STORY PLACEMENT

 This story takes

 place AFTER THE

 BIG FINISH AUDIO

 "AULD MORTALITY."

 

 WRITTEN BY

 MARC PLATT

 

 DIRECTED BY

 JOHN AINSWORTH

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 BIG FINISH 'UNBOUND'

 CD #7 (ISBN 1-84435-

 093-2) RELEASED IN

 JANUARY 2005.

 

 BLURB  

 The Doctor HAS BEEN

 enjoying his freedom.

 But now there’s a

 Temporal Agent on

 his tail. Gloriana

 and the President of

 Gallifrey are not

 amused. And Susan’s

 none too well either.

 

 Possibilities, like the

 Doctor, have a habit

 of running away with

 themselves.

 

 But who cares, when

 ALL the jewels are so

 dazzling?

 

 PREVIOUS

 

A Storm of Angels

JANUARY 2005

 
 

                                                       

 

 

A year after the close of the fortieth anniversary series Doctor Who Unbound,

Big Finish released a lone follow-up instalment to the series’ opening effort, Auld Mortality. Whereas that story looked at what the Doctor’s life might have been like had he never left Gallifrey, A Storm of Angels follows on from his decision to finally leave his homeworld and travel the universe. Now, author Marc Platt asks the question: “what if the Doctor changed history on his travels?”

 

Opening with an intriguing series of soundbites, with various peoples thanking the Doctor for his intervention (including a grateful group of Daleks – or should that be Thaleks?), the play immediately gives the impression of a universe where the Doctor’s presence has been felt. Geoffrey Bayldon returns as the Doctor, and is better here than in his first release, seeming more relaxed in the role. His Doctor, in spite of his age, is clearly loving his life of adventure, and has a puckish charm and a childish streak. It’s a characterisation that I find much impr-oved from the dotty old man in Auld Mortality.

 

Susan returns, still played by Carole

Ann Ford after over forty years. Her

characterisation of this universe’s

Susan is superb once again; adult,

but still possessing the same sense

of wonder and adventure that are

necessary for her character as she

travels with the Doctor. I really got

the impression that this is what the Doctor and Susan would have been

like if they had continued travelling together without any pesky humans getting in the way. Ford and Bayldon share some good chemistry; they sound like a proper family, especially in the moments when Susan berates the Doctor for his lack of responsibility. She’s the mature one this time round!

 

However, things aren’t right; Susan is very ill, having to undergo treatment in some undisc-losed contraption of the Doctor’s invention. At the same time, the TARDIS is under pursuit

by Zeuro (Ian Hallard), a Time Lord sent by the President herself to apprehend the Doctor.

It seems that the Doctor’s trips to Aztec Mexico and Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop have had a very adverse affect of Earth’s history. Arriving, after a TARDIS-to-TARDIS struggle

in the Vortex, in the outer Solar System during the sixteenth century, the Doctor and Susan are astonished to encounter a steam-powered spaceship, commanded by none other than Francis Drake (played with great character and arrogance by Cameron Stewart).

 

Zeuro is right, despite the Doctor’s insistence: history has been altered. The Doctor can’t face the truth that his actions have damaged time; he prefers to lie to himself, insisting that this is some parallel reality. However, with Drake’s ship, The Hind, ferrying back a shipload

of precious asteroidal jewels to her majesty Queen Elizabeth, Gloriana, it’s a hard act for

him to keep up. While Drake and Susan take a shine to each other, the Mayans send ships to intercept, Zeuro pursues the Doctor, and the Doctor himself meets the legendary Doctor John Dee. These are some of my favourite moments; Dee, played with great aplomb by Ivor Danvers, is happy to show off his advanced navigational system: a shewstone that allows him to commune with angels, who guide his journey. At first, the Doctor is both mocking and childish, taking the piss out of Dee’s superstition; it’s a wonderfully satisfying moment when he uncomfortable ahs to admit it’s all true, when he sees the angels with his own eyes! Then he starts to wonder… what do these angels want in return? Matters really get complicated when they reach Gloriana’s palace, floating above the English Raj, and another Susan turns up, distinctly displeased…

 

The play eschews the feature-length

format previously used, in favour of

the standard four-part structure. This,

coupled with the use of the original

theme tune (always lovely to hear it),

adds to the feeling of this being a

very traditional story, in spite of its

Unbound trappings. There’s little

here though that couldn’t happen in

a canonical setting without a little tweaking, not that the story is any the weaker for that; far from it. It’s a rollicking story, comfortably paced, and has some wonderful imagery: a palace floating above the Earth, jewels bursting from the skin of unlucky humans, a storm of angels encroaching on the world. Truly, audio has the best pictures.

