The Doctor, Lady Audacity Montague and Charley Pollard continue their travels in three new adventures.
Matthew Jacobs was the writer tasked with reviving Doctor Who back in mid-90s. While the TV Movie he penned failed to launch a new series, it did give us Paul McGann who has become a stalwart of the Doctor’s audio adventures.
When Jacobs stepped back into the universe of Doctor Who with his documentary Doctor Who Am I?, Big Finish made an approach and ‘Puccini and the Doctor’ is the result.
Deadly Strangers – which surely wins the prize for most generic box set title yet – also brings us the unusual setting of Iceland in the 1970s, as well as a futuristic tale with an old foe. Throughout, the Eighth Doctor travels with two companions, the self-styled Edwardian adventuress Charley Pollard (India Fisher) and the relatively new recruit Lady Audacity Montague (Jaye Griffiths), who hails from the Regency period.
Puccini and the Doctor
When the Doctor discovers that Audacity is no fan of pop music, he decides to provide her with some musical education. Within moments, they’re at the opening performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in Milan, 1904.
The time travellers promptly fall in with the composer and his set, meeting his benefactor: the mysterious Princess Tura who has a habit of setting riddles and making her suitors disappear.
Jacobs’ story is rich with period detail as it considers themes of love and music. Beautifully constructed, it plays with the troubled gestation of one of Puccini’s most famous works and the inspiration for another. It also picks up on the Doctor’s name drop from the TV movie, with the Time Lord knowing that he’s met the composer out of order and owes him another visit.
Tania Rodrigues is terrific as the villain of the piece, who uses the transformative power of music in devastatingly literal sense. Meanwhile, Tim McInnerny entertains as Puccini himself and there are some lovely scenes between him and McGann’s Doctor.
There’s a real sense of joy in the script with dialogue that positively sparkles. Let’s hope that Matthew Jacobs doesn’t wait another 28 years before writing for the Doctor again!
Women’s Day Off
Lisa McMullin’s tale begins with the Doctor and his companions at odds. He wants to show them an alien waterfall while the pair are keen to see the aurora borealis. With the TARDIS making the decision, the trio find themselves in 1970s Iceland, on the day when all the women went on strike.
The strike provides the backdrop to the story of a lonely teenage girl at a boarding school and a crashed alien ship. As the Doctor’s companions are caught up in the protest, the Doctor finds himself puzzling out the mystery of the troubled Kyla (Molly Harris).
It’s an enjoyable tale, with an unusual setting and a few comic moments but is overshadowed by the rest of the set.
The Gloaming
The final tale, from the writing duo of Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle, sees the Doctor in sightseeing mode. He’s keen to share the delights of Gloaming with his companions, but they arrive to find a ravaged world with the only life signs on a nearby moon.
This is an end of empire tale, with the residents of Gloaming’s Sleep Clinic being those who were rich enough to save themselves. There are shades of Hitchhikers’ Magrathea here, whose bespoke planetary designers chose to hibernate until the universe was again wealthy enough to afford their services. However, rather than the off-hand acknowledgement that Douglas Adams gave it, this tale confronts the moral outrage of the sleepers’ actions head on, and it’s in this atmosphere that the Mara is reborn.
The story provides space for great performances from both companion actresses, with a manic Audacity and Charley battling against the Mara-reflected image of herself. Among the guest cast, Homer Todiwala is hilarious as Dekkar, a gloriously unlikable “tech bro” billionaire, while Graham Seed plays Franz – and you’ve got to love a fussy droid!
In Summary
This relatively new trio has gelled quickly and, despite our initial misgivings at bringing Charley into the mix, they work well together. There’s a pleasing dynamic as Charley’s experience plays against Audacity’s age and her sense of wonder. Somewhere in the middle, Paul McGann is reliving his Doctor’s youthful vigour, unburdened by the battles that are still to come, and it’s great to hear.
While the return of Matthew Jacobs writing for his Doctor naturally catches the attention, alongside the high-profile casting for Pucci, Mooney & Pringle’s well-constructed and though-provoking Mara tale runs it close as our favourite in the set. There’s no strong linking theme here, but Deadly Strangers is well worth a listen.
Doctor Who – The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Deadly Strangers is out now. It’s available on Collector’s Edition CD (+ download), or digital download only, from Big Finish.