It goes without saying that David Tennant’s return to Big
Finish as the Doctor is an absolute triumph, not just for the company but for
Doctor Who in general. The fact that one of the busiest and most beloved actors
in the country still wants to be a part of our little show is very special and
a testament to all that is wonderful and kind and magical about the programme.
Big Finish have deployed some of their finest writers to
script these six (so far) tales and some of the strongest actors in what could
be called their little repertory: John Banks, Beth Chalmers, Terry Molloy and
Dan Starkey, as well as some famous names from British TV, film and stage: Nikolas
Grace, Rachael Stirling, Niky Wardley and Sean Biggerstaff.
So why aren’t the stories working for me?
Before I continue, it feels extremely churlish to criticise
a series of plays made with such obvious love for the period, made with such
effort to get those character voices right and made with the clear intent of
making those actors (or should I say stars?) and the audience feel as if they
are right back there in 2006/8. There is no doubt in my mind that absolutely
everyone involved in the production of these plays completely loves the era and
is doing their damnedest to make these audio dramas as successful as they can
possibly be.
The truth is, and there’s no easy way of saying this, they just feel like the other Big Finish
plays. That is not to say that they are poor stories. Far from it: quite
miraculously given the size of it, the vast majority of Big Finish’s output is
absolutely fantastic. In fact, there were periods when I looked forward to the
Big Finish monthly CD more excitedly than the next TV episode. So the
production values are as strong as ever, the scripts as tight as ever and the
performances as high-octane and inspirational as ever. But these Tennant sets
aren’t doing anything differently and they’re missing some vital touches to truly
epitomise the era from which they are born.
Firstly, from a purely technical and perhaps superficial
point of view, Murray Gold’s music is missing. It seems like a tiny thing, but
Gold’s scores were at the very core of what made the Tennant years so great.
The huge, theatrical, operatic sweeping sounds dragged the viewers through
those tales and the themes resonated long after the episodes had finished. Try
as he might, Howard Carter simply cannot hope to emulate such majesty. On
occasion he gets close: the opening ten minutes of Sword of the Chevalier feel rip-roaring in the best possible way.
(Coincidentally, they’re also ten minutes of the best Doctor/Rose written
interplay on offer from the company. Perhaps Carter takes his cues from the
scripts?) For the most part, though, the scores are generic and despite being
able to listen in isolation at the end of each story’s disc, nothing sticks in
the memory. This music, in any other Big Finish play, would be perfectly
acceptable – terrific even – but here it’s in competition with Murray and
sadly, it lags behind.
Secondly, there’s a problem of nuance. The bold,
story-as-headline approach which characterised the Russell T Davies years is
not quite so much in evidence here. On TV we had AGATHA CHRISTIE; DALEKS IN
MANHATTAN; UP POMPEII!; WEREWOLF AND QUEEN VICTORIA; THE END OF THE UNIVERSE
AND SHAKESPEARE! Here, we have SOME ELECTRONICS DO THINGS; AN ALMOST BUT NOT
QUITE INVASION OF NORWICH; A SPACE GARAGE and DONNA IN A WEIRD, MEDIEVAL WORLD.
The headlines don’t quite meet the boldness of their TV counterparts. The
closest is THE ICE WARRIORS IN THE FREEZER and THE THREE-FACED MAN AND THE
CHEVALIER. They come with caveats though: The Chevalier is hardly a well-known,
popular historical figure. One might argue that nor was Madame De Pompadour but
The Girl in the Fireplace was also
the story of THE CLOCKWORK MEN. Cold
Vengeance is, to my mind, the closest the audios get to feeling truly like
the Tennant years: there’s a no-nonsense, get-to-the-point pre-titles sequence,
a monster to match the setting and a bin-lady who discovers herself in time to
save the world. But even then, that’s about it: the story is essentially a
run-around in a freezer, with a messily-shaped narrative ending with the Ice
Lord in the TARDIS, the sort of ending only Boom
Town in all its wonderful weirdness was able to deploy (and even that was set-up
or the finale). The Doctor and Rose are not really given an awful lot to do
either. In Cold Vengeance, Rose tells
the bin-lady how unique and special she is, just as she told Beth in Infamy of the Zaross how unique and special
she was only two stories earlier - and they are the stand-out moments of the
entire set for Billie Piper. I can’t actually bring to mind a stand-out moment
for David Tennant (aside from perhaps his entrance in Death and the Queen) and Russell T Davies always played him centre
forward. Basically, these sets could just as easily be an entry in a Classic Monsters, New Doctors range
insomuch as it feels like a Big Finish amalgam rather than New Series in terms
of its plot, form and characterisation.
Perhaps the stories are too long. There is maybe too much
plot given the hour’s longevity for the tales to feel as taut and focussed as
the New Series 45-minuters. I can imagine a much stronger version of Cold Vengeance without the hiding in a
bin bit and a simpler approach to the planetary war. I can imagine a Sword of the Chevalier without the
travel sequence from countryside to town. The zippiness of the TV series is
lost on audio, the scenes and plays themselves being generally 25% longer. It
almost feels like I’m watching a what-could-have-been-less-successful version
of the TV show. It’s like Charlie Higson’s Randall
and Hopkirk (Deceased) – all the pieces for a terrific series were there
but they just weren’t quite bold or direct enough with a section that’s “a bit
boring in the middle.”
In short, whilst these writers have produced works of
incredible skill and made a tremendous impression at Big Finish, here they’re
in direct competition with Russell T Davies and they just aren’t him. Infamy of the Zaross - a title I can
never imagine RTD going with by the way (see also Time Reaver) – is essentially a neater version of John Dorney’s own
The Fourth Wall. But The Fourth Wall was a four-part Colin
Baker story and better. (Just as Jubilee,
the four-part Colin Baker Dalek story was so much better than the TV series’s Dalek.) It’s not enough to graft a Big
Finish plot onto the RTD format. What Big Finish really need to do is play out
of their comfort zone and go for broke. Be bolder about the decisions they
make. These are great writers who can be pushed even further. Let them, and the
stories and indeed David Tennant, fly a little higher. Give us bolder
headlines: QUEEN NEFERTITI AND THE MUMMY’S TOMB; HENRY VIII AND THE ROBOT
PRIEST; THE HIDDEN RELICS OF THE JUNGLE TEMPLE – STARRING RIVER SONG. You get
the idea.
If a listener is new to Big Finish – and I’m delighted to
say I introduced a friend to the company just last month and he’s since bought
eight plays! They do exist! – then I’m certain these Tennant stories would
prove just the ticket. Big Finish’s ability to capture an atmosphere and the
quality of the performances alone are breathtakingly good. They don’t even
compare to BBC Radio plays. They’re immersive, like movies without pictures.
But they’ve been like that since the beginning. It’s what us long term devotees
have come to expect. From a New Series boxset, I’d like to see the game upped
even further. I want to see the Doctor and Rose jump straight into another bold
adventure and finish a CD without realising I’ve been holding my breath.
I don't want to end on a lacklustre note. There is, of course, plenty to enjoy in these CDs. There has to be with such a stellar team of writers and actors. But hopefully, next time David Tennant is free, Big Finish can
do something a little bit scarier, a little bit edgier, a little bit more fun
and just that little bit bigger. With RTD to contend with, one can only be
bold.
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