The First Doctor Adventures Volume Three

 

The First Doctor Adventures Volume Three

The First Doctor Adventures, up until this point, was a quite solid range indeed. I don't know what happened during the production of volume three, but for some reason or another, perhaps my patience was thinner than usual, but nonetheless, for one reason or another, set three did not excite my very soul as volumes one and two did. I think the format works for them - One sci fi and one historical - and I think the recasts have all grown in their own way to be quite uncanny. Jamie Glover as Ian, who I previously thought was one of the less convincing recasts of the range, really grew into his own in this set. Jemma Powell is as excellent as usual, and Claudia Grant really captures the original Susan quite well. That isn't to say that I very much like the original Susan characterization, but she is a good recast because she at least captures it and does very much the same thing. I really liked the whole crew. But there's something off here, and I can't describe why, but something doesn't feel right. Something this time around didn't click.

The Phoenicians by Marc Platt

The Phoenicians is in the vein of Marco Polo, trying to be The First Doctor Adventures' first attempt to have the historical story not merely being an hostile event like The Great White Hurricane or The Doctor pisses off the king like in The Barbarians and The Samurai but a classical voyage tale where The Doctor and crew are forced to travel across the planet earth with a group of characters because X historical figure won't let them in the damn TARDIS. As such, The Phoenicians has the unique problem of being both incredibly overlong and dull, and also, considering the amount of time that takes place in-universe throughout said story, incredibly rushed too, as The Gang is essentially stuck in Phoenician land for three or four months. Not much happens, but a lot happens, if that makes sense. It's really slow, and at points in the second half especially, it can be quite hard to tolerate.

That being said, if there's a man to assign a pure historical to, it's Marc Platt. He's a writer who really understands historical series of events, he gets all of the details absolutely down pat so that the end result is genuinely immersive. Despite the, shall we say, suspicious accents, most chiefly of Ajaz Awad, of Torchwood: The Dollhouse fame, everything is almost done in the style of a documentary. It's very in line with Classic Who's early attempts to educate the populace. This is a good story to do such a thing with too, because I knew absolutely nothing about this period of history thanks to the fallacy of our current educational system. It was interesting to learn about this sort of thing, and our four regulars are pretty decent. There's also a level of unrestraint to the Phoenicians that I admire. It's historically accurate. And I do mean... historically accurate. There's a particularly wild scene where Susan and Barbara are nearly sold into sex slavery for the Church, because it doesn't count as abuse if it's done within the realm of the Love Goddess. This and other sections of horrible brutality of the time are not treated in a revisionist manner. While this makes the audio all the more unpleasant, I do have to respect the sheer audacity - and indeed, it doesn't feel far off from something The Hartnell era might have done. 

There's just one problem, minus that of the usual Pure Historical plodding, but it may singlehandedly kill the audio for me. From part two onwards, whenever they're on the boat (most of the story), The most annoying and repetitive earworm of a flute soundtrack plays indefinitely for sometimes up to ten or so minutes straight. Someone forgot to give this thing a goddamn score. This shouldn't factor into my enjoyment so heavily, but genuinely, it does, I began to loathe that flute tune because it would never stop, and it's just ten seconds long, it just keeps looping!! Some people may not even notice this but I am not some people. It actually really made the audio painful for me at points. Sound design is a very important thing for an audio story, and I'm sorry, but you just can't do this. If there's a long talky bit in your story as your characters are travelling and the same music keeps ten second looping for ages, you have a problem. This is an audio story - it should not be frustrating to the ears. 5/10 

(Before we go on, let it be noted that this cover is rad as fuck)

Tick Tock World by Guy Adams

Tick Tock World is the sci-fi tale of the set, and it's trying to be something Rob Shearman would write. Essentially it's a very bleak little tale where Ian, Barbara and Susan are trapped on a strange abandoned dustbowl of a planet, ticking like some kind of Geiger counter, because the Doctor is fucking dead. Yeah, from that little feature it becomes quite clear that this is all going to be reset. That being said, The Doctor is still in it, as Susan begins to see "ghosts" of their future and past selves on this temporally fractured planet, including ghosts of both The Doctor (allowing his inclusion) and Carole Ann Ford, playing a mysterious woman, who's identity is obvious, because she is Carole Ann Ford. 

Tick Tock World takes a fucking AGE to get going, and by part three I nearly shut it off, but surprisingly, Part Four is baller as heck. Yeah, I know, it's surprising, but the story clearly does have a plan, and Parts One to Three are technically important, if rather dull. There's also an annoying tendency to mention things that we know from modern Doctor Who, which can almost break the Classic Who immersion. I can't explain why, but I felt a namedrop of Reapers especially gratuitous. It was almost like you were meant to be really excited because you knew what that was. I do have to get into spoilers quickly though, because Tick-Tock World decides to be fucking wild after a bit and it does befit discussion, because it's super cool. Prepare.

Still, I do respect Tick Tock World quite a bit for creating a rather disturbing alternative timeline where Ian dies and Barbara kills herself because of this, by just sitting down and letting a time eddy eat her up because she doesn't want to travel on without him. This is so shocking, so brutalist and so over the top that it loops back into being horrifyingly believable, especially for The Hartnell Era, the most unrestrained era of Who. The scariest part is through the compelling performances, I really believed this VNA style bullshit was actually possible. Tick Tock World is so wild for actually going through with this, it's hard to comprehend. I have to respect it for that. Of course, it is reversed, because it has to be, but I love that they actually did it. 

While it's nice having Carole Ann Ford lend legitimacy to the Adventures in Space and Time cast, I'm not sure the story needed it. While her inclusion is, well, fine, I suppose, I wasn't completely enrapt by the Susan we see here. The side characters are also not very convincing, and while this world is cool and atmospheric, it also borders on a little dull. I know it's shocking, but I do feel that this story would have benefitted from a tighter run time. I also don't think that either of the side characters are necessary, the three of them, while fine, I suppose, and do get some funny lines, I think I would have cut and set this down to an hour long piece. I think it would have made the ultimate thing a 10/10 classic. And that's the thing. A friend once told me that while he was talking to Rob Shearman at a con, he mentioned that Matt Fitton and a few other writers do 12 of these scripts a year, and he'd be rubbish if he was doing that. I can't help but agree, having seen a few other writers struggle due to overwork. This is a story that feels very very brilliant, but written almost completely for a NuWho timeslot. It's got a lot of NuWho sensibilities, and that is very odd considering how well Ian, Barbara and Susan are characterized, but it's true, it's very ostensibly the Classic Team's Turn Left. I admire them for trying, there's not a single thing I don't like on paper, but this could have been a lot better, it's just so overlong and tedious: 6/10