The Real McCoy: One of his moral rules is to never eat anything that can talk back. There’s much more of a suggestion of camaraderie between the Doctor, Chris and Roz than there ever was in the books. The Doctor of this period was an enigmatic fella who crossed the line more often than not when it came to his companions and despite the terrible things that he put them through they still came back for more. At times it felt more like they were his employees rather than his companions. It felt like he had hired two coppers to join him in the TARDIS because that’s what this big tough universe that he was facing needed. Scott Handcock has instead chosen to direct his writers to introduce a much more comfortable solidarity between the three of them that works to this series advantage. I love how he uses both Chris and Roz’s deductive skill to fathom where they are, playing one’s reasoning off against the other. He questions what he would do without the TARDIS. Listen to how emotional the Doctor is when he thinks the TARDIS is going to murdered. It’s not often that you hear him begging. Inadvertently, the Doctor turns this entire society upside down and wants to leave his legally minded companions behind at the climax to tidy it up and create a whole new legal system. He tells Roz and Chris that he trusts them to the end of space and time.
Moody Copper: I’m probably going to get stick for this (when have I ever shied away from that?) but I feel that Yasmin Bannerman is seriously miscast as Roz Forrester. That doesn’t mean that she is a bad actress and I have admired her work elsewhere a great deal. Roz was a tough as nails space cop with enough chips on her shoulder to serve them with fish. She was aggressive, bolshie and violent. Bannerman is far too gentle and easily persuaded in the role. I like her far too easily whereas I had to work to like Roz in the books. The result is that the Roz in the audios is fair too amiable to be very interesting whereas I found myself loving Roz in the end in the books, despite her nastiness because she was genuinely vulnerable underneath all that anger. It will be interesting to see if they can add that element of unpredictability and moodiness to Roz in these original adventures, but Bannerman has already adopted this pleasant Roz in the novel adaptations and it would be very odd to see a shift now. It’s amazing the things that Roz has gotten used to, like working with Chris.
Puppy Dog Eyes: Whereas Chris benefits hugely by having Travis Oliver cast in the part. One of my least favourite companions for a plethora of reasons (mostly being that nobody could be quite this green and this wet at the same time), Chris Cwej has been given a complete overhaul on audio. Oliver is likable, warm, funny and engaging. Go figure. There are some things that are universally wrong, that’s why he and Roz became adjudicators. Morality is relative, especially in the Doctor’s adventures. He and Roz are going to have to learn that if they are going to stick around.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Nobody likes to have an Overlord, no matter how pleasant they are.’
‘See you in 100,000 years.’
‘Society is better off so that’s okay.’
‘Did we do that to you? You are here with me of your own accord?’ – in a moment of rare poetry, the Doctor asks the TARDIS if she is a willing as traveller or considers herself a slave. Interestingly, we don’t get an answer.
