Schoolteachers in Love: He’s Doctor Who’s elder statesman
now and to exclude him in the 50th anniversary would be a crime that
Big Finish seems unwilling to let pass. Hopefully the TV series will follow
suit because any special that promises to make a fanyboy’s heart sing would be
incomplete on this most special of occasions without William Russell’s
involvement. As well as conjuring up the magic of those early years as soon as
he opens his mouth, he’s also an extremely good actor that gives so much of
himself to every production. I fear the day when he is no longer with us and am
very grateful that we have been able to keep hold of and enjoy the continuing
work of such a phenomenal actor.
Ian is a firm Sunderland supporter and a patriot but if
asked who he supports he chuckles at the thought that he could now reply with
the question ‘which planet?’ Ever since school Ian’s hero had always
been Elizabeth’s crafty sea Captain, Sir Francis Drake, the man who beat the
Spanish fleet. Its all very well to be told that they cannot get involved in
history but seeing people being brutally beaten and their houses burnt down is
more than Ian can take and his natural desire to protect people overrides his
common sense. He’s been locked up so many times now that Ian can compare prison
cells. He had been raised as Church of England but cannot dare admit that in
such a disturbingly intolerant society. Absurdly when Ian is on Death Row he
keeps thinking about the post that will gather on his doorstep back home if he
never returns, and the fifth form homework that he never marked. It strikes me
as a realistic run of thoughts when in such a dire situation, turning to the
ridiculous. You would think that after previous lessons that Ian would learn
not to want to meet his heroes but the chance to hook up with Sir Francis Drake
is too irresistible. Since he had left London he has developed a taste for
adventure, it had become addictive.
Who needs a guidebook when they have such an expert? Barbara
had been on holiday to Spain in 1962 and so has the most experience with the
country. I love it when the first Doctor is being charming to Barbara, they
have such a fascinating and heart-warming relationship on screen (after some
initial bumps which makes it all the more rewarding) that its wonderful to see
that extended to audio. Barbara is so deeply hurt by Ian’s arrest that she
cannot bear to have Susan attempting to calm her nerves. There is a gorgeous
moment between Ian and Barbara when they are reunited after his attempted
execution where she refuses to give him a hard time for getting involved and
shares his passion for wanting to help people. Their travels have really
changed them, they no longer just want to get to the safety of the TARDIS and
get back to 1963. They really want to make a difference. How do women always
know what you are planning before you do? Barbara and Susan agree not to reveal
the Doctor’s error to Ian because despite the fact that he could do with being
brought down a peg or two it would ultimately do no good.
Hmm: The Doctor owns a rather fetching panama and is
concerned for the welfare of his fellow passengers. He likes to lecture Susan
on historical detail even when she knows he is no authority on the subject. The
Doctor takes on the guise of a religious authority figure to try and affect
Ian’s escape, pre-empting the doppelganger drama of The Massacre. Susan fears
that he might be enjoying this role a little too much! He emanates authority
and holds out his ringed finger for the Inquisitor to kiss. The Doctor begs
that if he is to die, he desperately doesn’t want Susan to see. When he learns
that Ian has slipped away to meet Sir Francis Drake and manipulate history he
is appalled, believing they have learnt nothing from their previous excursions
into history. Susan thinks he is just being spiteful by attempting to sabotage
Ian’s plans and I really liked the injection of tension between them after the
horrors of the flames had brought them so close together. The Doctor is forced
to suffer the indignity of sitting atop a slack old mule to Cadiz who
deliberately chooses the bumpiest part of the road to walk on! When the Doctor
accuses Ian and Barbara of patriotically attempting to swing history in
Britain’s favour she turns the tables in the argument, calling him
insufferable, arrogant and utterly condescending. He has made a terrible
mistake, getting the year of their arrival wrong and failing to realise that
Ian is trying to keep history on track and not change things. He learns that
the truth is so disappointing, wanting desperately to meet the Sir Francis
Drake that he had mythologised in his head rather than the stubborn and boorish
man in reality.
