![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Classic Doctor Who, The Lost Season 23 Review
Ever since I began watching Doctor Who, I had this plan that slowly grew in the back of my head about how I would cover the Sixth Doctor era. I already knew about Slipback, but it wasn't until I did more research into the hiatus that I learned that an entire season had been planned in detail and then aborted when the BBC shifted their plans for the show. (Well, cancel, and then uncancel with an eighteen month hiatus). There was enough work put in that three of those stories ended up getting novelized anyway, and later got audio adaptions from Big Finish along with another. That, combined with the revelation that two companion-centric novels were also released around this time, gave birth to my final strategy: do this "lost season" of Doctor Who in between Seasons 22 and 23, somewhat padding out what ended up being a very short era for the Sixth Doctor.
I'm gonna preface this by saying that I know these aren't the equivalent of having actual, televised stories. But the audio tracks I listened to during the First and Second Doctor eras for the missing episodes helped me grow accustomed to switching back and forth, and the experience ended up being much more seamless than I had expected, even with the absence of linking narration. I ended up enjoying this season a lot, and I was surprised at how much they allowed themselves to progress the relationship between the Doctor and Peri in these stories. Hopefully one day, if there is enough material to work with, Big Finish will be able to release some version of the remaining two stories Yellow Fever and How to Cure It and The Children of January - particularly the latter as they had originally made plans to do just that in 2009 before they hit a roadblock. In the meantime, I'm thankful for what we do have, and it's definitely made me interested in checking out the Big Finish range once I've completed watching the Classic series.
I was originally going to include the two companion novels in the same review (albeit a different section), but I thought it would be best to separate those out so the audios were still fresh in my mind, and because they are ultimately a very disconnected from them. Three of the four Big Finish audios are available to listen to on Spotify. This "season" had four stories, as well as a radio drama that was released in 1985, and ended up being pretty straightforward in terms of ranking.
Characters
Colin Baker as The Sixth Doctor - It's no secret that Baker has done a lot of work rehabilitating the character in audio releases since his time on the show, and it's something that's brought up in the bonus interviews on some of these releases. That said, they go out of their way to explain that, as these fall in the timeline immediately after the events of Season 22, they intentionally hew closer to that characterization. That said, while his characterization does feel very consistent with how he was that season, he feels like he has developed believably as a character. The warmth I saw begin to take hold between him and Peri in Revelation of the Daleks is very present here, and continues even in Slipback. It's this aspect that makes going out of my way to listen to these stories absolutely worthwhile, and paints a clearer picture of where Baker ultimately wanted to go with his Doctor during a longer run with the role. I'm glad Big Finish is giving him the opportunity to realize it.
Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown - Bryant's voice has noticeably aged since her appearance on the show, but her accent work has gotten better, meaning that she still has a vocal delivery that feels kind of off in a way that's intrinsically Peri. And while this season is still very much in line with the way her character was written and utilized in Season 22, she definitely has more agency within the story itself. While she is still separated from the Doctor and caught in mortal peril, getting talked down to by other characters all the while, she feels much more resilient than she had, her frustration that previously only came out in flashes now driving her to become more proactive within the plot. It also definitely feels like Peri is having fun with the Sixth Doctor now, and the two have a much more evenly balanced relationship than they had, even if the way they talk to each other hasn't changed all that much.
This "season" has a couple of notable guest stars and characters, but Nabil Shaban as Sil is the only one who reprises the same role he played in the show. His reappearance wasn't strictly necessary, but it did add spice to the story he was in and set up the character nicely for a future return on the show proper. David Bailie as the Celestial Toymaker was a performance that really delivered without trying to imitate the original performance by Michael Gough in Season 3. David Garfield as Professor Stream was also on point enough that it was pretty easy to tell who the character was supposed to be, while leaving enough room for ambiguity.
The Audios
I've ranked the audios based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level. I opted to go with the audio versions rather than the novelizations both due to feedback from a number of customer reviews, and because the novelizations are out of print and not available digitally.
