What’s
it about: A long time
ago, two travellers came from far away... In the perfumed palace of an omnipotent Sultan, a girl must
tell stories to keep the man she cares about from a cruel and horrible death.
She spins tales of distant lands she has visited with a mysterious traveller,
of fabulous creatures and fantastic adventures – and of a blue box that can
travel in time and space. Meanwhile, in the dungeons below the throne room,
there lurks a secret which will bring down the kingdom – perhaps even the
universe. Can the Doctor and Nyssa escape from
this never-ending story before the final chapter spells their end?
An English Gentleman: The Doctor is no stranger to prison
cells. He’s still promising his companions visits to poetic sounding landscapes
and instead delivering them to squalid hellholes (think Invasion of the
Dinosaurs/Death to the Daleks). The Doctor remembers a planet where everyone
told jokes…I bet that was a gas. When the ‘Sultan’ embodies the Doctor, he
wants to find a location where he can prove himself in the role. He has
completely misunderstood the motives of the character, he doesn’t try find a
place where he can big himself up and find justification in his meddling.
Instead the TARDIS takes him where he needs to be (The Doctor’s Wife) and he
does the best he can. The details are there but the emphasis is all wrong and
that is why he could never be the Doctor.
Alien Orphan: There is such a massive gulf between Sarah
Sutton on the television and Sarah Sutton on audio that it is well worth
exploring out the comparison between the two. On television she was the
strongest member of the cast (her Doctor aside) but was consistently sidelined
and kept on the periphery of the plots, afforded little development and often
only given a larger role in the lesser stories (I love Black Orchid but its
certainly generated its detractors of late, Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity).
Sutton found moments where she could but was often fighting against an unsympathetic
script editor and writers who it felt weren’t happy to deal with the
consequences of her debut story despite the constant reminders of it in the
Master’s annual return. On audio the character has found two champions in Gary
Russell and Nicholas Briggs (particularly the latter who speaks very fondly of
the character and the actress) and Nyssa been afforded a wealth of stories that
show not only how the character was hardly exploited but its also been a real
opportunity for Sutton to cut her teeth on some challenging material and prove
what she is made of (which turns out to be stern stuff). She’s taken on
everything from high drama (Spare Parts) to romance (Circular Time) to comedy
(Castle of Fear) and barely broken a sweat. Sutton often chooses to underplay
the role which has the paradoxical effect of making her performance stand out
even more. If in the last few years she has been forced to share the limelight
with Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson again, the chemistry between the actors
has been brewing for the past twenty years so there is something very sparky
about it nowadays. Plus the writers ensure to never write out Nyssa as she used
to suffer on the box, on the contrary; now she’s older, wiser and in command of
events. In every way Big Finish has realised the potential of this character
and can only hope that with releases like 1001 Nights that they continue to do
so.
Imagine if Nyssa had been given material as passionate as
this? The Doctor suggests Nyssa was lucky to grow up in the harmony of the
Traken union and to not be exposed to the horrors that lie beyond but I would
disagree with that assessment. Embraced in such a passive society made Nyssa
quite spineless and its only since she has taken her steps into the darker,
less inviting universe beyond that she has really found herself. I wondered why
there was such a high pitched effect added to the voice of the villainess in
the second tale that Nyssa spins until I realised that it in fact was Nyssa who
has succumbed to madness. This places her in the uncomfortable spot of
understanding that madness that took control of her father and helping her come
to terms with the fact that the Master really isn’t the man she knew. Given
that Nyssa is behaving good and loopy it gives Sarah Sutton the chance to go
insanely over the top which must be extremely freeing after reigning it as
Nyssa for so many years. She’s proven to have a ruthless intelligence, playing
along with the Sultan’s desire for stories when she has in fact been
distracting him in order for the Doctor to escape.
