Aggressive Astronaut: Oh Peter Purves (yes I am saying that
with a long, satisfied sigh). I was just thinking the other day that the number
of companions that have travelled with the Doctor across the various mediums is
growing out of hand. Its hard to keep track of them all. There was a time when
you could happily recite the 30 odd television companions but if you were to
venture into the comics, audios and novels as well you could be there all day.
The crowd has expanded to such an extent that its only the really strong ones
that stick in my mind permanently and the less impressive examples fall away
unless I am watching or reviewing one of their stories. Steven Taylor is still,
even after almost 50 years of intervening companions, one of my all time
favourites. He’s often neglected because so many of his best stories have
bitten the dust visually (The Myth Makers, The Daleks’ Masterplan and The
Massacre form a trio of masterpieces nestled comfortably in season three) but
if you take the time to work your way through his manifest of episodes you will
find an astonishingly vivid character played by a surprisingly (only in the
sense that his acting career didn’t really take off afterwards) versatile and
nuanced actor. He managed to work his way through four female assistants and
still keep his post, he managed to wrestle screen time away from the lead actor
(at that was more a necessity) and hold his own and he proved adept at both
high drama and bawdy comedy and everything that came in between. And just
listen to Purves on the special features of these discs. He loves doing these
stories, he’s gifted with some of the best scripts that Big Finish has to offer
and he is frankly one of the finest audio actors that the company has. I really
don’t have a bad word to say about either the character or the actor except
that I have to wait too long between new stories featuring him (whereas someone
like Sophie Aldred fills the schedules with irritating frequency).
Proving that there was much more room for the companions to
go on a journey in the sixties than in later decades of the classic series, the
Steven Taylor companion chronicles always seem to be well placed in his
timeline to co-incide with a dramatic or traumatic event. We’ve heard him
getting over the death of Sara Kingdom, meet a new friend in Oliver and now its
time to experience the moment when he decides to stop wandering and to lay down
some roots. We’ve had a handful of stories refer back to his time as an
astronaut now, emphasising that he had a life (but not much of one) before
meeting the Doctor. Steven takes quite a beating in the hands of Van Cleef
which isn’t as anachronistic as it might seem. This is a season that features
four stories that climax with mass murder (The Myth Makers, The Daleks’
Masterplan, The Massacre and The Gunfighters). His knees exploding when greeted
by Van Cleef’s bullets is really nasty and it takes three months before he was
able to walk again. After all his months in Russia (see Mother Russia) Steven
had almost started to feel settled and it had given him a taste for building a
life for himself. He’s been many things already…a cadet, a pilot, a soldier,
even Steven Regret – tenor! This is close enough to Steven’s time for him to be
able meet somebody from his past and the sudden death of his old acquaintance
is another loss in his travels with the Doctor. And this time closer to home.
He’d lost so many friends and makes the choice to make a stand and refuse to
lose Dodo too. The Doctor doesn’t even try to talk him out of going after the
Rocket Men, he knows by now that the ex-astronaut is a very determined man.
Fitton sees fit to have Steven explain in some detail the technology he is
using to reach Dodo and the others, exposing his knowledge of the time. Even
the technobabble has something to say about the characters in this story. His
excitement at being back in the seat of the ships he has flown his whole life
is quite exhilarating. The colony world is called Taylor’s Stand, the beginning
of a civilisation that will all know his name. Its no less than he deserves but
he selflessly hands that honour onto Ford who died protecting the colony. Man,
I love Steven. He has become used to looking after the Doctor, comfortable, but
he thinks its nearly time to leave him because he has begun asking the question
of when is the right time to go.
Hmm: Many a first Doctor companion chronicle has seen the
titular character reveal a tender and sensitive understanding of human
behaviour. He understood that Ian and Barbara were growing more intimate on The
Rocket Men, he urged Steven to enjoy his time with Sara in The Anachronauts and
here he implores Steven to allow Dodo to revel in the joy of his birthday. Its
not often that they get to have genial pauses in their adventures. It’s a side
of him that I really like and would have loved to have seen Hartnell play more
of on screen (his scene with Vicki at the beginning of The Time Meddler shows
how excellent he was at that sort of thing). The Doctor is sensible enough to
order the colonist to let the Rocket Men take the supplies because they are
replaceable but the colonists aren’t. I always got the impression that by the
time Steven left the Doctor he considered his companion as an equal. They had
shared many wonders together, and much tragedy. Their parting in The Savages is
one of the more understated examples and all the more touching for it. The
Doctor can see that Steven has matured beyond the point of travelling and needs
to settle down. Matt Fitton taps into that mutual respect between the two
characters in his tale. He expresses his pride in the boy at the end of this
tale and acknowledges that he can walk away to a more deserving life with his
blessings at any time.
