But escaping the prisoners is only the first part of the traveller’s troubles. Because there’s a sinister presence at the heart of the asteroid... and it won’t release them quite as easily.
Teeth and Curls: Hilariously when Adric makes a big show of leaving them, the Doctor tips his hat and says ‘bye bye and good luck’ and materialises as soon as he steps off the ship. He’s trying to make him learn that he belongs and not to be so rash. He’s been a determined youth too and but now he is more seasoned and mature. Sometimes the Doctor means the precise opposite of what he says. When it starts to rain he complains that he left his umbrella on the planet Karn. He speaks with hope about E-Space being a young universe and suggests that N-Space rings with the opinions of the ill-informed. The Doctor tries to apologise for leaving Adric the way he did but winds up rejecting him again, calling him little more than an uninvited stowaway. He really has to work on his interpersonal efforts. He’s out of jelly babies at the moment but greedily brandishes a bag of Bombay mix. It’s stated that the Doctor is a fan of practically every kind of music. There’s a moment when the Doctor spits a threat at Darklish – I really wouldn’t want to be on the sharp edge of his tongue. In a truly breathtaking moment, the Doctor reveals to Adric the sadness of growing old and everything it means.
Aristocratic Adventurer: Still grumpy sounding, still behaving as though she doesn’t want to be in the TARDIS. The biggest note that could be given to Lalla Ward is to ask her to slap a smile on her face. Now Ward is back acting alongside her ex-husband and an actor who she has had nothing nice to say about for the past 30 odd years. Romana says she likes Adric in a way that suggests otherwise. Romana is still on the run from the Time Lords and thinks her time is running out. The summons was a bit of a shock. They never talked to Adric about Varsh’s death but then alien psychology was never on her curriculum – it was too diverse. There’s a wonderful moment when Romana drops the attitude and marvels in the variety of life forms in E-Space. Everything is so alive and newly fledged. Romana and the Doctor have exactly the same reaction to ‘the gullet’ (‘that’s not ominous at all!’). She fights to protect her thoughts and fears as her own. By the end of the story, Romana and Adric are whispering to each other and working together very effectively. Somewhere in the second episode, Lalla Ward remembers how to play the character without the huge chip on her shoulder and is much more enjoyment for it.
Boy Genius: Bringing Adric in to join the Doctor, Romana and K.9 was a smart idea on the part of John Nathan-Turner in the way that crystallises them as a family (of sorts) rather than a pair of autocratic smart asses travelling the universe having a giggle. It’s hampered by two things; Matthew Waterhouse was hardly the best choice of actor at the time to play the role and the result is a very awkward character that at times looks uncomfortable on screen and the trio only lasted two stories before Roman chose to leave and join the Tharil cause. Step in Big Finish, pluggers of all continuity gaps and the company that will look across the broad spectrum of Doctor Who and see any untapped potential and breathe some life into it (or explain why that line of enquiry was never pursued). Waterhouse is far more assured these days (although he still continues to do that lilting voice that is his attempt to pretend that he is still 18) and with writers like Marc Platt and Jonny Morris on board it is a chance to truly see how this set of regulars could have flourished. Adric thinks he is disruptive to the Doctor and Romana’s life and wants to leave wherever they have landed. Romana suggests that they can find somewhere for him to go. There’s a very sweet moment when Adric laments the loss of his brother and asks why it had to be him to go and why he couldn’t keep him alive. It’s the sort of emotional material that was denied the series in 1980 but is all the rage in 2020. It’s very quickly obvious that Adric is not suited to surviving on his own. He needs the Doctor and Romana to protect him from himself. He wants somewhere to call home and I doubt Purgatory 12 is the ideal environment for him. Like State of Decay, he soon finds a place for himself amongst the natives simply by being a little helpless. Adric can empathise with Darklish because they are both alone in the universe. He left Alzarius because he had nothing to stay for after his brother left. He misses his brother so much. He always had a plan and he can’t understand why he couldn’t hold onto his hand when the Marshmen attacked. He realises that he has the ability to make a copy of Varsh and have his brother in his life again. It's suspenseful because we have already been privvy to how much he misses his brother and know he has the technical ability to do so. Astonishingly the characterisation of Adric is the best thing about this story and it is extremely effective.
K.9: Override one is that nobody knows better than the Doctor, or at least that is how the Doctor has programmed him. Listen to the noise K.9 makes when he is denied anymore dog biscuits. Bless him. Fibbing, lying and deception are not in his programming. Platt and Morris are the two writers that love giving John Lesson charming moments of character, despite the fact that he is playing a robot. You’d think that would be a thankless task but Leeson has such an attractive way with his dialogue that he imbues the little tin dog with as much character as everybody else involved in this story. He has self-awareness and worries that he might be sent away like Adric. When he admits he has never had a friend, my heart went out to him. He would do anything for a biscuit. He wasn’t perfect; he could be obstinate, pedantic, irritating and impossible according to the Doctor in his eulogy. He had such a sense of wonder and a sense of analytical joy. No wonder could outsmart K.9 at chess…he even beat the Doctor (from time to time).