 

The play’s final quarter picks up the pace, as the truth of the angels becomes clear; and the price paid by the Earth for the Doctor’s interference comes ever closer to its payoff. If the conclusion to the play is a little sudden, it’s of no matter; the resolution of the matter of the two Susans (played subtly differently by Ford), if predictable, is exactly as it should be, and gives the play an emotionally satisfying end. Oddly enough, history remains unrestored at

the end, with Drake and Elizabeth flying off towards the stars, the Doctor and Susan (one

of her) leaving in their barrel-shaped TARDIS, and the Mayan Alliance and English Empire left to sort out their own problems. It’s an excellent addition to the short range of Unbound stories, and I for one can’t wait for the belated eighth story, Masters of War, to arrive this December.

 

Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2008

 

Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

 

© Big Finish Productions 2005. No copyright infringement is intended.

                                                       

 

 

Having found Auld Mortality to be the least distorted story of Big Finish’s first Unbound series, it was with some reticence that I approached Marc Platt’s sequel to it, A Storm of Angels. Auld Mortality had been a charming audio drama, but it had categorically failed to live up to its lofty billing and explore why the Doctor hadnt Gallifrey and the effects that this wouldve inevitably had on the rest of the universe. Instead, Platt’s story focused on why the Doctor took a little bit longer to leave Gallifrey in this particular parallel - hardly an exploration of the multiverse’s boundless possibilities.

 

A Storm of Angels, on the other hand, is unbound in every conceivable sense. There are

no half-measures or cop-outs to be found here, however feelgood or celebratory. Geoffrey Bayldon may still be playing a fairly close approximation of William’s Hartnell Doctor, but now he’s out in the stars the effects of his delay in reaching them are starting to crystallise.  Unlike the first Doctor of our universe, this old man is childish and naïve; reckless even. He has spent far too long with his head stuck in a possibility generator, living in a world without consequence. As such, he thinks nothing of introducing Leonardo da Vinci to space ships and space stations and then returning him home, his brilliant mind ablaze with inspiration. Some time later, when the visits the Elizabethan age, he finds that the British Empire has sent great vessels into space to claim its riches. He has inadvertently altered the course of human history, and as a result the world is about to end.

 

Thus, whilst it couches itself in the series’ traditional four-part format and original theme tune, this play actually tells of a universe that has now diverged considerably from ours. It isn’t just the Doctor and Susan that are unbound, but historical figures too – Queens and explorers, Captains and Kings. “Gloriana” presides over the British Empire from her palace far above the Earth, while Sir Francis Drake scours the solar system for fitting tribute. It’s an idea that conjures the most fantastic imagery in the mind of the listener; imagery that would certainly have been bound by even the most generous of television budgets. On CD, however, thanks to the performances of the cast and the lush sound design of ERS, Platt’s parallel world is brought vividly to life.

 

Turning to the productions

stars, Geoffrey Bayldon and

Carole Anne Ford are both

absolutely tremendous here.

Their performances may be

strewn with the mannerisms

of their counterparts (just try

counting the amount of times

that the Doctor says “hmm”,

or Susan cries “grandfather!”) but they have developed into markedly different characters; personalities in their own right. Even their TARDIS isn’t the old girl that we all know so well – she’s an old beer barrel, her fully-operational chameleon circuit allowing her to blend into her surroundings in the Hind’s larder. Of course, these differences are still relatively restrained – the Doctor’s not a gun-toting maniac, the Valeyard, fictional or female – but that only endears him to the listener more, as we are continually reminded of what he might have been, had his destiny not been knocked off course.

 

Indeed, this play’s greatest strength is its ability to make the listener really care about these  unbound characters and events. Whenever a story is set in a parallel universe or alternative timeline there is always a significant risk that the audience won’t give a damn. Here, that’s never an issue. With no reset button looming large, the listener is able to fully invest in the play’s colourful cast of characters, their avarice and ambition, and recoil from the macabre manifestations that are borne of the same. The listener is able to feel the prick of a goose-bump as the titular Storm of Angels surrounds the Earth. Able to shed a tear as the Doctor sees straight through Susan’s final, indescribably munificent deception.

 

To my surprise then, A Storm of Angels turned out to be one of my favourite Unbounds. It might not be as controversial as Full Fathom Five, as fiendishly indulgent as He Jests at Scars..., as erudite as Deadline, or as raucously ghastly as Exile, but it does what it says

on the tin, and does so with superlative poise.

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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