Physician, Heal Thyself: Planet of the Ogrons puts the Doctor in the same situation as the third Doctor in The Curse of Peladon, meeting up with an old foe but in a apparently kinder new guise. McGann is much gentler a performer than Pertwee so he plays the suspicion less obviously, but there is an element of once bitten, twice shy to the Doctor here that I rather enjoyed exploring. Is somebody capable of this much change? It’s possible. Does the universe usually work in his favour that way? Not on your life. Half the fun of this story is to see if he is right or not. I like the idea that because of both the Time War and the paradox that fuelled the original story, the Doctor’s recollection of Day of the Daleks is hazy.
Bless Bliss: Bliss doesn’t expect judgemental behaviour from the Doctor. There’s a nice conversation between Bliss and Ogron Doctor (couldn’t they have thought up a better name for him than that?) about faith and we learn that she is an atheist. It’s the best scene for Bliss yet, not over stressed or melodramatic. Just two people learning about each other.
The Twelve: The Doctor declares The Twelve as one of the most dangerous villains in the universe but then he usually says that about all his long-term foes so I’m not sure it’s worth just nodding and smiling at him and perhaps taking them at face value. It looks like everybody is turning into women these days, a new take on regeneration promoted by the New Series and taken up by Big Finish. I’m not surprised, regeneration whilst still being a brilliant concept is also one that has been exhausted by various mediums and so I’m not surprised that a fresh spin on the idea is being capitalised on. And having an actress of the calibre of Julia McKenzie playing The Twelve is always going to be good news. I was never that keen on the Eleven as a character because I felt he devolved far too often into pantomime villainy and ranting and so to bring McKenzie as a complete contrast (but with all the weight of the history that the Doctor has with the previous incarnation of this character) gives the character an engaging new lease of life. I mean, who doesn’t love a kind old lady? What’s not to trust? She has a neural inhibitor, which means she has full control over her other selves who were getting far too unruly for their own good. They are locked away where they can’t do any harm. Eight was the exception to prove the rule, sweet and calm. Her previous selves might have been maniacs but they had plenty of skills and the Time Lords wanted to utilise those skills in their war effort. There’s not a prison, a cell or a surgical table that can hold her.
Standout Performance: How fun was McKenzie’s take on the various personalities of the Twelve? She’s such a skilled performer that she managed to give each personality a very distinct voice. You can distort his voice all you like, you simply cannot disguise Nicholas Briggs. Perhaps we’ve reached a point where somebody else should get to play with the Daleks and their offshoots. His voice is far too easily recognisable now after so much exposure in countless roles.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You called a Lord President of Gallifrey, Fred?’
‘You are an insult to the Dalek race!’
‘Base go boom!’
Great Ideas: The opening raises a lot of questions: what has happened to turn the Doctor into an Ogron? I thought it was only Star Trek that did that sort of thing, turning their regulars into species they aren’t native to. Regeneration can throw up some unexpected surprises, but the Doctor has never heard of a Time Lord shifting species during the change. Is it possible to protect troops from the effects of temporal fallout? Ogrons are a blunt weapon, hired muscle, what would the Daleks want to do with them? Because the Daleks are altering their timeline (and the Doctor’s) there are several versions of events that occurred in previous stories. That’s almost a default excuse now if continuity is handled erroneously. The Daleks are dangerous but they’re not suicidal. They weight up the details and the risks in changing the timelines and only nip and tuck if it is in their favour and the consequences aren’t too severe. The Hybrid is a manifest of other races lumped together and bundled into a Dalek casing. It goes against the Daleks creed of racial purity; they loathe him and fear him in equal measure. But he gets results. If only Steven Moffat could have had an endgame of this variety during his arc for series nine. This is precisely the sort of Hybrid that would have made for a great climactic showdown in Hell Bent. It’s a fascinatingly grisly concept. The creatures that the Ogrons feared were supposed to rock creatures. That didn’t quite translate on screen (more like a spongy orange duvet creature).
Audio Landscape: Lots if Dalek sound effects again to get the heart racing – alarms, the control room heartbeat, the sound of the doors opening from the original Dalek story, the Daleks cutting through a door.
Musical Cues: I really enjoyed the tribal music that kicked in when the Doctor and co hit the Planet of the Ogrons. The insane banging of drums is a new sound for the audios. Nicely done.
Isn’t it Odd: I’m really not sure about the cover redesign for these eighth Doctor Time War stories. I get that Big Finish might want to promote the actors involved with the production but there seems to be too much emphasis on photoshopping publicity stills of the cast against a CGI background that illustrates detail about the story. The result is a rather awkward fusion of the two. I don’t think covers for audios have been this awkward since the early days (remember Land of the Dead and Shadow of the Scourge).
Standout Scene: The death of a major character at the climax is tonally bizarre. Three regeneration scenes are referenced so it feels like a parody and like it is supposed to be played for laughs, but nobody told Rakhee Thakrar who is playing it very much for real. If it was supposed to be funny, I think the gags got lost in translation.
Result: Barry Letts once wrote a Blakes’ 7 audio play and in order to research how it could be achieve he was given several fan productions to listen to, which he said were so full of continuity and knowing references that a casual member of the audience wouldn’t have a clue what is going on. Admittedly his play wasn’t any good either, but that’s by the by. I think the same criticism could be levelled at Planet of the Ogrons, which is an enjoyable instalment for any long-term fan clued up on Dalek history, Day of the Daleks, Frontier in Space, Doom Coalition and various other stories but anybody who might dip their toes into Big Finish as a way of experiencing Doctor Who audio drama without that weight of knowledge would be completely lost. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is entirely down to your own personal opinion. I liked it because it tied together lots of continuity in an engaging way and introduced some fresh ideas that worked extremely well (the Hybrid is a particularly fun, grisly idea). I might bemoan the fact that Big Finish relies on the shows continuity too much to drive sales but even I have to admit that they have done a great service to certain elements of the series that didn’t have a chance to explored in much more detail. The Ogrons are one such detail, and being so fond of them on television I was delighted to hear that they were pencilled in for an appearance. I never suspect we would get such an authentically melodramatic (and very classic Who) title and it does promise a deeper understanding of the race that has do far been underutilised. We get to explore their culture a little more and there is some effort to get inside the mind of these creatures, and to explore their own unique dialogue. The eighth Doctor can’t seem to get away from the Eleven (she goes by The Twelve now) and this is another element from the past which has been pleasingly innovated. McKenzie is a triumph in the role, in no way playing the part as a dotty old woman but as an incisive Time Lady that has come to straight jacket and silence her past selves. She has lovely chemistry with Paul McGann. Because of its very familiar elements this feels far more like classic Who than the Time War inspired post 2005 version and that might have contributed to my enjoyment factor somewhat. This is fanwank of the highest order, depending on your mileage for that sort of thing. This was innovating, so I’m on board: 7/10
To be honest I feel Bliss taking the regeneration scene seriously makes the scene even funnier.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, someone would have to be an absolute fool to dip their toes into the Big Finish audios by listening to the second episode of the second series of one of the later Eighth Doctor boxsets, so I'm not sure anyone needs to worry about confusing new listeners.
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