Starring Alex Kingston
Written by John Dorney & Directed by Ken Bentley
River has made a terrible discovery.
Billions of lives hang in the balance. But if she can save just a few, then it might just help her solve the conundrum of Earth’s destruction.
But how can she win when survival becomes a race against time itself? A race against Five Twenty-Nine?
After my mixed reception to the first story in this second season of The Diary Of River Song, I was a little worried that the rest of the season would follow a similar pattern. However, I'm glad to report that the second story in the season, Five Twenty-Nine, is exactly what I was looking for: a strong character piece, that gives the actors involved plenty to show off with and makes for a very engaging hour of audio drama. And that's exactly what this does: it's a lovely little tale about River trying to help a family survive against all the odds. It's got a great, engaging plot and characters that we care about straight out of the gate, and is a massive improvement over The Unknown.
I will say, before we begin, that Dorney doesn't really address the cliffhanger at the end of The Unknown, which is a trait that, when deployed in new-Who, can be hugely frustrating. Here, however, I'm really not bothered. Mostly because the end of The Unknown didn't really inspire much interest in me, and, by moving this story away from the end of that one, I feel we get a more self-contained narrative here. Sure, there are loose threads, as River investigates this crisis on Earth, but, for the most part, he's written a very much standalone tale. And the narrative is all the better for it, because this small scale is one of the story's greatest assets. Big Finish have found a real niche in creating what I think I'll term 'the intimate apocalypse': stories that, while dealing with massive events that threaten the destiny of the world, or even the universe, mostly focus upon a small group of people who are reacting to events unfolding around them. Five Twenty-Nine slots into this Big Finish sub-genre with ease. Dorney is a confident Big Finish writer, and can easily pull this off. The family he creates he puts at the heart of the story, and manages to convince us with their very ordinary reactions to the extraordinary situation that surrounds them with. The plot itself is slight, but certainly interesting: for some reason, across the world, people are dying as soon as their time zone reaches 5:29 pm. Now, I found this concept rather unsettling, as to have something which kills only by time zone has a lot of potential to create a very unsettling atmosphere, especially by putting River in the last time zone to be affected. After all, it gives the story a creeping tension, as the people involved slowly realise that there's no way for them to escape it. It's rare that sci-fi deals with elements that are quite as insidious as this, and it's certainly a nice situation to put River in, who, as a character, is more heartless than most in the Doctor Who universe. For the most part, the main drive of the story is to try and escape the encroaching blackout, as well as trying to find out the real reason why River has chosen to visit this particular family. Sure, it's not particularly plot heavy, but it doesn't need to be. It's all about the characters.
While the plot isn't the central part of the story, Dorney brings character to the fore. When Big Finish do character examination pieces, they really know how to make them subtle enough to be really effective. The new series doesn't seem to really understand how to be subtle, a problem that doesn't affect this play. Dorney doesn't try to oversell the characters, or force us to feel sympathy for them, they just feel real. The family consists of three contrasting characters: there's Robert Pugh as Emmett: the father of the household, yet a man who feels powerless to protect those he most cares about. Then there's the spectacular Ann Bell as Lisa, who is determined to protect her daughter, no matter what. Dorney makes sure we understand these people: he doesn't oversell the tragedy of their lives, but rather just gives it to the listener as it is, and they make their own inferences. If these two were characters in a new series episode, the expected grief that we should feel would be laid on like cement in between bricks. It's just presented as it is, and it allows the audience to make up their own minds about the characters and their personal tragedy. It also helps that both Pugh and Bell are superb actors, who really know how to present so much more between the dialogue. There's a whole life to these characters, and both actors bring that to life superbly. Ann Bell in particular is amazing as a childless woman who has been given an amazing gift in exchange for a life of total solitude. She just knows how to sell us this character, and some of her acting, particularly in the second half of the story, nearly reduced me to tears. The final member of the family I've held back