Dead as a…: I enjoy the stories (few and far between that
they are) that feature Dodo because it continues Big Finish; rehabilitation of
some of the lesser loved companions. Fitton has got her spot on here, in your
face, socially painless and full of misguided enthusiasm. Naturally she is far
more excited about Steven’s birthday than he is. Purves’ portmanteau accent for
the girl is as spot on as his intense curiosity for the first Doctor.
Standout Performance: As good as Tim Treloar is, Purves is too attention grabbing to notice anybody else. He narrates in such a skilful, unassuming way too. A truly gifted actor.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Time is relative. Birthdays are for
relatives. And friends.’
‘It took a certain type of person to give up everything for
a life with no guarantees. They were brave, foolhardy even but I respected
them. Pioneers, extending the reach of the human race.’
‘The day I was born and the day I’d die…’
‘He leaves a silver smear across the black sky as he heads
for the stars…’
Great Ideas: The Rocket Men are such a gorgeous retro idea.
Very of the sixties when such ambitious ideas were in evidence and yet
contemporary too in how they afford the opportunity for some gloriously visual
set pieces that never could have been realised at the time. They like raiding
colony worlds most because they are on the back foot from the start with no
shelter, no protection worth a damn and a steady stream of supplies. The Rocket
Men aren’t just a danger to those that they want to plunder from, new recruits
are disposable as well if they don’t live up to their potential. You get the
feeling that the space pirates from the Troughton era tale of the same name
were supposed to be this vicious and unrelenting but the show never quite had
the balls to push it that far. This story features the rarest of things; a
triumphant, uplifting cliffhanger, one that sees Steven put on Ramirez’s
spacesuit and head to for destiny. The original Rocket Men story had a
similarly winning pause between episodes. The Doctors at the medical centre
assumed that for some reason Steven had shot out his own knees…how right they
were. Van Cleef picking up the narration after Steven’s ‘death’ feels
unobtrusive because he has shared that duty with him throughout the tale. The
imagery of a dead recruit coming back to life to avenge his casual murder is
marvellous.
Audio Landscape: Alarms, ships firing, consoles flaring,
footsteps on gravel, the windy surface of the colony world, screaming.
Musical Cues: As usual the music for the companion
chronicles kicks ass until it turns from pain to pleasure (erm…).
Standout Scene: The first sequence featuring Steven before
he met the Doctor being attacked by the Rocket Men is a gripping introduction
to the story. Like Purves my first thought was where on Earth was Fitton going
with this but as soon as a mysterious benefactor in a cracked helmet saved his
life I had a strong inkling that it might be Steven from the future. That
didn’t matter one iota when it came to playing out the same scene again from
our Steven’s point of view during the climax because Fitton found a fresh
perspective on events through the older mans eyes. In fact it was even better
the second time around because Steven was willing to sacrifice to make sure
that his younger self gets to travel with the Doctor and see all those amazing
thins. If you do go into the story guessing the identity of the masked Rocket
Man then it makes the way the story falls into place in the second episode even
more exciting, leading the audience back to the same point. Its brilliantly
structured from both angles and the pay off is extraordinary. Its not the
satisfying use of Dodo’s gift that makes this scene so special, it’s the
decision that Steven comes to and the peace that he feels having reached it. It
says a great deal about what he has been through in the past few years and
contributes greatly towards his choice to leave in The Savages. Rarely has a
suicide mission been loaded with such optimism.
Result: Listening to the first ten minutes of Return of the
Rocket Men I could have sworn that it was written by Simon Guerrier. Its that
good. Whilst I would never take away from Guerrier’s obvious scripting
abilities it becomes clear that much of the atmosphere of his best companion
chronicles is the work of director Lisa Bowerman and sound technician and
musician extraordinaire Howard Carter. This is Matt Fitton’s third script for
Big Finish and its his finest work yet, proving that he can mix the intimate
and the exciting with genuine potency. Big Finish has had a good record of
discovering strong scriptwriters during their experimental anthologies and
Fitton has emerged as the strongest of late and I am really happy to see his
name cropping up more in the schedules. The first Doctor companion chronicles
remind me just how perfectly formed the characters were back in the monochrome
pioneering days of Doctor Who and Steven once again emerges as someone very
special. There’s a Colony in Space feel to the first episode but its told with
far more fluidity, personality and exhilaration whilst still capturing its
essence. The Rocket Men make another unforgettable appearance and I hope the
chat about a third story to feature them in the interviews at the end wasn’t
just a throwaway joke. They come with a real sense of danger and a promise of
violence, intimidating in a way that so many Doctor Who villains fail to
achieve. All these treats and another astonishing turn from Peter Purves who
once again eases you into the story with consummate skill and provides many
dramatic and personal moments that absolutely hit the mark. This range
continues to deliver and Fitton’s sequel proves to be more than worthy to
follow in the footsteps of John Dorney’s original Rocket Men tale: 10/10
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