Starring Alex Kingston and Colin BakerWritten by James Goss & Directed by Ken Bentley
When it comes to bringing down corrupt and exploitative regimes, there is no-one quite like River.
Until she arrives at Golden Futures and discovers that someone else has already taken on her job. Someone with almost as much style and panache as herself.
The Doctor is about to get the shock of his lives.
It seems as if The Diary Of River Song keeps hitting problems. After a problematic first instalment, and a strong second one, I was hoping that story three, World Enough And Time, could maintain the strong storytelling we'd seen in Five Twenty-Nine. But while World Enough And Time is better than The Unknown, for the most part it seems utterly confused about what it wants to be, and some bits of the story make absolutely no sense. And this story also features some of the worst characterisation of the sixth Doctor since the heady days of the mid 1980's.
The starting point for this story was clearly 'River and the sixth Doctor are investigating the same company, let's have them go up against each other to find out what's going on'. But, somewhere along the line, this thread seems to have been misinterpreted by writer James Goss, and has instead become 'River having a cob on with the Doctor for becoming the managing director of the firm'. I really don't understand where this came out from, and I thought it sadly overshadowed a lot of the clever ideas that were in this story. The scenes of the sixth Doctor having to sort through accounts and attend boring meetings about 'brand image' and 'logo designs' were utterly hilarious, and I loved the sixth Doctor's reaction to the whole thing. I also loved the idea that River manages to find out more by pretending to be a temp in a day than the Doctor does in his managerial role for slightly longer. It was certainly nice to see the sixth Doctor on the back foot for once. However, the rest of the story is so utterly all over the place, I'm really not sure what to make of it. There are moments where Goss seems to be making a comment about the Doctor and River's methodology, but they never really seem to go anywhere. There's the fun of the Doctor having to run the company, and constantly being shifted about by his pushy PA, but those scenes never seem to be as developed as they should be. There's the creepy idea of creatures feeding off the dreams of the rich and famous, that is dropped after a single scene. Goss seems to also be trying to make a point about corporate unaccountability, but that seems completely lost in the 101 other things the script is trying to do. It shifts tones and goals with each scenes, so much so that it reminds me of a latter-day Steven Moffat script. Goss wants to do so much at once that it just gets completely lost in everything that it's trying to do, and just becomes nothing at all. It seems that this second season has got a lot more ambitious in it's storytelling, but unfortunately, the writers seem unable to condense their ideas into the hour-long slot they've got. Instead, it just feelings like they're (Adams and Goss in particular) are just throwing ideas at the page, and hope they stick. Dorney's Five Twenty-Nine avoided this by being a mostly character-focused script, with two clever ideas that were given ample time to be explored. But World Enough And Time suffers from the problem that there's just too much going on. There's lots of little vinaigrettes, but nothing really cohesive. That's certainly the case in the first half of the story. By the middle, things do calm down, and what we get in these sections is wonderful. However, by the time the story approaches it's end, it goes into full end of the universe mode, with a plot so overblown and convoluted, it makes The Stolen Earth seem logical. The Speravore's plan basically amounts to creating a load of realities and feeding on the potential. What? The idea that alternate realities are a part of the story just seems forced in at least minute to account for the fact that Goss has no real way to end, or to link in with what Matt Fitton is doing in the final part of the box set. The whole thing doesn't act like there's any kind of thought to it: it's just jumping from one idea to the next, and the next one, and the next one, without any kind of thought put into it. Speaking of link ups, I have to say that the overall shape of this set has left a lot to be desired as well. In the first story, we're chucked into the deep end, and expected to guess as to why River is investigating the planet that's appeared at the edge of the solar system. Then, at the end of The Unknown, we get the discovery of the android Rachel, which leads into the second story. Admittedly, Dorney's script works better as a self-contained piece, but we never see the after-effects of discovering the android Rachel, we're just launched into a plot about the destruction of Earth. Then, after Five Twenty-Nine, River suddenly turns up at Golden Futures, knowing that they're up to something, and planning already to stop it. The whole thing is hugely fragmented, and it just seems as if it's hopping about from place to place, with no idea of what the connecting elements are. The whole thing just feels a mess, and is desperately in need of restructuring and rewriting in order for it to make any kind of sense. This is seriously shocking considering Big Finish usually have a much tighter grip on their structuring of their high-profile box sets.
