The Sixth Doctor and Peri Volume One

 

The Sixth Doctor and Peri Volume One

This is one of those releases that I'm not sure why it exists, but you know, I'm not going to complain about it at all. I rather like The Sixth Doctor and Peri. Sure. Give em a set. Why not? I'll listen. 
In all actuality, this boxset is part of the "Mildly Older Peri" arc, an arc that started in the Main Range with The Widow's Assassin trilogy, and as of the moment, currently possesses no conclusion. It's a push to call it an arc even, as there is no story connecting threads other than the character drama between Six and Peri that comes to a head in Conflict Theory, by Nev Fountain, arguably the reason the set exists. The batch of stories are a tad eclectic in taste and tone beyond this - The Faceless Ones tackles colonialism through a Classic Who lens, while Like is perhaps one of the most modern Doctor Who tales out there, bordering on some of the territory of "Technophobia," "Smile," or perhaps a tamer Black Mirror. This is a set that perhaps doesn't have much of a mission statement - but that's not really very relevant. The truth is that it's quite good. And perhaps that's enough. 

The Faceless Ones by James Parsons and Andrew Sterling Brown

The Faceless Ones is by the writers of some Big Finish classics, they're the fellows who wrote LIVE 34 and I, Davros. From those two scripts you'd be forgiven in expecting a story of a horrific dystopian hellscape. The Faceless Ones instead merely makes do with sexism and colonialism. 

From that statement, you'd be likely to believe that this was a pretty hardcore script in terms of darkness, but I was surprised at how light The Faceless Ones was given it's bleak subject matter. It's certainly very typical Doctor Who with guest characters you've no doubt seen before. The main trick of the story is that the actual monster of the story is not the titular monsters, but the nasty Colonists who want to put aliens and native Africans alike straight into the Slave Trade!! Of course, as usual with Doctor Who, They're stopped and all is well. The story plays with an almost Companion Chronicle format to gloss over what would likely be a shitload of exposition. There's a lovely side character named Amanda who narrates her journal entries over the months of their expedition into the deep jungle. This helps the story to keep a quality pace.

The Faceless Ones is a good script that I'd be surprised to see anyone necessarily pissing their pants with anger over, but it is a solid step down from the legendary writers of LIVE fuckin 34. This story is well executed, yes, but it also exits the mind exceedingly quickly, Doctor Who that doesn't last in the brain. You'll love it when you turn it on, and say "wow, that was amazing!!" But a few days later, you'll have to look through your notes to remember what happened in it. I know I did - and so I'm docking this to a 6/10 

Like by Jacqueline Rayner

Modern to the point of being jarring, Like portrays the Sixth Doctor and Peri getting caught in a world of wild commercialism and rabid social media fans. Like's immediate problem is that it would be much more suited to a pairing like The Tenth Doctor and Donna or The Twelfth Doctor and Clara or Bill. It's very Moffatian in it's bold newness, and while there are very few active problems with the script, every once and a while you begin to think that it's rather strange that our bastions of the 80s, Baker and Bryant are the ones investigating it. 

The story is clever in how it immerses us in this tidal wave of rather horrid media consumerism, with constant ads interrupting our listening to Sixie and Peri advocating for things like Candy Dental Floss, Robo-Hens from a Hen-o-matic, and... cheese. Just actual cheese. One could consider this to be padding, but it's at least good padding. It integrates you into the world further and makes the few advertisements that actually influence the plot, like the Summer Years Serum or Life with Yob more believable. 

It's a very interesting take on what a world of compulsory social media would be like - the weaponization of human connection over the internet by corporations. The concept of likes and dislikes causing euphoria or actual pain is terrifyingly utilized. This is a quite strong script, even if it's sense of what moral it wants you to take away from it is searingly obvious. I was not surprised to see that this tale had a controversial reputation on several review sites. It's a parody of our own society. Sometimes people aren't really willing to look things like that in the eye. While "Like" isn't very Likely in it's sense of overblown comedy dystopia, it still holds just enough power to be worth your time. 8/10

The Vanity Trap by Stewart Manning

The Vanity Trap is like one of those stories where there's a time thing. I know!! Shocking!! Doctor Who does a time thing!! Really unexpected. In truth, the plot of The Vanity Trap has a fun little thing where we get to see an overbearing and quite fun actress character in all of the different stages of her career as The Sixth Doctor and Peri accidentally get intrinsically connected to her life. 

The fun concepts in the Vanity Trap can't really save it for an entire hour, especially considering the only threat in the story is exceedingly vaguely explained "time problems," which might, like, do something. Oh no. That would be terrible. It's got a few clever twists I didn't see coming, but the story suffers from not really having an antagonist beyond a space-time anomaly. Having a Reaper or something to chase the gang around a bit may have given the story the energy it needed.

As The Vanity Trap is, it's perfectly passable and does some nice heavy lifting for the following story with Peri and The Doctor's increasingly conflict filled characterization which not only is probably why this set exists, it's also the best one here. 7/10 

Conflict Theory by Nev Fountain

Conflict Theory is the tale that most of us Sixth Doctor fans have been looking for - a character analysis of our favorite acerbic little madman. Remember that time that Sixie tried to strangle Peri?? Of course you do, although Doctor Who usually wants you to forget. Conflict Theory is a story that attempts to reconcile a lot of the Doctors' television characterization with that of his more smooth and sartorial Big Finish counterpart. It's got a fair deal borrowed from Scherzo's character angle, or bits of Asking for A Friend, both two stories that I certainly couldn't complain about you borrowing from, but it's also got it's own clever identity. 

Peri and The Doctor, the more you think about it, although they're of course, both quite excellent characters who we've learned to love together, are actually rather horrible for each other. This story asks if this is the case for every companion - asks the important question: "Is Doctor Who genuinely morally fucked??" These guys are actively self destructive together. I think the story pairs well with plots we've seen since. Characters like Clara Oswald and her arc and our knowledge of that, even though for the Doctor it's a thousand years down the line, add to the story's texture. 

I'll always be a sucker for putting a character through psychological analysis for the benefit of the plot. And Conflict Theory is very clever about it. It's got a great central concept of Robot Sigmund Freud on a giant "Freudian Ship," which is of course, shaped like a ............ cigar. It has some fun things to say about the nature of Freud as a therapist and how a lot of his theories too can be shaped entirely around certain details. This is very strong character analysis from a man who understands the character of Peri like no other. Almost unmatched: 9/10