talking about, as she is very important to the overall story: Rachel. Rachel is the daughter of Emmett and Lisa... Only she isn't. She is, in fact, an android. She is probably the best concept at the heart of this story, even more so than the 'Five Twenty-Nine' apocalypse. She was created with the sole purpose of being the daughter of Emmett and Lisa. Now, while some would argue this covers similar ground to the Torchwood story Uncanny Valley, released last year (a concept Dorney name checks in this story), it takes a very different approach to such a tale. Whereas Uncanny Valley was about how android could fulfil sexual desires, this looks at it from a paternal angle. I'd argue that this is perhaps a more sensitive story than that one: after all, The Diary Of River Song (as a series) is a completely different beast to Torchwood. And while I did think Uncanny Valley was unflinchingly adult in it's portrayal of the concepts it was working with, I thought that this was perhaps the stronger of the two, as it looked at the real emotional consequences of that, and whether or not an android could ever replace a real child. And that is really well explored here, with enough subtlety so that it's not obvious that's the main theme of the episode. The actress cast in the role also has an important job to play here: she cannot oversell it, or play it too 'obviously'. And I have to say that, for the most part, Salome Haertel did an excellent job at convincing us that she was a robot. However, I'm not entirely sure that was a conscious choice, as I get the feeling that, like her mother was when she started doing Big Finish (for those who don't know, her mother is Alex Kingston, star of this very series), she is rather unsure and uncertain about how to act in this medium. However, in this case you have a robot pretending to be (assumedly) a teenage girl, so Haertel has a little bit of leeway in this case to give that wooden portrayal. Her mother, on the other hand, was fantastic, as River was cast into a role very similar to that of the Doctor in the historical stories: she has to stand on the side lines, and can't interfere. Like the eleventh and twelfth Doctors, however, she chooses to do so anyway, because she can't just stand by and let this family die. This angle gives Kingston some amazing material to work with, and she probably gives her best performance on audio to date: her frustration at being unable to cheat history like her husband does is palpable, and she completely sells that. I love her work in this episode, and I really think that she gives one of her strongest performances in the role. The cast is rounded out by Aaron Neil and Dan Starkey, who, while in smaller roles than the rest of the cast, do an excellent job. Neil in particular really makes us care about his character, to the point where, when he dies, it's a very sad moment.
The production on this story is just as strong as on the first part of the set, possibly more so given the really strong script. While I thought Ken Bentley's direction in the first story was possibly a little bit aimless, here it's bang on the mark. He's clear on how to present the script, and does so with admirable style. It's focused on the actors, less on the concept, which is absolutely the right way to go. Howard Carter's music and sound design deserves some attention for being utterly spellbinding. He knows not when to intrude upon the scene, and the sound design builds up the world that we are in with spectacular style. His music is lovely, especially in the final scene. It isn't emotionally manipulating, just subtle enough to capture the beauty of the scene. And it's all topped off with a fantastic cover from Tom Webster, who, in complete contrast to The Unknown, produces a minimalist cover that really sells the mood of the story. Webster's designs are, no doubt about it, some of the best the company has seen, as he can perfectly capture the mood and tone of a story. His designs are also bloody lovely to look at, which always helps.
Overall, Five Twenty-Nine fixes all the mistakes that The Unknown made. It's a clever character piece that deals with some great concepts in an engaging way, and manages to tell an interesting story that doesn't let up for a second. While I don't think it's quite in the highest echelons of Big Finish stories, I do think it's a very strong piece of science fiction that is deserving of a lot of praise. Undoubtedly the best story in The Diary Of River Song series so far, this is essential listening for all River Song fans.
Rating - 8/10
Other Reviews of Big Finish Products:
Beachhead - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/doctor-who-beachhead.html
Scenes From Her Life - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/doctor-who-scenes-from-her-life.html
The Gift - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/doctor-who-gift.html
The Sonomancer - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/doctor-who-sonomancer.html
Comments
Post a Comment