5) Third Story, 2 Parts - Mission to Magnus
That's not to say this story is a complete waste. The character of the Time Lord Anzor, who was a bully during the Doctor's academy days, is an interesting dynamic that gets a fair bit of play even though the character is written out halfway through. The Ice Warriors enter halfway through and are a very welcome presence, as they take over from the lackluster battle of the sexes plot, and it definitely helps make the planet of Magnus feel very large in scale since they enter the story from the Ice Caps. The standout character here, though, is Sil. Playing all sides and just as slimy as ever, he's the connective tissue that holds all these disparate parts together as he's the only one who enters the story knowing everyone already. His primary motivator is recovering from the financial loss he suffered during the events of Vengeance on Varos, and it was nice to see that thread continued in his interactions with the Doctor and Peri. It also helps that Shaban's performance on the character is on point, and the parts where he really hammed it up really made this story for me. In the end, this story feels like a nice bridge between his last appearance and whatever comes next for the character. The rest was just the Ice Warriors moving around set dressing.
4) Fifth Story, 2 Parts - The Hollows of Time
However, even if this story had been adapted for television, I do think it might have been a tad too ambitious for it's own good. Side characters like Jane and the Limo Driver don't feel fleshed out enough for the central role they ultimately play, and the cult around Professor Stream feels like a missed opportunity. It also didn't help that the child character of Simon was a little too precious for his own good, and the idea that he could have joined the the Doctor and Peri as a full-time companion is really the thing that stretches the limits of believably. And this is a story that has a priest who uses his church to invent animatronics.
3) Radio Play, 6 Parts - Slipback
Speaking of the Captain, I can't help but think of the time this was record, and how he was a character with a disease he used to deliberately infect others. It reads a lot like a metaphor for AIDS, and while I have no means to prove that, it added a very uncomfortable dimension to this story, especially since his brief scenes are spent talking about how he wants to have sex with Peri (who he thankfully never meets). With everything else that was happening, the story would have probably been stronger if this thread was removed entirely and the smuggling plot was expanded upon instead. The ultimate goal and purpose of this story, though, really works for me. Part of this is because the voice performance for the computer is excellent, and has an energy that feels unlike anything I've really "seen" on Doctor Who before, or at least in recent memory. The ultimate resolution of why the ship needed to explode was a bit much, but in a weird way it kind of put me in the right headspace to jump into the upcoming Trial of the Timelord storyline. The actual scene of the computer voice speaking to each other at the end, though, made the audible credit I paid to listen to this story absolutely worth it.
2) Second Story, 2 Parts - The Ultimate Evil
Like in Mission to Magnus, the goal of one of the players on the board was to profit from war, and for another it was to seize power they thought was theirs by any means necessary. Here, however, these motivations feel much more cohesive, and Escoval is surprisingly competent in his villainous role and towards the end I was starting to wonder if he was going to end up winning. It helps that, despite playing the one-note villain, he felt more fleshed out than some of his fellow citizens, who mostly seem to exist to advance the plot than have rich inner lives. The closest is probably Locas, the son of one of the rulers who accidentally kills his fiance at the beginning of the story, and spends the rest of it with Peri (who looks just like her) wrestling with his guilt and trying to save his people even if it means breaking more of their laws. The ability of these characters to transport in a kind of mind bubble at first seems very random but the story ends up getting a lot of mileage out of it, and it helps make Locas feel like a more proactive character even though Peri is the one calling the shots. It really is a bright spot that here Peri is afforded a level of deference and agency that she's rarely afforded, and it really is nice to see her shine.
I also have to say that they made the villainous merchant Mordant more interesting and engaging than I had expected. His plan is actually well thought out and hard to counter, and its nice to be clued in to some of what that is early on and watch the Doctor and Peri each separately put some of the pieces together, the whole picture only becoming clear once they're reunited. And I will say, while I enjoyed the Doctor's role and interactions a lot, in some ways it felt like a missed opportunity that a story focusing on erratic emotions and uncontrollable anger never comments on how that relates to his character arc. There's some hints if you really do the work in your head, but in the end I can't be too mad because it's so much fun seeing him get caught in the middle of a web and figure his way out.
