REVIEW: AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME

Image Copyright BBC 2013

As a man who has never really dabbled much in Doctor Who, I was somewhat unsure about how to feel about the madness surrounding the 50^th anniversary episode. Was it to be something exclusively for the fans, or a possible invitation for newcomers such as myself to join the party? Or maybe even both? Either way, my knowledge of the programme was insufficient. I needed a way to feel educated about the universe of Doctor Who without necessarily watching through the hundreds of available episodes. Thankfully, An Adventure in Space and Time serves this purpose nicely.

The story chronicles the birth of the show and its various production troubles, from William Hartnell’s (David Bradley) ailing health and struggles as a typecast actor, to Verity Lambert’s (Jessica Raine) own trouble as one of the early female figures in British television. It becomes clear from the very first scene that this is not necessarily the smooth and obstacle-free ride that one might initially think.

With a keen sense of nostalgia, particular effort has been put into replicating both the context of 1960s Britain in all its gloomy-weather glory, and the harsh realities that come with working from within the BBC – a place not often associated with second chances. As a result, I was immediately drawn towards Hartnell, played with excellent cynicism and humanity by David Bradley. As an actor with very little direction in his career, Hartnell’s only desire was to steer clear of the authority figures he became so often associated with. Yet with the show’s aim to inform and educate as well as to thrill and terrify, the role was understandably irresistible.

What follows is an intense, but often fun series of events that follow Hartnell and Lambert as they both fight desperately to keep Doctor Who alive, regardless of whether it came from artistic integrity or something to pay the bills. Yet in a bizarre twist, I found the story’s finest moments were the ones that distanced themselves from Doctor Who. Such moments include Hartnell’s often adorable interaction with his granddaughter and wife, reminding us that he was still a human being, with familial concerns and constant reminders of his growing age in an industry that was constantly seeking to modernise itself.

Naturally, the references to the series itself are littered throughout the script. Some are impossible to miss, while others will no doubt be detected by only the most hardened of fans. But as the story reached its conclusion, I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount that was being thrown at me. Of course, there exists five whole decades of history behind Doctor Who, and it would be a missed opportunity not to acknowledge it through various nods and winks, but at times, it felt just a little too much.

Regardless, this was easily outweighed by the positives. Every actor gave an outstanding performance, in particular Brian Cox’s dominating presence as the iconic Sydney Newman – a role he clearly had incredible fun playing. But at its very core, An Adventure in Space and Time was a very human story about a very otherworldly concept. It provided an informative but touching look at both a man desperately looking to push past his own ‘grumpy old man’ persona, as well as the now cemented position Doctor Who holds as a key part to our history and culture.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.

Bryn Lloyd

REVIEW: THE LIGHT AT THE END

 

The first step of the anniversary for me began when Big Finish released their multi-Doctor anniversary adventure, The Light at the End. Now I have to confess that I’m not a huge fan of Big Finish’s main range of Doctor Who adventures – I stopped listening to them when the TV series returned. Might seem a little unfair of me, but I easily tire of the over-reliance on returning monsters and companions that started to litter the releases from that point. Truly original pieces of drama seemed to diminish bit by bit, which is fine since, in my view, Big Finish needed to cater for the core group of fans – those who wanted Doctor Who as it used to be. I like my Doctor Who to continue to grow with the audience, with the social development of our culture. For me during the Wilderness Years (when there was no TV Who) Virgin Books, BBC Books  and Big Finish provided us with a Doctor Who that continued to grow, to echo the decade in which it existed, as it always did on TV. Then, in 2005, Doctor Who returned home to BBC One and the books and audio adventures seemed to lose a lot of their ambition, their originality. Which is a shame. There were some true classics produced between 1991 and 2005 – not to say that Big Finish haven’t produced some sterling stuff since, but usually it’s in their spin-off series’, like the Gallifrey series, or the I, Davros plays and, primarily, through the ongoing series of adventures for the Eighth Doctor that were being produced for transmission on BBC Radio. So, The Light at the End would be my first, for fun, look at a Big Finish play in a long while. (Bearing in mind I had to scour all of the Big Finish releases when researching my anniversary book, so it’s not like I haven’t heard the majority of them.) At the time it seemed that the official anniversary story, Day of the Doctor, was not celebrating the classic series but rather focussing on the mythos and characters introduced since 2005. The BBC insisted that no old Doctors would be appearing! To me, and so many other fans, this seemed to be a slap in the face. It was the anniversary of  fifty years of Doctor Who, not just Nu Who (as the series from 2005 to present is affectionately called), and so the cast list of The Light at the End decided me on getting that story. This seemed to me to be a true celebration with countless characters from the old series returning. For the old fans an anniversary story was an excuse to bring back as many old faces as possible – the strength of the story was secondary. We wanted something like The Five Doctors, which is not a terribly interesting story – it’s not known for its complexity, but it is known for the pure fun and nostalgia of seeing so many old friends return. And so The Light at the End…

