Starring Peter Purves & Maureen O'Brien
Written by Jacqueline Rayner
Directed by Lisa Bowerman
The TARDIS materialises in England in the year 1912, a time of great social change. The Suffragette movement is lobbying for votes for women, and the skull of the so-called 'missing link' has been discovered in Piltdown.
While Vicki falls victim to a strange influence, the Doctor and Steven investigate the fossilised remains. The Suffering has been unleashed. Can the travellers survive it's rage?
The Suffering is a story of two halfs, but I suppose that's the point. The first disc is very much Steven's story, while the second disc is Vicki's story, therefore making the story feel more like two separate, but linked stories. And therein lies the main problem with The Suffering: it feels more like two seperate stories rather than one much longer one. One story is about the remains of a dead alien trying to possess females like Vicki and return to life, while the other is a historical story about the Suffrgette movement. This means that neither story really bounds together, and, it's a shame, because there are some really good ideas behind some rather more problematic aspects.
The Suffering had some wonderful ideas behind it, particularly about the Suffragette movement. It's something that I think that Doctor Who could have attempted at the time, but it probably wouldn't have dealt with the themes of that time in a deep enough manner. Jacqueline Rayner's script has clearly been deeply researched, not just on a factual level, but on an ideological level too. Therefore, this detail makes the story much more interesting and makes it feel more real. The montage of Suffragette viewpoints at the end of the final episode is a dramatic moment that really hammers home how much research that Rayner has conducted. It's like The Alchemists released last year, very densely packed with historical knowledge. However, it's so densely packed with historical information that it, at times, ends up feeling like a history lecture, rather than a Doctor Who story. And, at other times, it ends up just simply becoming window dressing. That's a massive problem: if the time period doesn't fit around the whole story, particularly a time period as rich as this, then I feel it's been a waste. The first half of the story is particularly guilty of this, as it feels like it could have been set in any point in the 20th century. Then, there's the second half of the story, with a alien menace that comes from a similar, but worse off culture than this one. It's something that, in Doctor Who terms has been covered before, but in this instance, the oblique nature of the civilisation means that, while in one way, that mystery just reinforces the metaphoric link between this world and the actual historical events, it just simply comes across as a blatant parallel, without actually saying something about the circumstances of the situation. It's a bit of a waste.
One thing that also bugs me about the story is the characters. There all a bit cliche, with stock ideologies and stock character traits. It would have been better, had they at least tried to inject some of the characters with less obvious ideologies. And there lies the main crux: it's all deeply researched, but also very prejudiced. Certainly, there was an interesting twist in the final part with regards to the main villain, but sadly it all fails to capitalise on the work that has been ideologically poured into the script. However, it certainly doesn't fail to capitalise on it's leads. All of them are given plenty to do, even the sadly absent William Hartnell, and Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brian are fantastic. There're one of the saving graces of this script, really running with the material that they've been given. Some of the funniest moments in the story also come from the way that, Purves especially, has dictated them. Both are fantastic, and are well supported by Lisa Bowerman's direction. The sound design and music, however, are distinctly unmemorable. Writing this, I can't seem to recall a single cue, which is very unusural, since Big Finish's music is usually so memorable.
In all honest, The Suffering's main problem is it's length. It can't sustain itself over the two hours that it's on for. The storyline is too disconnected and therefore it just doesn't feel as flowing as it should, and the supporting characters are just slightly too caricature for my tastes. It has it's plus points, but, for me, it shouldn't have been the first double disc release, as it should have been cut to only one disc.
TARDIS Rating - 6/10
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