Great Ideas: Is this a good idea, I ask myself? The New Adventures were a huge deal to a fair number of Doctor Who fans in 90s, especially when the love for the show had been all but abandoned by the BBC. However just as many people loathed the novels and thought they betrayed everything that the show was about and had plunged headlong into a series that thrived on violence, sex and swearing (the Torchwood of its day you might say) and confused, continuity destroying and mostly terrible prose. I was somewhere comfortably in the middle, and whilst I was never an avid reader of the books I did find the time long after they had finished being published to read through them all in some depth and review them and to reach a critical consensus. Some dazzling ideas were in there, some powerful characterisation and some very mature storytelling. Alongside some truly abysmal prose, agonising tweenage angst and some moments that felt so out of place turning up in Doctor Who books. Target novels these aint. Genuinely fantastic novels, seriously poor ones. Big Finish have done something nobody expected when they began adapting and releasing the more popular of the New Adventures. There is something electric about having a part of your childhood brought to life by the original TV actors as though they were actually broadcast during the nineties. I understand the appeal, even if Big Finish (who dedicated a fair whack of money on this venture with some pretty hefty casts) overestimated how popular they would be. Not wanting to call the venture a failure (because the results are pretty fantastic), they have no decided to head off into the unknown with two of the original New Adventures companions, Chris and Roj, and tell some innovative stories in the NA style. I applaud the attempt to try something both original and old fashioned like this but I question whether hour long stories are long to tell the sort of stories that in the NA’s own words were ‘too broad and deep for the small screen.’ Will this turn out to be another missed opportunity from Big Finish or will the quality of the releases be the salvation of the NA audio line? Time will tell…
The TARDIS has a form of sentience and if the sensors are sophisticated enough then it can be detected as a life form. According to Thrantasian law, the passengers in a space/time craft cannot be held responsible for the living creature at the crafts heart. Any self-aware species under arrest is entitled to representation. When asked about the TARDISes learning difficulties, communication problems, violent tendencies, allergies or food intolerances the Doctor answers no, yes, no, no, no. I’ve always wondered about our justice system and how, if the judge is in a particular mood, might sway the verdict of a hearing on a whim. To have light thrown on it so brightly and exposing the paucity of the legal system is quite an eye opener. On Thrantas the severity of the crime and thus the severity metered out depends on the impact the crime has on society in the short and long term. All things are known to the Magistrum, both past and future because it can see through time and understand the effects that a person can have on the timeline. Convicted felons are taken into appropriate hospitals and their brains are treated with electric shocks to reduce their intelligence, strength and reflexes. Punishing the felon and deters others, their IQ depleted depending on the crime they have committed. This society has inherited time travel but doesn’t really understand it. That it turns out to be a Time Being forced into slavery is a great twist.
Musical Cues: I’d buy an audio series just to listen to the Big Finish NA audio theme four times. Isn’t it fabulous? A fusion between the techno-madness of McCoy’s theme and the big brass band feel of the YV Movie. It’s one of my favourite things that Big Finish (or more specifically Howard Carter) have done.
Isn’t it Odd: Pull the TARDIS apart and scatter it through a billion years of history? Outrageous!
Standout Scene: There’s a gorgeous moment when the Doctor walks into the TARDIS and has a conversation with his oldest friend. It’s just Sylvester McCoy talking to himself but given the weight of 50 years of travel, it doesn’t feel that way.
Result: ‘A computer that can see through time!’ The TARDIS is placed on trial and the Doctor is forced to represent her. Just let that soak in for a little bit. That’s a phenomenal idea to kick start both a story and a new series of adventures for the Doctor, Roz and Chris. Andy Lane has written a smart, compact script with a terrific role for the Doctor and an excuse (if it was ever needed) for him to express his love for his time machine. You might think placing Sylvester McCoy in a role where he is forced to use lots of technical jargon at pace might be a mistake but this is the New Adventures Sylvester McCoy, you know the one who knows how to act. It’s a story with an awful lot of temporal bafflegab so prepare your brain before entering but if you’re willing to put in the effort it’s a damn clever piece of work. It baffles me that so many Big Finish Doctor Who productions go for the ‘action on audio’ route rather than using the time explore ideas through language (which essentially what the best of the audios do) and while The Trial of the Time Machine is very talky, high marks for doing something original with time travel that a show 50 years plus hasn’t attempted before. It’s a script to get you thinking rather than feeling, so it might seem quite a cold exercise to some. My biggest problem is that the stakes don’t feel particularly high, which could be down to the direction or possibly because I wasn’t really sure what the TARDIS was being accused of. But I loved the discussion and the dialogue really sells this world and its insane legal system as something compelling and convincing and quite disturbing. To answer the question of whether the original audios can be as ‘broad and deep’ as the NAs, yes and no. This has much more substance than your standard audio but it lacks the riveting characterisation of the best of the novels. It’s a damn good first effort though: 8/10
You may have appalling taste regarding the TV seasons (specially series 11) but your audio reviews are spot on
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