1) First Story, 2 Parts - The Nightmare Fair
The real highlight of this story, however, was how it added to the mythos of the Toymaker. Now a figure on Earth, he had brought misery to countless people as part of his games simply as a way to pass the time, and has now embraced the emerging technology of video games to further export that. It's Doctor Who embracing change in the best way possible by incorporating new contemporary elements to strengthen the existing lore, and out of all the stories I'm probably the most disappointed this is the one that never made it to screen. I feel like tonally it would have gone a long way to bring the show out of the depressing slump it had gotten itself into last season, and it's the kind of setting that would have been such a visual treat to see. I guess, in the end, I'll have to settle for this story where David Bailie absolutely knocks it out of the park as the Toymaker, and I find myself weirdly emotional about the fate of a weary, imprisoned old butler.
Final Thoughts
I'm really glad I decided to go on this little detour, and in the process get to know the Sixth Doctor and Peri a little bit better and see their relationship further develop, because now I'm practically chomping at the bit to watch the season 23 that did make it to screen. Like, to the point that I'm mulling over putting off reading those books I still want to read. (It's late, I'll sleep on it.) After all is said and done, though, I came away from this feeling very similar to the way I felt after listening to the audio tracks to a chunk of missing episodes from the '60s - like I was consuming something that, while not the same as sitting down to watch the actual television version, was a part of the story I would've been worse off having skipped over. The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus have more tangible connective tissue, but I could still feel a concentrated effort on behalf of the production team to make it all feel like a missing chapter of this era and I wholeheartedly think they've succeeded.
I don't know if I'll actually check out the Big Finish range after this - it is quite long and I'm already winding down my four year long project of watching all of Classic Doctor Who - but it's nice to know that if I ever wanted to experience more of these characters' stories there's something there that could be this worthwhile. And I'm definitely happy I got this added time with the Sixth Doctor, an incarnation I'm surprised I've gained so much affection for. I can't wait to see what happens next.
I'm gonna preface this by saying that I know these aren't the equivalent of having actual, televised stories. But the audio tracks I listened to during the First and Second Doctor eras for the missing episodes helped me grow accustomed to switching back and forth, and the experience ended up being much more seamless than I had expected, even with the absence of linking narration. I ended up enjoying this season a lot, and I was surprised at how much they allowed themselves to progress the relationship between the Doctor and Peri in these stories. Hopefully one day, if there is enough material to work with, Big Finish will be able to release some version of the remaining two stories Yellow Fever and How to Cure It and The Children of January - particularly the latter as they had originally made plans to do just that in 2009 before they hit a roadblock. In the meantime, I'm thankful for what we do have, and it's definitely made me interested in checking out the Big Finish range once I've completed watching the Classic series.
I was originally going to include the two companion novels in the same review (albeit a different section), but I thought it would be best to separate those out so the audios were still fresh in my mind, and because they are ultimately a very disconnected from them. Three of the four Big Finish audios are available to listen to on Spotify. This "season" had four stories, as well as a radio drama that was released in 1985, and ended up being pretty straightforward in terms of ranking.
Characters
Colin Baker as The Sixth Doctor - It's no secret that Baker has done a lot of work rehabilitating the character in audio releases since his time on the show, and it's something that's brought up in the bonus interviews on some of these releases. That said, they go out of their way to explain that, as these fall in the timeline immediately after the events of Season 22, they intentionally hew closer to that characterization. That said, while his characterization does feel very consistent with how he was that season, he feels like he has developed believably as a character. The warmth I saw begin to take hold between him and Peri in Revelation of the Daleks is very present here, and continues even in Slipback. It's this aspect that makes going out of my way to listen to these stories absolutely worthwhile, and paints a clearer picture of where Baker ultimately wanted to go with his Doctor during a longer run with the role. I'm glad Big Finish is giving him the opportunity to realize it.
Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown - Bryant's voice has noticeably aged since her appearance on the show, but her accent work has gotten better, meaning that she still has a vocal delivery that feels kind of off in a way that's intrinsically Peri. And while this season is still very much in line with the way her character was written and utilized in Season 22, she definitely has more agency within the story itself. While she is still separated from the Doctor and caught in mortal peril, getting talked down to by other characters all the while, she feels much more resilient than she had, her frustration that previously only came out in flashes now driving her to become more proactive within the plot. It also definitely feels like Peri is having fun with the Sixth Doctor now, and the two have a much more evenly balanced relationship than they had, even if the way they talk to each other hasn't changed all that much.