An Unearthly Child: Susan thinks it is her job to look after
her Grandfather and never likes leaving him. Funny, he thinks the same thing
about her. She finds herself posing as a boy, abandoning her grandfather and
facing Barbara’s accusations…it was one of those days on a knife edge. Platt
hints at Susan’s burgeoning sexuality as she takes a shine to one of the actors
much to the Doctor’s chargin. Sometimes knowing the future is a curse.
Standout Performance: One of the most disturbing scenes in
recent memory (up there with the climax of Protect and Survive) comes in The
Flames of Cadiz as Ian screams in horror when he realises that Barbara and
Susan are pushing to the front of the crowd to witness the public burning of
him and the Doctor. William Russell imbues the scene with such helplessness as
he screams for the two girls to go away, to not witness their deaths that I had
goosebumps running up and down my body. Its horrifyingly emotional. He’s near
hysterical and I was too.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘The almighty will judge them once they
have been arrested.’
‘Why else do the Holy Fathers gather trouble makers to feed
their fires?’
‘That’s what this was all about, wasn’t it? Humiliation and
despair for believing in the wrong thing…’
‘We may travel free of the bonds of time and place but that
liberty comes at a price.’
‘You and Chesterton have wrecked the Earth’s history
forever!’
‘I am God’s soldier! The scourge of our Catholic enemies!’
‘You are a madman, Doctor. Admirably so.’
Great Ideas: Which side are you on? As Ian so rightly
explains the side that you choose often boils down to circumstances,
demographics and moral decisions. Its both subjective and relative. Do you ever
remember a time when your world was only a few streets long because I certainly
do? This was a time when Doctor Who could afford to have its characters wander
around a market place and take in the sights and smells of history without
there being an alien menace to fight within a minute. Where they could
transport you back in time through the sheer joy of having contemporary
characters get lost in the atmosphere of the past. The Spanish Catholics hate
the Protestants for execution Queen Mary and Spain and England will soon be at
war, the Armada due. There’s no smoke without fire, some of the rumours about
the Spanish Inquisition must be true to have spread the chill of fear to the
future. Ian says something very profound when he is brought to explain for his
sacrilegious crimes…no matter what he says would be useless because some
authority figures in religious groups only see what they want to see and discard
the rest. I love the assertion of paradise being denied to a man over something
as absurd as money, the church using their position for materialistic purposes
and ex-communicating people if they cannot get their way. The Grand Inquisitor
is described by Ian as a blood soaked old leech and is introduced with a
certain amount of gravity and fanfare. When the Catholics are committing
terrible acts against him and his friend Ian has to remind himself that the
reverse is true back in England. Everybody is capable of committing atrocities
in the name of something they believe in. Taking its inspiration from Marco
Polo, the TARDIS is loaded onto a cart bound for Cadiz with the Doctor and
Susan in tow. Grippingly the story becomes a race against time between the
Doctor and Ian to determine whether history remains on its right course or not.
You’ve never seen the Doctor so determined to stop his friend from making such
a terrible mistake. In a gorgeous twist of fate the Doctor’s actions to prevent
Ian making a mistake see him making a bigger one, warning the King’s secretary
of the planned raid on Cadiz.
Audio Landscape: There are certain names that really stand
out in the sound design/music business (Steve Foxon, Jamie Robertson, Fool
Circle) and Toby Hrycek-Robinson is definitely up there with the best. I was
just saying to my friend Paul the other day how Big Finish seems to have
assembled a pretty peerless selection of sound designers and musicians that
make their audios a constant delight on the ear and Hrycek-Robinson first came
to my attention when he so exquisitely brought Katy Manning’s one woman Drama
Showcase, Not a Well Woman, to life and I knew straight away that Big Finish
had someone very capable in their midst. Market scenes, a bugle sounding, marching
boots, kicking in the door, screams, crackling flames, Ian knocked to the
ground, chains clanking, church bells sounding, the monks singing, a jeering
crowd, cracking whips, screams, crackling fire, victims burning to death, a
horse and cart, a scratchy old fountain pen, the screeching old mule, seagulls,
gunshot, fighting, the creaking ship, a biting wind, drums rolling, clashing
steel, a massive explosion, a panicked crowd, splashing into water. They manage
to pull off a massive action set piece on audio at the climax the likes of
which conjures up the sort of production values that embraced Pearl Harbour
and Saving Private Ryan.
