The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Water Worlds

 

The Sixth Doctor Adventures: Water Worlds

Boy, I took my time getting to this one, huh! Water Worlds was on my to-do list for many, many, months at a time, and it took me quite a bit to even vaguely approach it. Why?? I don't know. Sometimes you'd just rather do a bunch of other stuff. Honestly, I was quite an idiot for deigning to jump into all sorts of other Big Finish sets before this one - I need to get my priorities straight, you know that?? 

Water Worlds has been given all sorts of praise ever since it released, and you can certainly see why. The brilliance lies in it's simplicity. It's easy to get into for any kind of fan - and while I'm the world's number one Eighth Doctor fan, I'm the first to admit that's not been the scenario for many a range out there. And in addition to that, it's actually trying to do a proper new era with an ongoing storyline to it that's not been done anywhere else. New Companion, new start, and yeah, it really is that simple. Ever since Hebe and Mel (and our friends old and new) showed up, Sixie has been in quite safe hands indeed. 

The Rotting Deep by Jacqueline Rayner

The Rotting Deep is, roughly speaking, a bog-standard base under siege story of Classic Who trappings, which allows it to be a familiar enough setting in order to explore the characters that it stars, chiefly Ruth Madeley as Hebe, the new companion of the series. Hebe's a marvelous bit of representation, obviously, (and quite frankly, those who complain about a wheelchair in the TARDIS are kinda dumb??) but the thing that makes this story sing is how well it manages to serve as a really good starting point for Who, and how while Hebe is of course, the starring role, it really happens to nail it's supporting cast. It's well aware that the setting of the story isn't all that exciting - we've had oil rigs constantly in Classic Who and Big Finish, it's a very basic base under siege setting, so this way it can focus on the story's threat and characters.

The Rotting Deep is breezy at two half hours, and despite the fact that it's runtime is inflated from 40 minutes to a full 65, it doesn't struggle with this at all. The story is very, very good. It's of course, not really evocative of Baker's era on television - as many Sixth Doctor stories are, this is a strictly modern script, and like the Eighth Doctor range, I think I may find the story better off if it could remove the cliffhanger element from it entirely. While the cliffhanger is good, I still think the pacing of the story works better as an hour than two half hours - although that's hardly a criticism, I feel the same way about the whole set. 

This probably isn't most people's favorites of the three - I've heard lots more love for Tides of the Moon and Maelstrom, but it is my favorite of the set. It's subtly dangerous and I loved that the story felt tense without ever becoming too tense and veering into horror territory. The first scene that unveils the threat of the episode is an utter highlight. This is plain good Doctor Who, that technically, you could straight up make on the television, if Baker and Langford were up for it. That's not to say that audio isn't the perfect genre for this kind of story. The action is a lot more subdued than most Who and there's a lot of talking - which I think is the most important part of audio drama. The ending is emotionally effecting as all get out - what a way to establish Hebe. She makes her own character established so well that bringing in some Classic Big Finish IP doesn't end up feeling reductive, and instead feels like a cause to cheer. Marvelous.

The Tides of the Moon by Joshua Pruett

I'm probably more familiar with Joshua Pruett's work than most people who write reviews for Doctor Who, being an enormous fan of his skills as a writer for quite some time. Most people just know him for Phineas and Ferb, but I've also enjoyed his work in Milo Murphy's Law and Hamster and Gretel, the two other shows he and Dan Povenmire have worked on. I'm a massive geek about these shows, and while they are objectively children's cartoons, I've never ever been able to outgrow them like I have most others. Suffice it to say, he sort of already established himself as not only a sci-fi writer with those shows, but a clever and funny man, and considering Steven Moffat himself began working in Sitcoms, I can hardly think of worse places to start on your Doctor Who journey. He's perfect for this job and I wish him well - get him in on the half hour anthology releases, he can do wonders in 20 minutes.

The Tides of the Moon takes place a long long time ago in a galaxy right fucking here, on the moon before it became a lifeless rock and was instead a vast ocean. This concept for an environment for a story is so phenomenal it can hardly be verbalized, but I'll try to give it credit. It's a really good Doctor Who idea, that's all I'm saying. When Hebe, Mel and The Doctor arrive, they come face to face with weird aliens, and a Doctor Who thing happens. It's hard to summarize the rest of it, because while it's functional, the setting and character work is so strong, the Tides of the Moon does totally make you forget about the plot. Hebe in particular gets a little arc with a Amphibious Alien that is ludicrously moving and deep, and it's predicated on fricking gills of all things. 

The Tides of the Moon is so good about the setting and character work, so exceptional, that over time, that part of the story eclipses the entire rest of it, eclipses what the story is actually about for me personally, which can result in me having a difficult time reviewing it when the vast majority of what I want to talk about is all about Hebe and not Sixie and Mel. The story stops being about the not bad but comparatively dull space culture thing and becomes much more about Hebe's exceptional characterization, what the story has to say about consent, what Hebe has been through as a person and her mindset related to her body, and really, love in a sense, but all in a way that works for what Doctor Who is as a series - it's not dark at all, and this isn't Torchwood, the story is as gentle as is becoming of that. It's almost a strange compliment in a sense how completely and wonderfully this one bit just absorbs the story for me - for a bit in this episode, the show itself becomes Hebe Who, and that isn't actually that bad - it's actually wonderful. Odd, but still intensely memorable.

Maelstrom by Jonathan Morris

In Maelstrom, Hebe and Mel and The Doctor all arrive on a strange planet (with incredible sound design) where a beached Whale psychically informs the Doctor that it was once human. Meanwhile, Mel finds herself face to face with an almost Twilight Zone-esque society where the minds of a species are uploaded to a computer. Maelstrom is like it's two predecessors, a Hebe piece, but there's much more balance to the group this time and Six gets a lot more to do. Mel is interesting, because while Bonnie Langford is omnipresent throughout the play, having her biggest part yet, Mel herself is hardly in it. Maelstrom is a story about mindswapping, and all of the requisite nonsense that you might expect from that sort of occurs - although the play has enough restraint to keep it from getting confusing, and The Doctor and Hebe remain themselves throughout. 

Maelstrom has a lot of interesting stuff related to atmosphere, and this is a good story to end the set on, as it is essentially the first proper and normal Doctor Who story that our trio get as a formed team. The Tides of the Moon is a bit odd with it being Hebe's first trip, and so Maelstrom gets to sort of let us know what future boxsets will probably be like, and the main thing it really does right is leave you wanting more. It's a tight and clever script that doesn't waste any time, and while it doesn't necessarily have big highlight awesome moments to it, it's just really consistent Doctor Who that is going to ultimately leave you quite pleased. As such it's a smart story to end the set with. It has it's priorities straight now that Hebe is such a deep and refined character that can bounce off the Doctor perfectly - I only hope Mel gets to shine half as bright in future boxsets! 

This is a remarkably strong release as a whole - it's not perfect, and it didn't crack my mind in two as I may have expected, but it's also so consistent and shows such potential for new things that you can look past the flaws without much effort whatsoever. Water Worlds is a delightfully NEW feeling set, and I'm quite glad that it doesn't have OCEAN OF THE DALEKS or something like that weighing it down. These characters have a bright future in their own little world - and I'm very excited to explore it, especially considering how cohesive and well thought out the theme of this set was. Fabulous.