Ninth Doctor Adventures: Respond To All Calls

Ninth Doctor Adventures: Responds To All Calls

Responds to All Calls is the perfect antidote to those who were put off by Ravagers epic scale and overly complicated timeline. It’s certainly a more assured release - definitively reminiscent of those early 10DAs where the evocation of the era is utmost in the creator’s minds. It’s what I assumed the 9DAs would be initially- just like the 10DAs, The 4DAS prior to the boxset era or the 8DAs with Lucie, Responds to All Calls is unassuming in that it is quite frankly - just Doctor Who. And like those series, it bleeds modern simplistic 45 minute story structure. And perhaps that is smart of it: Ravagers, for all of its insanity and original ideas, was covered in pitfalls, ultimately feeling more suited to the Eleventh Doctor’s era. And with Eccleston having such a short life on television, we are ultimately learning to love his work again. His portrayal is different now, not by much, but all the same, it is like learning to like a new Doctor. And in addition, Eccleston has a unique scenario. He travels alone, and as such, the chemistry of his partnerships can feel quite variable. John Hurt also travelled alone, but he had his supporting cast of Ollistra, The Time Lords, and familiar villains and heroes in each set. As such, Eccleston has to work hard to establish himself, being at once the leading man and with a new “companion” each episode. I understand that Eccleston’s life is defined by Rose on television, but ultimately it feels to me like it adds another piece of work on these stories’ shoulders. At the very least, it’s perhaps more expected than Ravagers, it very much feels like it’s responding to Ravagers being such an epic. As I said, an antidote. But for those who liked Ravagers, where does that leave us? 

Girl, Deconstructed by Lisa McMullin 

Girl, Deconstructed purports to be a character piece for its cast, utilizing a hook much like Torchwood’s Adrift of a child directly disappearing from their parents, leaving the parents in emotional turmoil. By all accounts, an excellent hook, Just like Adrift, but comparing literally anything to Adrift will have it fall short. Others seem to enjoy this story more than I do: but even I have to admit the smartness from which it works, it just utterly screams RTD’s work. The cast is good at their roles, and there is some depth to them, but I think it leans a bit too much into “apathetic teenager with phone hates their dad,” especially at the start. Luckily, Jana is a decent enough basic companion to play off Eccleston well. To it’s benefit, it almost works as a story, and the end result isn’t bad, it’s just, well, decent, and there’s not much to get mad about. But a lot of people absolutely LOVE it, so what do I know? 7/10

Fright Motif by Tim Foley

Fright Motif is a story that works a bit more for me, even if it’s a pretty simplistic script. It’s a period piece where we focus in on a musician who seems to suddenly have lost his rhythm, and his relationship to the Doctor, as a strange alien psychic force begins to track them both down. Beyond that, it’s difficult to summarize, as it does have quite a few turns, but I was more invested in the pacing of Fright Motif, finding it particularly well plotted. The way it introduces the characters first, and focuses particularly on them and the atmosphere, for quite some time, gives it a tight small scale to it, which I found only improved what was there. I love the villain - it’s rather abstract, but I found it used that to it’s advantage. The characters are given time, and developed a decent amount, but despite my enjoyment of them, I wouldn’t really call them three-dimensional. The play doesn’t have enough time to really get that much across. But I wouldn’t add any more flab to the stories runtime, it’s really just solid and enjoyable as it is, and while it’s not INCREDIBLE, Eccleston gives a really dignified performance, and the guest cast bring real light to these one note characters: 9/10

Planet of the End by Timothy X Atack 

Planet of the End is an odd one, in that it's a story that both feels rushed, and is rushed, and yet any expansion I feel would ruin it completely. The fellow gets a little too big for it's britches, trying to do a story that literally takes place over centuries in 50 minutes. Result? DECADES of time glossed over. And I'm not exaggerating either. The moments that we do see are very well characterized, and essentially the whole thing is very well written. I'm not sure how I would personally plot this story out - it's a story that is both incredibly, world-alteringly big, and at the same time exceedingly small and intimate. Probably due to it's small cast - I've really appreciated the way this set uses small casts to get the stories across. Not a single story has more than four actors (probably because of lockdown) but they are still excellent Doctor Who. But that's a tangent. Planet of the End is one I struggle to describe, because if it was a two parter, I can't help but feel it would be bloated beyond measure - although this story takes place over a batshit crazy amount of time, we see every scene that matters - how do you fill that time up? And yet on it's own in this one hour format, it does still feel slightly squished. As is, the characters (The Doctor and Fred, you can't tell me that the villains in this piece are anything else than caricatures) (okay, very effective and I could see them being a thing caricatures but still caricatures) (They're captain planet villains okay) are well-developed and organically performed. Planet of The End is one that I really like for it's emotional angle and how it works itself out. If anything my only real criticism would be the focus on the Doctor's regenerative energy and the fake-outs? We don't need those, we know the Doctor isn't going to regenerate. (A certain other story did prove me deliciously wrong but still) Anyway, it's a good-un! Russell T Davies once said that if you were going to tell a Doctor Who story, you needed a Human hook to it. If the Planet Zog's Zogs are being attacked by the evil Zorgs, then the audience struggles to find a reason to care. But if a human colony is attacked on the planet Zog, suddenly there's an emotional hook. He's a smart man, but if there's any refute to that, it would be this story. It's alien, it could only be told with aliens, and because of that it's absolutely wonderful. 8/10

So what is Respond To All Calls, besides a boxset that just includes three random stories that really don't merit an over-arching story title like Ravagers or Doom Coalition? The answer is, as said before, a direct reaction. But unlike a response like the Ninth Star Wars where they responded to the Eighth by throwing it into a bucket (cowards) Respond to All Calls works on it's own merits as it's own thing quite well (and it seems sets three and four will be more of the same and Ravagers was a one-off.) While the pretentious batshittery part of me still likes Ravagers' ambition and scale, I can't deny that Respond To All Calls is a much more assured production. If you didn't like the previous set, this one's for you. And if you did, hell, I enjoyed it nearly as much. If the series continues to work at this level, I can't help but feel that the following boxsets might be something magical.