Also just as shocking as the poor plotting is the mishandled characterisation, particularly of River and the sixth Doctor. Now, Big Finish have produced audio with the sixth Doctor since 1999. That's nearly 18 years that writers like Nicholas Briggs, John Dorney and Robert Ross have been writing for the sixth Doctor. Even people like Philip Martin and Andrew Smith have pitched their oar in, and written for the character. And, only very rarely, have Big Finish ever made me question the sixth Doctor's characterisation. The story has either had a very good reason for it (like in The Curse Of Davros) or it has been a tiny moment (like some scenes in Antidote To Oblivion or Whispers Of Terror). The only complaints I've ever made is that occasionally, Big Finish slip back into the same character mould as the one used in the television series back in the mid 80's, and often, there's a good reason for that. On the whole, Big Finish have characterised the sixth Doctor pretty dam well over the years, and his characterisation on audio was what (together with the introduction of Evelyn) pretty much saved his Doctor. Big Finish have never mischaracterised the sixth Doctor throughout a whole story before, not once. So, why am I mentioning this in relation to World Enough And Time? Well, for the first time in approximately 18 years, Big Finish have mischaracterised the sixth Doctor. The one Doctor that people have always mocked, in possibly his most high profile release since The Last Adventure? A box set that younger fans are more likely to buy, because of River's involvement. AND THEY MISCHARACTERISE THE SIXTH BLOODY DOCTOR! Now, before I continue, all of this is my opinion. I think the people at Big Finish: writer James Goss, producer David Richardson, script editor Matt Fitton and director Ken Bentley are amazingly talented people, they really are. Big Finish is a fantastic company that always tries to do it's best for the fans no matter what. This is not a vitriolic attack, or a declaration of hostilities. I will continue to support the company, and sing their praises as often as I can. This is all - underlining all about a hundred times for those that are completely blind - my own opinion. I cannot claim to presume I know better than Goss - I've never written for the sixth Doctor or Colin Baker before (outside of submissions for Big Finish's Short Trips Writer's Opportunity). I'm not trying to say I do. So, now that that's all clear, I believe that this is the first time Big Finish have ever mischaracterised the sixth Doctor. I completely see what they were going for: the sixth Doctor, head over heels in love with River Song, trying to work out who she is, while gently flirting with her. And, it's a great idea - Colin's Doctor has never been put in that position before, so why not try it? However, once again, I suspect the writing may have let this release down. Instead of that being the case, Goss just makes the sixth Doctor seem like a bumbling idiot, who can't even tie his own shoelaces. He makes elementary mistakes, and it's up to River to fix them. I'm not entirely sure why Goss took this approach: with the two Doctors either side of him (Davison and McCoy), making them into the comedy sidekick is really quite funny. Yet, with Colin's Doctor, it's not a role that easily suits. It has been done, but the writers there make sure that Colin is still constantly reacting. Here, Colin could easily have been replaced in the booth by Matt Smith, David Tennant or even Peter Capaldi, and it would have made as much sense. In fact, it would have been more so, as they are the kinds of Doctors that work fitting into the comedy sidekick role. But Colin Baker's doesn't. It's better when he's batting against it, trying to do his own thing, but still trying to retain dominance. Here, however, he just seems to slot into the story, quite content to bow down to River's whims, and let her run rings around him. The last time this Doctor met a figure like River (Charley Pollard) there was a disconnect, because he couldn't quite work out who she was and where she came from. Yet, here we just see the Doctor accept that, and roll over for River. This isn't the sixth Doctor at all, and while Colin Baker is as fantastic as he has been in every performance as the sixth Doctor since 1984, there's just a complete disconnect with regards to his character. He's far, far too submissive, a word I'd never use to describe the sixth Doctor, but it's the only applicable one. There are hints dropped in this story that the dream machines have corrupted the sixth Doctor's thought processes, and that's why he's acting out of character, similar to how the sixth Doctor was in the