This "season" has a couple of notable guest stars and characters, but Nabil Shaban as Sil is the only one who reprises the same role he played in the show. His reappearance wasn't strictly necessary, but it did add spice to the story he was in and set up the character nicely for a future return on the show proper. David Bailie as the Celestial Toymaker was a performance that really delivered without trying to imitate the original performance by Michael Gough in Season 3. David Garfield as Professor Stream was also on point enough that it was pretty easy to tell who the character was supposed to be, while leaving enough room for ambiguity.
The Audios
I've ranked the audios based off my own personal preference which is only tangentially related to how good they are on a critical level. I opted to go with the audio versions rather than the novelizations both due to feedback from a number of customer reviews, and because the novelizations are out of print and not available digitally.
5) Third Story, 2 Parts - Mission to Magnus
Mission to Magnus has a lot of individual elements that work really well - specifically the return of Sil and the Ice Warriors, and the introduction of the Time Lord Anzor. However, it’s dragged down by its regressive and reactionary gender politics and unsympathetic characters. (x)
The Classic series being "dated" is something I've long since gotten used to. After all, it's to be expected that a show that ran from the 1960s through the 80s would have a number of elements that wouldn't have aged well. Every once in a while there is something that sticks out a bit too much, though. And while I've commented on a couple of the more egregious examples before (such as the Yellow-face and other elements in The Talons of Weng-Chiang) this story might take the cake for the story that's aged the worst - and that's still after the production team likely smoothed out some of the rougher edges for the audio adaption in 2009. This is a story without any real heroes to speak of. Magnus is a civilization ruled by women who keep the men subjugated and underground, as they are unable to survive on the planet's surface, and the ruler will do anything to keep this as the status quo. Their enemies are from the neighboring planet of Salva, who have recently found the cure for this affliction and plan to use it as a pretense to invade. The whole situation is very thinly written reactionary rhetoric against what would have been second-wave feminism, complete with strawmen on all sides. The ending where the women of Magnus will be forced to marry the men of Silva, and serve them sexually - an aspect which is not subtle and played for... laughs??? I guess - left a bad taste in my mouth the way few things in Doctor Who ever have. It makes Galaxy 4 look absolutely subtle.That's not to say this story is a complete waste. The character of the Time Lord Anzor, who was a bully during the Doctor's academy days, is an interesting dynamic that gets a fair bit of play even though the character is written out halfway through. The Ice Warriors enter halfway through and are a very welcome presence, as they take over from the lackluster battle of the sexes plot, and it definitely helps make the planet of Magnus feel very large in scale since they enter the story from the Ice Caps. The standout character here, though, is Sil. Playing all sides and just as slimy as ever, he's the connective tissue that holds all these disparate parts together as he's the only one who enters the story knowing everyone already. His primary motivator is recovering from the financial loss he suffered during the events of Vengeance on Varos, and it was nice to see that thread continued in his interactions with the Doctor and Peri. It also helps that Shaban's performance on the character is on point, and the parts where he really hammed it up really made this story for me. In the end, this story feels like a nice bridge between his last appearance and whatever comes next for the character. The rest was just the Ice Warriors moving around set dressing.
4) Fifth Story, 2 Parts - The Hollows of Time
The Hollows of Time explores some really interesting aspects of time travel, particularly in the second part. However it often felt too complicated to follow on just audio, which wasn’t helped by the intentional effort to obscure that The Master was the villain’s true identity. (x)
Of the four, this felt like the story that struggled the most with the change in medium to being an audio-only. So many of the strong points rely on sequences that would really shine with visuals being shown on a screen, though they definitely try their hardest to make it come across as vividly as possible. I think they were as successful as they could have been, especially with the added wrench of not having the rights to use Ainley's Master as the main antagonist of this story. The word-around they came up with was pretty clever though, with the Doctor and Peri recalling the events of the story after the fact and not being able to remember Professor Stream's true identity due to their minds being scrambled a bit. This allowed them to have the Master as the villain, and also gave them a natural way to have a lot of narrative exposition. It also helped that David Garfield's performance sounds a lot like Ainley, making it easy to picture him as the Master in a disguise he just never bothers to take off. The concept behind this story, while rather complicated, is also rather interesting, with the Doctor and Peri traveling through a sort of echo of time in order to escape a trap, all the while needing to avoid meeting themselves. Other flourishes, such as the mechanical turtle and the utilization of the Tractators from Frontios were also nice touches that gave the story more color.However, even if this story had been adapted for television, I do think it might have been a tad too ambitious for it's own good. Side characters like Jane and the Limo Driver don't feel fleshed out enough for the central role they ultimately play, and the cult around Professor Stream feels like a missed opportunity. It also didn't help that the child character of Simon was a little too precious for his own good, and the idea that he could have joined the the Doctor and Peri as a full-time companion is really the thing that stretches the limits of believably. And this is a story that has a priest who uses his church to invent animatronics.
