Released: January 2013
Range: Destiny Of The Doctor
Range Number: 1
Starring Carole Ann Ford & Tam Williams
Written by Nigel Robinson
Directed by John Ainsworth
Shoreditch, London, 1963. The Beatles have beaten John Smith and the Common Men to No. 1. Satellites are being launched into outer space whilst on Earth a master thief is stealing some highly specialised equipment. In the streets and bombsites around Totter's Lane, the normally placid teenagers of Coal Hill are running riot: searching out the different and hunting down the alien.
Schoolgirl Susan Foreman just wants an easy life for herself and her grandfather, the mysterious Doctor. She wants to be liked and accepted by Cedric and all the other pupils at Coal Hill School. But Susan has been inadvertently drawing attention to herself.
The hunt is on - and Susan and her grandfather are the quarry.
The first installment in the AudioGo/Big Finish co-productions for the 50th anniversary is a curious beast, but not an unwelcome one. The obvious sort of story for this kind of season would have been either a 'first adventure' or a story set during the very first season with Ian and Barbara. So to do a story set between his and Susan's arrival on Earth and the events of An Unearthly Child is certainly a suprise. It's a risky gamble, particularly as you don't want to undermine the Doctor's attitude towards humans. Yet, it certainly seems that, in Doctor Who fiction previous to this such as Quinnis and The Beginning, the Doctor's attitude towards humans has been perfectly hospitable. However, this story goes some way to explaining how that changed.
In some ways, this story doesn't quite fufill the mantra of this mini-series. After all, it was intended that these stories would be similar in tone to that Doctors era of the show. Yet, this story feels very different to the kind of material that was being put out back in 1963. It has a kind of hybrid feel, like a mix of a 60's domestic drama and a more modern Doctor Who story, which, in this case, does seem to have been pulled off rather well. Nigel Robinson's story is littered with references, not just to Doctor Who, but contempary references like the Eagle and Fireball XL5. This really gives it a grounding in reality, a criticism that one could level at the first episode of An Unearthly Child, and this means that it feels real in every sense. And that is key to this stories sucess. If it didn't feel real, we wouldn't care very much for the characters that are in the story. Becuause of the realism, we feel for the characters in the piece. The story itself may be slight, but it's still entertaining, which can sometimes be forgotten in stories that focus more on character. Nigel Robinson very skilfully crafts a story taking in a lot of social issue that were of importance during the 60's: the Space Race, the Cold War, the birth of the teenager and the still lingering tensions after the Second World War. To be honest, outside of his novelisations, it's probably the deepest of his scripts, despite the apparent brevity of his plot. Each element isn't just paraded for a few seconds, before being put away, like in Dark Eyes, but carefully layered throughout the story, so that it builds up to a more cohesive whole. And there are certainly lovely little hints dropped throughout as to the direction of the rest of this mini-series, which aren't too obtrusive if you just intend to pick up the one or two stories, but are lovely little hints as to the direction that this series will be going if your joining for the journey. And, having heard all of the series, and going back to the first one, quite a lot is set up without the listener knowing about it, which has to be a very good sign.
As I mentioned earlier, what Robinson lacks in plot, he more than makes up for in character. Having been right in the middle of listening to William Russell's reading of Robinson's Edge Of Destruction, it's easy to see that not only does Robinson have an affinity for this TARDIS team, but also really knows how to write for them. His characterisation of the Doctor and Susan is phenomenal, and Susan is really afforded the chance to be fleshed out. Giving her an almost-romance subplot is wonderful, because it gives us a feel for Susan as a person. At times during that first year, Susan seems swamped in the Doctor's shadow, simply because she's his grandchild. However, since her arrival at Big Finish, Susan has been allowed to step out of the shadow of her grandfather, and actually contribute something worthwhile. Stories like this, Here There Be Monsters and To The Death have given Carole Ann Ford not only a chance to get her teeth into some meatier material, but also to showcase a vast range of acting talent. Her Doctor impression may not be the best out there, but it certainly doesn't make you forget that it's Hartnell talking. And the remaining wide range of characters she plays are astounding. I was particularly impressed with her Rosa and Mavis characters, as they seemed very real and distinguished from Susan. Certainly, she's not as strong on the male parts, but having Tam Williams to play off in the Cedric scenes means that their not entirely wasted. In fact, Tam makes a very good Cedric, being able to really connect to his character. It's just a pity that when Cedric has to try and hide who he is from Susan, he's so bad at it, because it sounds like it's Tam's performance that needed tightening up, not the script. John Ainsworth gets the right beats out of his performers, making sure that the narrative is always engaging. Coupled with newcomer Simon Hunt's music and sound design (a Spartan affair, but it works in relation to when in Who history this story is set), they make a killer combination.
Hunters Of Earth will never win any awards for 'greatest story ever'. It does have problems, especially with timing and padding. But Hunters is a solid, if at times, unremarkable story to launch Big Finish & AudioGo's 50th Anniversary series. There's plenty here to enjoy, but it prehaps lacks the sparkle that later releases had in abundance.
Rating - 7/10
Comments
Post a Comment