Mindwarp section of The Trial Of A Time Lord. Yet there, there were a number of well stated reasons why the Doctor was acting out of character (distortion by the Valeyard, the Doctor attempting to ingratiate himself with Sil to find out what's going on, the effects of Crozier's mind warping machine). Here, however, there's only one possible explanation that's never made explicit. So, I can only put it down to poor writing. This is backed up by River's characterisation, which, while nowhere near as bad as the Doctor's, was still very much off. Alex Kingston does the best she can, but even she can't sell the idea that the Doctor has betrayed his principles to join Golden Futures. Seriously? This is meant to be after The Husbands Of River Song, so surely River should, by now, know that the Doctor would never betray his own principles like the way she thinks. She even mentions (off-hand) the final day of the Time War, so why does she believe it here? It's a weird idea, and not one that feels sufficiently interesting to be worthy of off-the-wall development. And the guest cast are so flat and one-note that I barely remember them. The Doctor's PA is a clever character, but I knew that she was going to turn long before she actually did. It was an excellent performance from Sara Powell (number 9 in the first volume of Nick Briggs' Prisoner series), but there was not much to the character. Todd the Pod was also a sadly underdeveloped character, who was completely lacking in any features that make him sympathetic. He's meant to be this ordinary bloke caught in the middle of what's going on, yet we barely spend more than two scenes with him. Tom Alexander plays him well enough, but I just don't think that he's actually that interesting. Dorney does a similar thing with Aaron Neil's character in Five Twenty-Nine, but he makes that character engaging and interesting, so that you actually care when he dies. Here, however, when Todd dies, I couldn't give a dam. The major cast is rounded out by Barnaby Edwards as the Autocorrect, which was, I must admit, a very good role. It was quite similar to Starkey's computer in The Unknown, but what differentiated it was the really funny, dry humour that Edwards brought in. The polite tone as it tried to erase River from reality was hilarious, and really well achieved by Edwards. And, while I did have issues with the way they were characterised, what made this, ultimately more interesting than the first story, was that there was a dynamic between the sixth Doctor and River. A flirty, feisty dynamic that was neither overwritten or overplayed. That's why I find this episode so frustrating: with the talent and good ideas it it's disposal, it should have been better than this.
The production of this story is as excellent as all the other stories so far in the set, so I shan't dwell too much on it here: Ken Bentley's direction is perfectly excellent when the script is going in a straight line, while he does struggle a bit when three or four ideas are being batted around in the same scene. Howard Carter's sound design also isn't quite as strong as his work on the previous story, but nevertheless admirable, considering the nature of the script. His music, however, is fantastic, particularly towards the end as the stakes get higher and higher. Finally, Tom Webster's excellent cover design really sell the story in a way it perhaps doesn't deserve. I love the sixth Doctor's suit. It reminds me of the re-designed sixth Doctor costume from that bonus feature on The Twin Dilemma DVD. It's understated and elegant, and it's nice to see the sixth Doctor wearing something like that as opposed to his usual attire.
Overall, I do have many faults with World Enough And Time. Many will be surprised, but I do find it better than The Unknown. The only reason for that is because, unlike in that story, a past Doctor and River do actually have more than a basic level of interaction, and it is actually interesting. However, there are problems with the story, and lot of them show faults with the set itself. I'm starting to wonder if putting River with more than just the eighth Doctor was a good idea, if we're only got to get mediocre stories like this.
Rating - 5/10
Other Reviews of Big Finish Products:
Absent Friends - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/doctor-who-absent-friends.html
The Eighth Piece - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/doctor-who-eighth-piece.html
The Doomsday Chronometer - http://fandoctorwhoproductions.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/doctor-who-doomsday-chronometer.html
The Crucible Of Souls - COMING SOON
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