The Grey Man of The Mountain

 

The Grey Man of The Mountain by Lizbeth Myles

The Grey Man of The Mountain, is I think, the best Seventh Doctor story in ages, because quite frankly, instead of random Hex abuse story number 589, it's my Seventh Doctor - it's a direct sort of season 26 era story with characterization of Ace and The Doctor that fits that era, alongside A Battlefield era Brig to round things out. It's so s26, Ace is even given a fricking girlfriend for the entire serial (who I kid you not, is explicitly a lesbian.) It's a bold episode, certainly. The production is so bold it sort of harkens back to the early classic Big Finish approach, it's an unconnected story really that takes place during a classic who season and with a heavy focus on those things you can't do on the television screen. The Grey Man of The Mountain is really refreshing in that regard, having a very simple goal of telling a slow-burn Doctor Who story focused on atmosphere and horror, that in the end, also explains wonderfully little. The closest comparison one can make to Grey Man of the Mountain is a sort of fusion between Spectre of Lanyon Moor and Winter for the Adept, which is telling. I mean, if you think about it, that's a fusion of two quite early Big Finish plays where the company was figuring itself out, taking the winter and chilly horror atmosphere from Winter and fusing it with the more emotional elements and the Brig from Lanyon. The story does discuss it's influences at times - initially we're led to believe it's a story starring the Abominable Snowmen. But all of this works to the tale's benefit. What doesn't work are a few elements - Part Four has a lot more to do than the other episodes due to the heavy focus on atmosphere, which mostly works out fine, but can give off a sense of ending fatigue. Other issues stem from a Landlady in the episode who has sort of gained a reputation, and it's hard not to see why. Her failure at doing an accent correctly only made her more endearing to me, but I must mention it, because I would be remiss not to - it's adorably terrible. Other criticisms could come to some of the other guest characters, like Thaddeus being slightly one-dimensional, but none are really worth mentioning beyond the Landlady - they're all rather good, especially Guy Adam's turn as a random man who's gone insane on the mountaintop. Our leads are the best part of the tale - McCoy gives a nuanced performance of a Doctor that's in over his head, and when he's under psychic attack, alters himself just slightly enough to put the audience on edge without doing anything quite off the rails. It's a wonderful show of subtlety. Culshaw is as immaculate as ever - I cannot tell him apart from Courtney - and as mentioned, Ace gets a female love interest that's fairly explicit to boot. While it's a flawed release at times, I cannot help but look at The Grey Man of The Mountain with earnest appreciation. It's not got a big scale arc and is all the better for it. The small cast of characters, the horror elements and monsters that play with the medium, the story itself is just quite frankly a slow, foreboding and ominous joy that I couldn't get enough of. 9/10