Starring Sylvester McCoy, Ann Bell & Tracey Childs
Written by Andy Lane
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
1950's Kenya. The Mau Mau uprising. A disparate group of women lie low in a remote house in the jungle, waiting for a resolution or for rescue. Among these British imperialists is Elizabeth Klein, a refugee from a timeline that no longer exists...thanks to the Doctor.
Reunited, the Doctor and Klein are forced to set aside their differences by terrifying circumstances. People are dying in this remote place. One by one. And there's something out there, in the jungle, accompanied only by the flutter of a thousand tiny wings...
Many Doctor Who stories have a certain pace to them, and action sequences that keep the story interesting. A Thousand Tiny Wings, however, is very different to any Doctor Who story before or since. There's no real pace to it and there's no real action sequences either. Instead, it's more concerned with slow burning tension and seeing how the characters react to every strange noise that could be the Mau Mau. It's a very different Doctor Who story to the norm, which could be a rather dangerous move, especially considering that the pace could have been enough to start boring people. However, A Thousand Tiny Wings is so well written that it's become quite a modern classic.
The plot may be slight, but that's ok. The tension is what's more important here. The storyline about an alien race building biological weapons wouldn't have been enough to power a whole 4 part story. Therefore the slow burning tension in this story is it's main focus, which really allows for our characters to be put through the psychological wringer. The tension brought about by not knowing when the Mau Mau are going to attack, as we know they will. That's what's so gripping about this story, because you can never be sure if every sound we hear are the Mau Mau are going to attack. Because this story is also the return of Klein, this story also deals with the various 'facist vs. democracy' debates that come with this sort of character. However, these debates are really on the surface level, rather than being deeper and with niche facets. For the moment, however, it isn't too much of a problem, as only the first story in the trilogy, it can deal with the bare basics, so long as the other stories takle the more niche aspects. However, the slow building tension is something that is played off really well by the script, which is something that is very unusural. Anything that keeps the script from building pace is normally something that I would resent, however in this instance it really works. It gives the story a tension that Doctor Who doesn't usually have, even when it's telling stories in a similar 'base-under-siege' style.
The characters are vitally important in this story, as it's there interactions with the other characters and the enviroment around them that is so important. The main stars are Sylvester McCoy, who continues an impressive string of appearances for Big Finish, and Tracey Childs, who returns the role of Elizabeth Klein after eight years. I imagine that there was some worry that the same magic couldn't be recreated, but Tracey is fantastic, and Andy Lane writes for her character brilliantly. The rest of cast are brilliant too, particularly Ann Bell as Sylvia O'Donnall, who manages to create a brilliantly well layered character. The idea of a Brition who is supportive of the National Socialist ideology is one that is fascinating, and it makes this character one of the most fascinating for quite a while. The remaining characters are wonderful too, and are brilliantly played by Abigail McKern, Joannah Tincey, Chuk Iwuji and Alex Mallinson. In fact, this is one of the strongest casts in Big Finish history, all of them really bonding and with such great gusto. They are also held together by the brilliant direction of Lisa Bowerman, who manages to act like the binding force to keep the cast together. And with Richard Fox and Lauren Yason's sinister music and creepy sound design, it makes the story go from a really good one to a real classic.
In fact, the one reason why this story isn't quite perfect is simply because of the abortive escape sequence in part 3 which is easily stopped, which smacks of padding. However, A Thousand Tiny Wings is still a brilliant story and must be considered one of the all time best Big Finish releases.
TARDIS Rating - 9/10
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