Standout Performance: I was perfectly convinced that Kim
Ismay’s performance as Lottie the husky voiced old soak was one of the least
convincing I have ever heard. Praise be when she turns out to be an
aristocratic sort putting on a dreadful accent! Suddenly its one of the best
performances in the story! ‘I can’t help thinking, Doctor that Lottie made a
lot more sense when she was mad!’ Its always a pleasure to listen to
Alexander Siddig (Sisters of the Flame, The Wreck of the Titan) and I hope its
only a matter of time before Big Finish has the chutzpah to offer him the role
as a companion. Playing an English gentleman about town (think Herbert from
Timelash without the buffoonery) he and Sixie (and possibly Flip) would make a
great combination. Alex gets the chance to play both the villain and the Doctor
in this story, which is a real treat for any actor. Imagine…just imagine
if the scene where Sid completely takes on the role of the Doctor and heads off
with Nyssa in the TARDIS was the cliffhanging final scene of the story? Now
that would be taking a real risk (a bit like the climax of the DWM strip
The Final Chapter where Nick Briggs emerges as the Doctor or a Mawdryn Undead
where Tegan and Nyssa are genuinely convinced that David Collings is the
Doctor).
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘A curious world is it not when
criminals are kinder than those supposed to protect one from criminals!’
‘If he thinks he’s not a monster than chances are he wont
behave like one.’
‘What a wonderful butler…of course he’s terribly attached to
you’ – for the sheer nerve of the line. Of course for a Davison slant on this
famous Tom Baker line he is portrayed as being far less flippant and, well,
nicer.
‘There’s only one Doctor’ – a worthy message, albeit one
that was made better in the story of the same name.
Great Ideas: Opening in stringent melodramatic terms like a
Doctor Who take on Aladdin, 1001 Nights wears its inspiration on its
sleeve from its very first scene. It turns out its Nyssa telling as story to
the Sultan and thus it gives the actors the opportunity to get as into the
spirit of the thing as they like. The anthology format isn’t exactly a fresh
approach by Big Finish any more and so they cannot peddle the idea as a fresh
one when the success of Circular Time has been repeated many times since its
release. To that end there is a Companion Chronicles style framing device where
Nyssa has to tell to stories (potentially 1001!) to the Sultan to keep him
amused and she has a wealth of adventure to draw inspiration from. It’s a great
way of putting Nyssa centre stage and completely justifies the format and also
has the effect of making the audience question how much of the what we are
hearing is true and how much is apocryphal. The Myaxa created an Empire, an
alliance such as the universe had never before witnessed with over 10,000
worlds united in peace and prosperity and then plunged into war as if they were
so much pieces on a board game. Thousands of planets are now little more than
lifeless rocks. I love stories that focus on the identity of a character
(probably my favourite example would be DS9’s Duet which powered a stunning
drama with the mystery of who a character turned out to be) and the first tale
on this set splits the Doctor and Nyssa up and has them both pair up with a
character who accuses the other of being this evil war criminal. It’s a fresh
approach on an old idea, the Myaxa had a split personality and one half started
the war and the other tried to end it. Don’t whatever you do listen to part two
if you are feeling tired…there are plenty of scenes of hysterical wailing that
will rouse you from your slumber with a quickening heart! I love a little self
critique and the Sultan’s comments on the ending of Nyssa’s second tale being underwhelming
was a feeling I shared…so thankfully she continues a little further. I love the
idea of stories being a method of payment on a planet…given my overactive
imagination (I’m always being criticised for embellishing a rather boring tale
to make it a bit more exciting!) I’m sure I would do rather well there! The
Shanaki have a very special gift in that given enough information they can
steal another persons psyche, quite literally become another person. When the
raggedy old man in the cell swore he was the Sultan in his palace how we all
laughed…until in the stories best twist it turned out he was the Sultan the man
on the throne that Nyssa is telling her stories to is an alien imposter! It
wants to become the Doctor so it can steal the TARDIS. At the same time he is
exploiting her knowledge of the Doctor to build a picture of him so he can
embody his personality.
Audio Landscape: Growling rock monster, giggling, running
water in the cell, an electric chair, footsteps, screaming patient, jumping wardrobe,
ticking clock, lashing rain, thunder, crackling fire, the hush of creatures in
the undergrowth, a rocky beach in the sky.
