Teeth and Curls: The Doctor teaches Adric that the universe is not only stranger than we can suppose but it is stranger than we can suppose, which is a take on Shakespeare. Do they have a moral responsibility to take them away from this planet as the Doctor thinks, or is it a mistake to take criminals on board the TARDIS as Romana thinks or was the strict military justice system that they have instigated the only way to survive the situation they have found themselves in as Adric thinks? Everyone has something to say, proving the effectiveness of this trio and the conflicting opinions they bring. The Doctor refuses to pick and choose who they save and who they don’t given what they have done. It’s all or nothing. It’s a brilliant moral debate. The Doctor’s life is pretty much saved because he is the only person (Romana excepted) that can get the Tantalus going again. I love the Doctor’s coldness at the climax. He can barely bring himself to try and convince the Pilot to save herself and when she stubbornly refuses he as good as screams ‘stuff you then’ and scarpers. He’s got no time for time wasters when the situation is desperate. When Romana says the Doctor is the most frivolous person she has ever met he thinks that is the nicest thing that anyone has ever said about him.
Aristocratic Adventurer: Romana firmly believes that no matter how extreme the situation, you always have a moral choice. Listen to how Romana screams ‘K.9! Stun Adric!’ I don’t think I’ve ever heard Lalla Ward exclaim a line quite so passionately. Just because they are Time Lords it doesn't give them the authority to impose their moral law on the universe. The don't have a right but they do have a responsibility to help out where they can on an ad hoc basis whilst aimlessly wandering the universe. She's been thinking of something a little more purposeful and less frivolous.
Boy Genius: Adric is trying to adjust to the idea of landing on alien worlds. He’s enthusiastic but cautious, as anybody would be in these circumstances. He’s rather more than ‘good’ at sums, as the Doctor remarks. He manages to convince the Pilot that keeping the Doctor and Romana would be a good thing to do…without joining forces with them! In season 19 he would be feigning (or otherwise) an allegiance. Here he just uses his intelligence to provide an argument in their favour. Cutting through all the pomp and discussion of the previous story when it comes to finding a way for the Doctor, Romana and Adric to work together, Jonny Morris includes a scene where it appears that Adric has died and we get to see their responses to that. Romana is quietly accepting but the Doctor is desperate and refuses to give in whilst K.9 sounds sorrowful. It really does suggest the strength of bond between them in a very profound way. It was nice for Adric to be part of the gestalt for a while, a collective where he felt he belonged.
Standout Performance: Jane Asher is such an underrated performer and she has delivered two extremely good roles in her brief time in Doctor Who. I will never forget her star turn in Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? It turned out to be one of the high spots of the entire series and for anybody who followed that show, the standard was high and that is firm praise indeed. Here she gets her teeth into an outwardly villainous role but instead of playing the lines in a pantomimic way, she trades emotion for hard logic. It means that when she is talking about murdering some of her crew to ensure that the rest survive, it is simply a matter of keeping a rational head and doing what is best for the majority. She doesn’t think she is insane, just obsessed with getting as many people safely off this planet as she can. It’s a single-minded fixation that happens to allow her to commit murder to fulfil it. By the end of the story she is beyond paranoid, spitting out threats and ready to kill everybody if they disobey her orders.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I’m just saying we should put ourselves in their shoes…would we have been able to do things differently? I’m not sure we would.’
‘You need to keep both of us alive so that you can threaten to kill one of us if the other one doesn’t do what you want!’
‘Everyone lives…after a fashion.’
Great Ideas: Since they have entered E-Space they have encountered vampires, convicts and all manner of space thuggery…how can they be sure that the source of the distress signal on this planet is benign? Because it is always dark, the flowers and the trees on this planet have found a way to create their own light. It’s very season 18 for the travellers to land on an alien world and explore its alien properties. With a stranded crew (Warriors’ Gate) and a planet of lush aggressive vegetation (Meglos), this feels very much of its era. I would love to see for real the concept of a spaceship that has been converted to run along on wheels. It is a matter of necessity because the parts of the planet where the suns touches the surface turns everything to ashes…if they don’t keep on the move then it means certain death for everybody. What a terrific premise. Much like the film Speed, movement is of the essence otherwise its curtains for everybody. The Dauntless has been crashed on this planet for 114 years and they have adapted to the dangers of the planet expertly. The species have evolved to endure an environment of extremes. The Tantalus is brought to a halt by Romana to save the Doctor, and throw it in reverse…which means they are heading back towards the Dawn. There’s a built-in suspense in this story that makes it irresistible. The Acklyss is the forest of the planet, a lifeform that defies classification. A gestalt, a pshycic network. The creatures, the trees, they are as one. The bioluminescence that the Doctor detected was proof of pshycic activity. A synergetic super-organism, perpetually self-renewing as the planet rotates. Ultimately they have a choice between joining the gestalt or being burnt alive, a choice between life in a different state of existence or no life at all.
Musical Cues: A fantastic score that feels very Paddy Kingsland and suggests a feeling of momentum throughout – the story would just be a bunch of people in a desperate situation if it wasn’t for Robertson’s music that really pulls the whole thing together.
Standout Scene: The first episode builds to a brilliant cliff-hanger where Romana discovers what happens to those who question Dena’s martial law…they are sedated and left to face the sunlight. Bodies hanging in the open, helpless, as the sun approaches…it’s unusually gruesome and in your face for Big Finish these days (since the series came back it has been a little neutered) and the cliff-hanger itself is grippingly realised. Lalla Ward’s reaction to the nightmare is bang on.
Result: ‘It is time for us to welcome the Dawn…’ A tightly constructed, dramatic tale with an awesome premise and a hell of a pace, Chase the Night is a top five 4DA and a very welcome knockout for this range. A story with four episodes worth of dynamic plot that flaunts a memorable setting and a reason for the narrative to race on. Monstrous antagonists are tenpenny in Doctor Who but Jane Asher’s Pilot is something twisted and different and Asher doesn’t disappoint in delivering the cold logic and homicidal tendencies of a woman who has sold her soul to save her life. You might think that the story that sees the TARDIS crew constantly on the move might trade intelligence conversation for action but there are a number of terrifically written debates between the Doctor, Romana and Adric. I can always tell when John Dorney is in the script editors chair because there is an insistence that the strengths of the regulars used are tied into the story. And Jonathan Morris is adept at bringing ALL Doctor and companion teams to life so bringing these two Big Finish legends together means we are getting the best of both worlds. It’s like when Steven Moffat would write a story under Russell T. Davies. Featuring a planet with unusual properties that propel the story, this screams season 18 too. Unusually, the third episode is the most gripping as the Tantalus is stranded and the Dawn spreads across the planet and gets ever closer. It’s a real race against time to get moving. In any other range this would be impressive for its ability to keep you rivetted for 2 hours but in the 4DA line this is what I call a miracle. I kept waiting for the ball to drop but it just didn’t happen. Very, very good: 10/10
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