3) Radio Play, 6 Parts - Slipback
Slipback has a very strong central plot, and a number of side plots that never really seem to go anywhere. The unique voice and temperament of the computer really elevates the story. The Captain's sickness had some unfortunate implications though, and the ending felt very abrupt. (x)
Ranking this story in the same list as the Big Finish audio adaptions may feel unfair on the surface, but going from one to the other actually felt very seamless since they were written using a similar structure. In fact, if you had told me that this story had been produced at the same time as the others I would have believed you, and I highly suspect that this was the stylistic template Big Finish referred back to when it started producing audio plays. That said, there is one very big difference: it is 20 minutes shorter than the others. And I really think it would have benefited from that extra time, since while the central plot was very well rounded, there were a number of side plots that were really only given lipservice. The crew members that are essentially space cops looking for an art smuggler is a major part of this story, and is the sphere Peri ends up in for the majority of the runtime, but nothing ever seems to come of it since the main plot renders everything about it moot. It also doesn't help that the characters involved kind of just disappear entirely, when even the weird tangent with the Captain is tied up.Speaking of the Captain, I can't help but think of the time this was record, and how he was a character with a disease he used to deliberately infect others. It reads a lot like a metaphor for AIDS, and while I have no means to prove that, it added a very uncomfortable dimension to this story, especially since his brief scenes are spent talking about how he wants to have sex with Peri (who he thankfully never meets). With everything else that was happening, the story would have probably been stronger if this thread was removed entirely and the smuggling plot was expanded upon instead. The ultimate goal and purpose of this story, though, really works for me. Part of this is because the voice performance for the computer is excellent, and has an energy that feels unlike anything I've really "seen" on Doctor Who before, or at least in recent memory. The ultimate resolution of why the ship needed to explode was a bit much, but in a weird way it kind of put me in the right headspace to jump into the upcoming Trial of the Timelord storyline. The actual scene of the computer voice speaking to each other at the end, though, made the audible credit I paid to listen to this story absolutely worth it.
2) Second Story, 2 Parts - The Ultimate Evil
The Ultimate Evil manages to construct a really interesting narrative about war profiteering, but the character writing feels surface level and doesn't match the stakes of the larger plot. It also feels like a missed opportunity to examine the Doctor's own anger issues. (x)
I went back and forth on whether I should just rank this one at the top, especially since the issues I note in my initial thoughts above are not the things that have stuck with me in the time since. I think especially having now listened to Mission to Magnus, I appreciate just how much of a successful balancing act went into making the crux of the story a standoff between civilizations where one is extremely absent, and is only one of several plots that are happening at the same time. It was very obvious how much thought went into setting up the history of this planet and the culture of Tranquela, and every bit of it paid off or had some ultimate purpose within the story itself. The idea of the population having to occasionally chain themselves to prevent themselves from killing each other is a bizarre premise that somehow works, and considering the current times we're living in, it was nice that the ultimate drive of the story was the emotional response of all its characters and their anger and fear. The idea that things can get better just by believing they will be isn't enough, and the Doctor and other characters have to fight to make the ending of the story possible.Like in Mission to Magnus, the goal of one of the players on the board was to profit from war, and for another it was to seize power they thought was theirs by any means necessary. Here, however, these motivations feel much more cohesive, and Escoval is surprisingly competent in his villainous role and towards the end I was starting to wonder if he was going to end up winning. It helps that, despite playing the one-note villain, he felt more fleshed out than some of his fellow citizens, who mostly seem to exist to advance the plot than have rich inner lives. The closest is probably Locas, the son of one of the rulers who accidentally kills his fiance at the beginning of the story, and spends the rest of it with Peri (who looks just like her) wrestling with his guilt and trying to save his people even if it means breaking more of their laws. The ability of these characters to transport in a kind of mind bubble at first seems very random but the story ends up getting a lot of mileage out of it, and it helps make Locas feel like a more proactive character even though Peri is the one calling the shots. It really is a bright spot that here Peri is afforded a level of deference and agency that she's rarely afforded, and it really is nice to see her shine.