Musical Cues: How can I lavish any more praise on Jamie
Robertson without starting sound like a stalker? Delivering consistent quality
music, he does much to bolster the weaker moments of 1001 Nights. I love his
exotic instruments for the faux Indian sequences and there was a moment of
fanboy glee where he channelled Roger Limb’s plinky plonky Keeper of Traken
theme when Nyssa talked about her adventures with the fourth Doctor. The chase
music in the final episode is delightful; mysterious and exciting.
Isn’t it Odd: I love the idea of a split personality playing
out his mental torment on a grand scale with thousands of planets. Its such a
strong, dramatic idea that it’s a shame that we have to explore it so quickly
in this anthology when (frankly) it is superior to a fair few of the premises
that have had in the Main Range this year. The fact that 1001 Nights is Nyssa
recalling stories from her point of view it is hard to take tales such as the
second one without a pinch of salt considering she doesn’t join the narrative
until it is almost over. Are we to assume that the Doctor informed her of all
of the events that took place that she is just making this all up? It does seem
strange that since these are stories being spun by Nyssa that they aren’t a
little less generic than they turn out to be – it’s a chance to churn out
something truly outlandish and out there but instead her factual recalling of
the tales exactly as they were means there is little room for embellishment or
an overstretched imagination. I can only imagine what Paul Magrs would do with
this premise (actually, I don’t need to…I just have to go and listen to Ringpullworld!).
The focus on newfangled teabags in the second tale really points out its
importance to the plot, had the Doctor just made a hot drink without all the
embellish comments this get-out clause might have been slipped in a tad more
invisibly. Why a story with such an intriguing premise as stories having
monetary value should wind up as a run-around adventure that fails to exploit
the literate possibilities inherent in that foundation baffles me. Its less
about the society which evolved in this imaginative fashion and more about the
(unimpressive) characters and their greed for stories. As an example of how the
fake Sultan fails as a fake Doctor having an innocent victim banging on the
TARDIS and screaming ‘you can’t leave - the monsters are coming back!’
has little subtlety. An irritating quirk that has slipped into Big Finish over
the past five years is the repeated use of ‘it took place over many years’ as
far as the Doctor is concerned. Not content with fleshing out his tenure with
the wealth of audio adventures they have produced, there are now acres of
stories that have taken place in the years within individual stories too. Talk
about stretching a piece of elastic! It was bold one, perhaps innovative twice
but now it has been done to death. 1001 Nights is only the latest example.
Standout Scene: Its worth getting hold of this release just
to listen to the scene where the Doctor has to exorcise Nyssa…although I warn
you if you prefer your Who subtle and shaded then I would steer clear. ‘The
power of Rassilon compels you! The power of Omega compels you!’
Result: 1001 Nights is an odd release in that there is a lot
of good in it but it doesn’t quite come together as spectacularly as I think it
was hoping for. The framing device is very clever but has an adverse effect of
making the individual stories more throwaway than they need be because I wanted
to get back to what was being pitched as the central storyline. Each individual
segment has much to recommend it but every one is weighed down by flaws – the
first tale has a superb premise but it feels wasted on such an economic piece
of storytelling, the second does some fine things with Nyssa but feels a little
generic in tone and its plotting and the third tells tales within tales but
doesn’t really do anything truly imaginative with the potentially subversive
concept of chronicles as currency. The best story is the scattered segments set
in India, a bonus feature if you like which coalesces in the final episode and
ends the release on a high. There are some subversions along the way and even a
handful of laugh out loud moments and the whole piece reeks of entertainment.
Its just not demanding or intellectual enough to really engage you so it
only works on a switch your brain off level. If this is your first Big Finish
ever you will probably be blown away with how enjoyable it is but after 15
years of audio adventures I think that even the producers themselves would
admit that this isn’t one of their finest collections. 1001 Nights is a
perfectly fine audio release with plenty of decent content but it compares
unfavourably with Circular Time which really pushed the boat out to be
something different and attention grabbing. However I’m adding an extra point
for more solo Sarah Sutton because it doesn’t happen enough these days and
because she continues to impress me with every release: 7/10
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