Standout Performance: Why is Tom Baker always so charming when he is paired up with robots and aliens? It tends to bring out the child in him. Lalla Ward plays a fantastic nasty. Her evil laughter really chilled me. There’s a moment when it seems that K.9 has perished and thanks to all the performances it is simply the most moving moment I have heard on audio in some time.
Sparkling Dialogue: ‘We are unforgiven’ ‘Do forgive me.’
‘We could while away the hours looking at my collection of wanted posters. They do say I’m irredeemable but here I am, full of remorse and turning myself in!’
‘You’re not turning my TARDIS into a soup kitchen…the hens have already had my Bombay mix!’
‘Even in a herd we are all of us alone.’
'Adric, there's a point in veryone's life, a tipping point, where we start losing more than we gain. Memories, people, loves. They all fall away and it gets worse the older you get. And by the time you're my age you can cling onto the things you love but it starts to get awfully cluttered and sometimes you just have to let go.'
Great Ideas: The issue that the previous attempts at season 18 from Big Finish was that the stories felt utterly inauthentic and far more like the knockabout run-arounds of season 17 with the 18-title music plastered on at the beginning. I think it is best to consider that run of stories (only feature the fourth Doctor and Romana) as the interim between the two seasons and this as being the first fully authentic adventure to take place in the Christopher H. Bidmead era of Doctor Who. The humour is stripped back, Adric is on board and scientific fantasy is very much the order of the day. Domestic TARDIS scenes kick off the story, which automatically feels far more like 18 than 17. People suggest that Eric Saward brought that element of conversations in bedrooms to the series but Bidmead’s season kicked all that off. Having stories set entirely on alien worlds in E-Space is a huge step in the right direction because this season was bookended by sequences set on Earth but otherwise was far more content to explore exotic alien worlds. Purgatory 12 is a penal colony and adrift, stolen by the darkness that lives at its heart. The TARDIS is described as a ‘large, shabby container.’ Fancy being inside a creature that is digesting you alive and you have to try and figure out what kind of creature it is. Romana describes the creature as a thoroughly spoilt child with no manners (but then she has just been swallowed). A whole army built out of rust to protect its children. After a few episodes on non-incident the last episode pulls this story together with some pleasing action.
Isn’t it Odd: At some point in the third episode you realise that Platt is having a lot of difficulty padding out the plot because we listen to Adric playing a game of chess for several minutes to win Romana back. That’s hardly thrill a minute. Weirdly enough this scene ends on one of the best moments in the story; where Romana realises they are in a mausoleum surrounded by bodies.
Standout Scene: At the climax the Doctor gets to conjur up an entire army out of rust to tackle Darklish’s forces and play a game of chess write large. It’s a brilliant sequence that sees Tom Baker at the height of his powers. Varsh banging on the door, back to haunt Adric.
Result: There’s an argument to be made in Purgatory 12 that the fourth Doctor adventures should have always have been four parts long because they give much more time to let the characters breathe, to explore the setting and to build up an atmosphere. The first episode is given over almost entirely to character development that could (and should) have been dealt with in season 18 and the build up of mystery surrounding Purgatory 12 is very nicely done. In your average two-part 4DA this episode would be half of the story and have to get to the point far more quickly. On the other hand, there is also an argument for the two-episode format because the information is eked out over the four episodes at a very relaxed rate, and there isn’t enough incident to join those moments of revelation. There are huge stretches of all talk and no action. A penal colony on an asteroid with living rust that can manifest itself into people and a mouth at its heart that consumes is precisely the sort of potent imagery that you look to a Marc Platt script for. The extra time allows Platt to spend some time considering Adric’s place in the universe, the loss of his brother and how he fits in to the Doctor and Romana’s life. It’s the sort of character development that the series turned away from at the time (there are several moments in the eighties when the series was ripe for terrific character work – the death of Nyssa’s father, Adric’s death, Turlough’s redemption, Peri’s death – that were just skipped over) that has fuelled Big Finish adventures for the past 15 years. Tom Baker is better than he has ever been; aggressively disappointed with Adric, enjoying his exploration of N-Space and using humour to worm his way into the trust of the inmates to try and figure out what is going on. Purgatory 12 isn’t the most accomplished story Big Finish has ever put out but it has some enjoyable elements and with Platt at the typewriter it means there is plenty of memorable dialogue and imagery to see you through. The characterisation of Adric and K.9 is especially good, two characters that usually get the short shrift: 7/10
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