I also have to say that they made the villainous merchant Mordant more interesting and engaging than I had expected. His plan is actually well thought out and hard to counter, and its nice to be clued in to some of what that is early on and watch the Doctor and Peri each separately put some of the pieces together, the whole picture only becoming clear once they're reunited. And I will say, while I enjoyed the Doctor's role and interactions a lot, in some ways it felt like a missed opportunity that a story focusing on erratic emotions and uncontrollable anger never comments on how that relates to his character arc. There's some hints if you really do the work in your head, but in the end I can't be too mad because it's so much fun seeing him get caught in the middle of a web and figure his way out.
1) First Story, 2 Parts - The Nightmare Fair
The Nightmare Fair has a really vibrant setting that allows the Doctor and Peri to finally have some fun, while also providing a great backdrop for the Celestial Toymaker's return. The audio is nicely paced, and I was pleasantly surprised by the added depth it gives the Toymaker. (x)
I went back and forth on this for a bit, but as soon as I listened to this story I think I knew it was going to end up at the top of the list. I was very impressed with it from the jump, and it completely erased any doubts I had about diving into this audios between seasons. It makes great use of it's runtime, which is only slightly shorter than it would have been on television, and every moment feels like it has a purpose and is going somewhere to serve the larger story. It also does this with a great energy, picking up from the events of Revelation of the Daleks and having the Doctor and Peri finally go on a vacation in Blackpool and speaking time at a fair. The sound design and the dialogue of those scenes is probably the most immersed I felt throughout, and I could easily picture the two of them going on a roller coaster with a standard definition, 4:3 picture. That vibrancy extended to the rest of the story, which leaned into the nature of the Celestial Toymaker rather than away from it, and had the Doctor interact with other interesting and quirky alien and robot prisoners that I would've been more than happy to see spun off into their own stories. Peri, paired off with the guest character of the week, also gets a fair bit to do trying to find the Doctor and encountering robots under the Toymaker's control.The real highlight of this story, however, was how it added to the mythos of the Toymaker. Now a figure on Earth, he had brought misery to countless people as part of his games simply as a way to pass the time, and has now embraced the emerging technology of video games to further export that. It's Doctor Who embracing change in the best way possible by incorporating new contemporary elements to strengthen the existing lore, and out of all the stories I'm probably the most disappointed this is the one that never made it to screen. I feel like tonally it would have gone a long way to bring the show out of the depressing slump it had gotten itself into last season, and it's the kind of setting that would have been such a visual treat to see. I guess, in the end, I'll have to settle for this story where David Bailie absolutely knocks it out of the park as the Toymaker, and I find myself weirdly emotional about the fate of a weary, imprisoned old butler.
Final Thoughts
I'm really glad I decided to go on this little detour, and in the process get to know the Sixth Doctor and Peri a little bit better and see their relationship further develop, because now I'm practically chomping at the bit to watch the season 23 that did make it to screen. Like, to the point that I'm mulling over putting off reading those books I still want to read. (It's late, I'll sleep on it.) After all is said and done, though, I came away from this feeling very similar to the way I felt after listening to the audio tracks to a chunk of missing episodes from the '60s - like I was consuming something that, while not the same as sitting down to watch the actual television version, was a part of the story I would've been worse off having skipped over. The Nightmare Fair and Mission to Magnus have more tangible connective tissue, but I could still feel a concentrated effort on behalf of the production team to make it all feel like a missing chapter of this era and I wholeheartedly think they've succeeded.
I don't know if I'll actually check out the Big Finish range after this - it is quite long and I'm already winding down my four year long project of watching all of Classic Doctor Who - but it's nice to know that if I ever wanted to experience more of these characters' stories there's something there that could be this worthwhile. And I'm definitely happy I got this added time with the Sixth Doctor, an incarnation I'm surprised I've gained so much affection for. I can't wait to see what happens next.