 

Hmm. How quickly one’s view can change.

 

It took me a while to work out why I left The Light at the End feeling so blah. The story was straight forward enough, although possibly not the most well-structured. It certainly brought back a whole host of old friends, every Doctor from the first to eighth made an appearance, countless companions. Essentially all one could want from an anniversary story. At least that’s what I had always thought. but upon reflection I came to realise the problem – for me, at least. Ever since Virgin got the licence to publish original Doctor Who fiction the guest appearance of old Doctors and companions had become something of a regular occurrence. Indeed, the very first novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, featured guest appearances by the Third and Fourth Doctors. Later stories saw the return of all kinds of companions from Peri to Liz to Susan, and featured all sorts of multi-Doctor stories (although none topped Lance Parkin’s Cold Fusion which featured a bona-fide reason for two Doctors being in the right place, and a wonderful spin on how the Seventh Doctor did not recall the events already, since his fifth self was also involved – the answer was simple, he did remember!). Big Finish have also featured various versions on the multi-Doctor story over the years, everything from The Sirens of Time (their very first release! Much like Virgin and BBC Books did before them), to The Four Doctors, Project: Lazurus and The Wormery. Even companions got their own stories with releases like The Five Companions. And so the problem as I see it; The Five Doctors was a success because of the nostalgia. Characters we had not seen in years returned, Doctors joined forces for the first time in ten years (well, eleven really when you consider The Three Doctors was transmitted in 1972, almost a year before the tenth anniversary). In The Light of the End it’s essentially just more of the same. We hear all these actors so often throughout the year, hear these characters interact, heard the various Doctors team-up countless times. There’s no sense of anniversary or nostalgia. Linking it to 1963 didn’t do anything except offer a failed attempt to enforce a feeling of nostalgia. We can’t orchestrate such a thing; it comes from within, from the memories. Don’t get me wrong, hearing Tom Baker and Paul McGann together is fun (although the BBC were soon about to officially do something even better with these two!), but having actors come in to impersonate the first three Doctors is not. I can see what was being attempted, but it felt like an insult. It didn’t help that none of the three actors sounded anything like the characters they were supposed to be (something in common with the Patrick Troughton impersonator on the upcoming An Adventure in Space and Time). I left the story with a feeling of blah, of ‘yeah, seen it all before’, and I realised that it was no longer just enough to have loads of old actors return to Doctor Who. An anniversary, to me, needed to be something different. A good story, a development of the mythos of the show, and a sense of nostalgia.

 

Andy Frankham-Allen is the author of Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants

COMPANIONS: FIFTY YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO ASSISTANTS

Cover art by Terry Cooper, Copyright Candy Jar Publishing

Curiosity Piqued: 

A Non-fan's Review

Not being a fan of Doctor Who¸ I was not keen when asked to read and review Andy Frankham-Allen’s Companions: Fifty years of Doctor Who Assistants. However, having an interest in trying new things and having read Andy’s novel, Seeker, I agreed to give it a go. 

Companions is an unofficial detailed guide about every Doctor Who companion’s adventures throughout the first twenty six years on TV, running from 1963 – 1989, the 1996 television movie and the seven series of Doctor Who from 2005 to present day, as well as including the  journeys of these companions in novels, comics and radio (otherwise known as the Expanded Universe). Andy has structured Companions in a way that makes it easy for the reader to distinguish between each companion and not get lost and confused between which companion travelled with which Doctor, having two chapters per Doctor, one for the TV show and the other looking at their Expanded Universe adventures.

