Starring Alex Kingston & Alexander Siddig.Written by Justin Richards & Directed by Ken Bentley.
River Song always enjoys a good party, even when she’s not entirely sure where or when the party is taking place. But the party she ends up at is one where not everything – or indeed everyone – is what it seems…
Being River, it doesn’t take her too long to go exploring, and it doesn’t take her too long to get into trouble. The sort of trouble that involves manipulating other civilisations, exploitation, and of course murder.
River is confident she can find the killer. But can she identify them before anyone else – or quite possibly everyone else – gets killed?
After a rather mediocre start to this first series of River Song adventures, it's nice to see the reliable hand that is Justin Richards brought in to oversee River's second audio outing. And he once again delivers a stylish, safe script that introduces some of the key elements to the series arc, and tells an engaging, standalone story in it's own right. Sure, it's unadventurous, but, unlike the last one, River's characterisation is much stronger, and the plot and structure of the story isn't full of holes.
As I mentioned above, the plot of this is perhaps a little basic, or at least what you would expect - River is invited to a party in space, there's a murder and River has to find the culprit. Sure, it's not particularly deep, or even different. It's a tried and tested formula that has been employed to great effect in many Doctor Who stories down the years - The Robots Of Death, Terror Of The Vervoids, Mummy On The Orient Express and even The Chimes Of Midnight have used the Agatha Christie formula to tell solidly enjoyable stories (although three of the stories on the list I'd potentially say were some of the best stories for their Doctor's), and this is no exception. Justin Richards is skilled at taking tried and tested ideas, and making them work (just look at The Darkness Of Glass from earlier in the same year). Of course, if you want to get the audience on side with a story premise like this, it's advised to switch up the formula, so the listener doesn't just switch off from the story, and label this as 'stuff we've heard before'. And Richards does this: a couple of tropes get inverted, and the latter half of the story becomes about something completely different. It's just subtle shifts like this that keep the audience engaged. For the most part, the murder-mystery part of the episode is well written, and keeps the audience guessing, with a series of carefully-controlled reveals. Richards doesn't dwell too much on each piece of information revealed: he keeps the story moving and makes sure that stuff is continuingly happening. One of the major ways Richards changes up the formula is that he removes the murder mystery plot half way through. And while it's certainly interesting, I would argue that it perhaps damages the story, as the second half simply isn't as interesting as the first, where we're mostly focused on the murder-mystery aspects. It's certainly a cool idea to have two murderers and two victims, but it does limit the number of storytelling aspects you can have. What does make the situation more interesting is the setting: while the party idea might not be the most original setting, a party attended by those with power and influence over planets is slightly more interesting. The self-titled 'Rulers of the Universe' is certainly an interesting idea, and they are certainly a good opponent for River, as they're the kind of manipulative people that River was connected to in series 6. At the moment, they are a little like the Committee from the Torchwood audios, which is a bit of an odd considering it's recent release. However, I do think that Richards treats them a little differently here: they're a little more cocksure, leading to nice moments where River outplays them, and makes them destroy their own manipulation suites. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, as, judging from the title of the finale episode, the Rulers themselves will be back to manipulate River later in the season.
The character work in this story is also stronger than in the first instalment of the season as well. In The Boundless Sea, I thought River could, at times, have done with toning down the smugness and the continual men-bashing, here I found her to be much stronger. She was certainly as cold and cynical as she was before, but this was tempered with stronger moments of lightness and warmth, especially towards the character of Spritz. It was nice to have River ally with someone who isn't against us, as was the case with Prim in the last part. She's simply nicer to be around in this story, and more interesting. It's clear Alex Kingston has settled more into the audio medium here, and she's much better here: she has a greater range to her voice, and actually manages to covey the light and shade of River's character better. Before, I did feel that she was mostly on one tone, but here, she has much more of a range, possibly because River is given a greater range in this story. I also really liked her interplay with the Rulers, which had her being smart and sassy, but not overbearing like in the TV series. The other main characters are the Rulers themselves, and while Richards gives them plenty of time, I have to admit they are rather... unknowable. They're just left to plot, scheme and just not be very nice, and we don't really know anything about them. I wouldn't call them boring, and I certainly thought Alexander Siddig aced his role as Marcus who felt very like a media-conscious plotter, and his demise was suitably gruesome. The other half of the rulers comes in the form of Isabella Clerkwell, who is a much more layered character than Marcus. She's more manipulative than him, and slightly more devious, despite her cool exterior. And Imogen Stubbs is a phenomenal bit of casting as Isabella, and pretty much steals every scene she's in. On the side of the 'goodies', we get Letty Butler as Spritz. While she wasn't completely convincing throughout, I did think she was fairly good as someone who is thrown into a situation which she doesn't understand, and has to try and figure it out, with no-one on her side other than River. And, of course, this story also sees the return of Bertie Potts, once again played by Alexander Vlahos. This time, Bertie is played less for laughs by Richards, and is a lot less exaggerated, much to my approval. Here, he's much more of an interesting foil for River, and Vlahos is fantastic, giving him some of the subtle layers he gives to Dorian Gray. He makes an excellent foil for River, and his sparring with Alex Kingston is fantastic. John Voce and John Banks round out the guest cast in a variety of minor roles, but they do an excellent job. And, of course, Samuel West pops up at the end of the story... but more on him next time.
The production on this story is as fantastic as usual, although that shouldn't need saying at this point. Ken Bentley's direction here is much stronger than in Boundless Sea, and he keeps the scenes much tauter as a result. This is helped by Howard Carter's fantastic music and sound design, which perfectly captures the 'party' atmosphere of the story, but in a way I completely wasn't expecting. When this story was announced, I was expecting an old-school, noir glamour: the sort of environment filled with cigarette smoke and extravagant jazz. However, Carter went for a more contemporary sound, which gives it a different feeling of sordid. I also thought that the crowd sequences were particularly impressive. After all, we don't meet any other party members other than Marcus, Isabella and Bertie, but Carter gives the impression of a packed hall full of people. The contemporary feeling is carried on into the cover design, which is an impressive piece of work from Tom Webster. It's a little blander than the cover for The Boundless Sea, but it does it's job effectively, and is still a lovely piece of work.
Overall, I Went To A Marvellous Party is a perfectly acceptable second instalment. My only major criticism of this story is that, perhaps, it could have done with being a little bit more adventurous. However, that's only a minor nitpick with an episode that, for the most part, is a vast improvement over the first story. The tone is much more 'River', the plot is stronger, the characterisation is improved and the production is as excellent as ever. I certainly hope that the next two parts are more adventurous in their storytelling, but overall I Went To A Marvellous Party sets the stage really well, as we enter the second half of the box set.
Rating - 7/10
Other Reviews of Big Finish Products:
The Oncoming Storm - COMING SOON
Hounded - COMING SOON
Living History - COMING SOON
The Chartwell Metamorphosis - COMING SOON
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