Standout Scene: I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it
again…why is it that the danger feels more real when the travellers are trapped
in Earth’s history? The first two episodes build up an atmosphere of doom as
Ian is arrested and charged with heresy. The Doctor comes up with a brilliant
(and theatrical) plan to rescue him and everything seems to be going swimmingly
until he is brought before the terrifying Inquisitor. The final scene of
episode two features Ian being paraded to his death and as a sign of just how
badly things have gone the Doctor is shoved into view in torn and dishevelled
robes to share his friends fate on a burning pyre. Its one of the grimmest
cliffhangers in memory and an unforgettable moment of tension at the heart of
the story.
Notes: Susan mentions an adventure in Peking during the
Boxer Rebellion and I cannot imagine that this is simply a throwaway reference
but a strong hint of a future companion chronicle.
Result: Mythology, spoofing and casual expressions have
softened the terrifying implications of the Spanish Inquisition and the efforts
of Sir Francis Drake (the Butterfly Effect, Monty Python). Marc Platt uses that
archival security to shock the audience by shoving the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and
Susan in the middle of the dramatic events that took place and reminding us
that it was a violent and bloody time where nobody was safe. He taps into the
same terror and claustrophobia that Steve Lyons did in his unforgettable
exploration of the Salem witch trials, The Witch Hunters, and matches the
feeling of helplessness against the tide of historical ignorance that is thrown
at the travellers. The first half of the story deals with Ian’s arrest for
heresy and his near execution and the second half takes on a much more
ambitious stance, dealing with the oncoming British invasion. The way this
swings from the intimate to the ambitious means that the story never flags and
there is plenty of plot to be spread across the double disc release. The
characterisation of the regulars is excellent and authentic to what took place
on screen; Ian and Barbara have great affection for each other and prove to the
Doctor that they have learnt that history bites back, Susan’s sexuality is
starting to emerge and the Doctor veers between cheeky irreverence and grave
intensity. I preferred the first half which brewed up an intense and stifling
atmosphere, the latter half focussing more on mind games and adventuring but
the script is packed with gorgeous lines and scenes and the production sparkles
throughout, planting you well and truly into the action. William Russell
continues to shine (see the Standout Performance section for one of my
favourite ever Big Finish acting moments) and Carole Ann Ford acquits herself
well (although her Hartnell lacks conviction). The Flames of Cadiz brews up a
potent atmosphere and is a terrific reminder of how gorgeous those early historicals
were. It’s an authentic tale and a great way to start the 50th
anniversary year: 9/10
3 comments:
Joe
A great review - and completely agree with your thoughts.
I love the now annual treat of these double-disc Hartnell cc's, and this is the best yet.
A very well plotted story that could have easily fitted into the early historicals - complete with the sometimes unpleasant threats of violence (and, indeed, violence itself).
Carole Ann Ford's First Doctor can be a bit annoying, but that is a small negative amongst so much postitive stuff.
David
Hi David, the double disc Hartnell companion chronicles have become something of a regular treat, haven't they? This is has been my favourite so far simply for the spine chilling first half. William Russell never ceases to amaze me, the amount of passion he injects in his performance.
I've got to say that this one left me a little empty inside. I never felt that the theme of "choosing sides based on where home is" was properly developed. We saw a lot of bad things about the Spanish Inquisition but what we saw from the British paled in comparison. Equivalence was never really found.
Don't get me wrong, the first two episodes are fantastic but then to extend to four we have to believe that Ian who has just been whipped which would have left deep, bloody rents in his back, would have been both healthy enough and insane enough to seek out Francis Drake. Even if he was a childhood herom and even if he was healthy enough to do so, the Ian of the TV series was never so reckless with the lives of the rest of the the crew. I also don't buy that Barbara would have been so foolish to stay with a Spanish loyalist once they found out he was involved with the armada. They'd have gone back to the Ship as they always tried to do whenever there was danger in the original show.
I really wish this one would have been a two-parter because I think that would have made a far stronger story.
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