He immediately grabs your attention when discussing Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter and very first companion. From Susan to Ben & Polly, the last of the first Doctor’s companions, I was already curious about the TV show and even tempted to watch an episode. Andy gives a very detailed account of each of these companion’s journeys and relationships with the Doctor, allowing me to understand what sort of characters they were and how they reacted in tough situations and adjusted to life travelling with a Time Lord.

I feel that Andy really comes into his element when he reaches the companions of the Third Doctor, particularly when looking at Sarah Jane Smith and Jo Grant/Jones, their sections taking up multiple pages where Andy goes into tremendous detail and insight about their adventures and close friendships with the Doctor.  This continues through to the seventh Doctor, increasing my interest in the show and the feeling that I need to try watching it, as his descriptions of the characters help me picture and understand what they go through. Andy does not, however, reveal everything that happens with these companions, leaving any reader curious and wanting to find out what particularly happened in certain adventures and how they responded to the Doctor’s reactions. Andy gives enough information to help a reader develop an interest for the many companions, and leaves enough room for them to create opinions for themselves, especially about the more interesting companions (my favourites being Leela, Romana, Nyssa, Tegan, Peri and Ace).

Up to the end of the Seventh Doctor, the end of the original twenty-six-year run, the Expanded Universe entries have not been as gripping as the chapters on the TV show, until he gets to Ace. Andy explains how Ace is one of the most storied companions ever, living at least three different lives and he goes into great detail about each of these stories. He looks at Ace’s journeys in The New Adventures, Big Finish, and the story Ground Zero. It is Andy’s description in these particular stories that first made me consider looking at the Expanded Universe as well as the TV show, curious to see how other writers perceive and adapt the many companions of Doctor Who. My curiosity for the Expanded Universe grew further when Andy came to talk about the adventures of the Eighth Doctor, who, apart from the 1996 TV movie, was only featured in the Expanded Universe, which helped to keep the story alive from 1997 – 2005 before it’s return on TV. Andy divides this chapter into three key sections, In Prose, On Audio, and In Comics. In this chapter we meet new companions that never appear on screen and, considering this, I am thinking of looking for the stories that feature these companions after watching the TV show, just to fully understand those that helped the story of Doctor Who stay alive in the eight years off air.

This brings us to 2005 and the Nu Who. I remember watching the first episode as it aired on TV and thinking that this show was an interesting idea. However, as the episodes continued I slowly lost interest, only watching an episode every now and then, before stopping completely when David Tennant became the Tenth Doctor. Andy’s entries on the companions of the three Doctors of Nu Who have filled me in on what I missed and I must say I am sorry that I did. His entry of Rose with the Ninth Doctor reminded me of the episodes I had watched and revealed the ones I missed, sparking my interest in Doctor Who all over again. 

The chapter for the Tenth Doctor is the longest in the book looking at five different companions in huge detail, revealing more about the families of the companions than those of the first eight Doctors. The show seems to have become more about the companions and their lives rather than the Doctor’s, giving Andy much more to write about and he engages the readers through his simple structure following the companions in the order they appear in the show, some companions, such as Donna and Captain Jack have more than one entry having left the show and returning later. By the time I reached the chapters on the Eleventh Doctor, I have to say I felt sad that I was coming to the end of Andy’s guide having been fully caught up in Doctor Who. As Gary Russell says in the Foreword the viewers identify with the companions of the show and aspire to be them so they can help the Doctor, I feel that Andy brings this across and any reader can easily relate to the companions he talks about. He leaves the Expanded Universe of the last three Doctor’s till the last chapter, merging all three, and even writes an extract about the Brigadier who helps the Doctor in some of his adventures working for UNIT. Any reader can tell that Andy has thoroughly researched Doctor Who, watching every episode and exploring the Expanded Universe so he can write a truthful, detailed guide to every companion. He even writes about spin-off shows that focus on particular companions, such as The Sarah Jane Adventures, K9 & Company and Torchwood (the last looks at the story of Captain Jack). 

Waterstone's Signing - Image Copyright Steve Upham

Andy has worked extremely hard and I can say it has been a success, because he has made at least one reader want to watch Doctor Who and look at the Expanded Universe characters as well, so well done Andy.

I would recommend the book to anyone, be they fans or, like me, willing to be convinced. It is worth it.

Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is available from all good book stockists or directly from Candy Jar Publishing for only £8.99 + p&p.

http://www.candy-jar.co.uk/books/companions.html