Chris Chapman, DVD extras extraordinaire, enjoys his first
stab at a full 4-episode Main Range play with The Middle. After his single episode The Memory Bank last year proved so enthralling, I was very excited
to see what Chapman could do on a larger scale.
The first episode of The
Middle is terrific. It has a spine-tingling pre-titles sequence, the
listener left uneasy about the goings-on in this strange world. The idea that
it’s Constance’s 35th birthday, coincidentally tying her up in the
machinations of Formicia, feels a little bit too much like coincidence: It’s almost reminiscent of stories in
the old annuals or comics, where a character would suddenly have an interest in
a matter they hitherto didn’t even mention. Birthdays are a strange one because
in Doctor Who nobody ever has birthdays! That’s why it feels so odd.
Nevertheless, it is the springboard to the discovery of an intriguing and unsettling
world and when we realise that Constance’s birthdays means she will soon be
transported away, it feels worth the contrivance.
The play’s zenith comes at the cliff-hanger of Part One,
when the Doctor suggests that there is a world-spread euthanasia process in
operation that he’s suddenly found himself in the middle of. To reveal the
contents of Parts 2-4 would be to spoiler too much but, in honesty, I think
Euthanasia World would have proven a more interesting route to travel down. It
might not be what Doctor Who is all about, but we’ve had Dark Water for heaven’s sake! And this play teases us with the idea
that such a thing is happening. When it isn’t, there’s a sense of minor
disappoint.
However, a reviewer’s job is to assess what the product does
rather than doesn’t. In that respect, Chapman is a massive success. There is
plenty for the Doctor and his companions to get their teeth into, the writer
handling three plot strands with skill and alacrity. There is excellent
character work in play and performances to match. Mark Heap and Sheila Reid
stand out amongst some very talented competition. The play itself is
well-structured, only Part Three feeling like it’s perhaps treading water and
has run out of new ‘twists.’ The story spirals like a corkscrew to a
small-scale climax and we’ve moved from worldwide mechanics to a few people
talking. But that’s great: The Middle,
as its title suggests is all about its shape. A lesser writer would get hung up
on that but Chapman ensures his dialogue is strong, characters rich and that
all other elements of the script are as important as its structure.
Technically, the sound design is a bit odd. Much of it is
excellent. There’s a moment though, towards the end of Part Two in which the
script and actors are heading towards the cliff-hanger: They’re frantic and
fast scenes but just before the last one, we cut to some silence and all the
momentum of the episode is lost. The cliff-hanger then feels like a damp squib.
It’s annoying because Big Finish have always been so brilliant when it comes to
sound design, astonishing in fact. With this and The Silurian Candidate offering some seriously mixed choices in
terms of quality, it seems that the company are making backwards steps.
All told though, The Middle
is a very strong play. It is so focussed on what it wants to achieve and how it’s
going to get there, that it works completely in isolation. It’s rare to find a
Main Range play so free of continuity or backstory – particularly since the
advent of the trilogies – and so this feels like a very particular delight.
7/10
JH
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