.

The slow revelation that the people in this place are either clones or their robot minders is handled pretty well, and the scene in the "recycling" chamber certainly leaves an impression, as gory as it is. Herne, most likely derived from an ancient hunting god, is a part of the cultural imagination of Britain, as in fact is the entire setting; much is made of the fact that it's a rather poor recreation of the real 11th century, with its flimsy castle walls and good white bread.

My favorite part, all things considered, is that our two regulars are handled quite well here. Not very much like their TV counterparts up to this point, granted, but in this case that's not exactly a bad thing. Peri plays a more active role in the story than usual, and the usual bickering is basically nowhere to be seen. I quite like the Doctor here as well; his moral outrage feels a little more real than usual. When a dying boy implores him with his last breath, "Someone must..." it is only proper that the Doctor's quiet but strong reply is "Someone will."

All things considered, I don't know what this would have been like on screen, but I certainly like it here. Thumbs-up. The Hollows of Time is next.

(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 28 May 2024.)