Interlude - Musing On the Audio Dramas, Part 1

Well, it seems I’ve not updated this project for almost a year, my apologies. I work a full time and part time job in addition to Internet production and it’s been a very busy past year. However, I’m now able to continue and trust me, in the time I’ve not been updating, I’ve kept on studying the character of the Doctor.

I think there’s a point in fandom when you’re no longer a newcomer and I think here it’s the point when you cringe at the Doctor (rather than the show) being referred to as ‘Dr. Who’. It’s like a slightly dissonant note in a chord and you can’t help but notice it. I had that moment yesterday and I realized that I really have no right to call myself anything but a young member of the Doctor Who fandom.

I’ll explain; thanks in part to Internet personalities Nash (http://www.radiodeadair.com) and Diamanda Hagan (http://blip.tv/diamanda-hagan-lecher-bitch) I was made aware of the site Big Finish (http://www.bigfinish.com) which produces audio dramas for several shows, among which, Doctor Who. Because the nature of the show incorporates time travel, there’s a great deal of leeway in what’s considered canon and thus Big Finish is a wonderful treasure trove of ‘new’ material. Go check them out; you won’t be disappointed.

In a recent attempt to be healthier, I’ve been using my lunch break to walk around a local outdoor center, listening to the audio dramas on my phone. While people duck in and out of the little boutique shops and restaurants, while the old security guard nods to me at every lap, while the kids from the summer program wait for their bus, I’m off with the Doctor, watching his adventures through my mind’s eye.

One series that Big Finish put out is ‘Doctor Who Unbound’, a set of what-if premises and alternate realities. In one, a re-imagined First Doctor says, “Nice to meet you, I’m Dr. Who,” and I grimaced slightly. It hit me full as I passed the bagel shop; despite my youth in the fandom and my ignorance (which is shrinking by the day), I’m not a newcomer anymore. Like millions of others, I’ve become a silent, invisible companion on the TARDIS, for better or worse. Already, I have my favorite, the Sixth Doctor, and my not-so-favorite, the Tenth Doctor (aka the whiny one).

So yes, I’ve cheated on my original plan to learn the series in order but I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. The audio dramas have given me interesting insights into the show and from time to time, I’ll discuss them interspersed with my planned analysis. I look forward to it.

S1E3 - The Edge of Destruction

S1E3P1 – Edge of Destruction

The TARDIS lands and a flash knocks everyone out, except Barbara, who was sleeping in another room. Susan revives first, disoriented and in pain, and helps Barbara tend to the Doctor, who’s suffered a head wound while Ian also awakens, acting strangely and missing part of his memory. The TARDIS doors open and close on their own, leading to concerns that something has entered the ship. Susan acts suspicious and threatens Ian and then Barbara with a pair of scissors, while the Doctor accuses them of plotting against him and breaking the TARDIS. The screen shows views of their past adventures and then all the clocks are broken, and everyone becomes in turn suspicious of the others. The Doctor gives everyone tea and suggests rest, but waits until everyone is asleep to mess with the TARDIS controls until he’s choked by a mystery assailant.

S1E3P2 – The Brink of Disaster

The mystery assailant is Ian, who then passes out and the Doctor yells at Barbara while she tends to him, swearing to set them outside and leave them there, though Susan defends them as a flash goes off and the Doctor realizes that everything in the TARDIS is malfunctioning and it’s about to self-destruct. Barbara points out that the strange behavior, pain and memory loss are relative to proximity to the controls and electric shock and says the TARDIS is trying to tell them something. The Doctor remembers he pressed the ‘Fast Return switch’ when they left the last planet and realizes a spring inside is stuck and the TARDIS has taken them back to the beginning of the universe. He and Ian fix the spring, which fixes the TARDIS, and he apologizes to Ian and particularly to Barbara, as her quick thinking saved them all. They land on another planet and everyone’s jolly and playing in the snow until Susan discovers a giant footprint.

Interpretation:

I enjoyed these two episodes, even though a close friend of mine warned me the ending was 'really stupid', though I disagree. While the acting wasn't so good, with the attempts at strange behavior coming off as method-acting at best or can't-be-arsed at worst, it wasn't a bad arc. For some reason, it really amuses me to see the Doctor act like a cantankerous old goat and then have to apologize and conceed he was wrong. In this arc particularly, at the end, he's quite pleasant to Barbara and it almost seems that he's accepted her and Ian. Susan still annoys me and if she shrieks, "Grandfather!" one more time, I'll be climbing the walls.

That said, I enjoyed the ending. I like that the TARDIS, when ordered to essentially destroy itself (the Fast Return Switch being stuck, sending a continuous signal to go backwards in time, meaning past the creation of the universe and into certain destruction) is able to use the controls and applied electric shocks to warn the party that there's a serious problem. While an exageration here, electric shocks to the brain do produce pain, memory loss, and limited altered behavior; this is the basis of electroshock therapy. The paranoia the party devolved into is basic 'human nature', which exposed the Doctor's lack of trust in Ian and Barbara, and once realized, it was something he resolved, and all of them grew as characters.

Scoring:

Strength of Plot: 9/10
Innovation: 7/10
Acting: 5/10
Enjoyability: 10/10

Total: 31/40

S1E2 - The Daleks (Part Two)

S1E2 Part 5 – The Expedition

The daleks have replicated the anti-radiation drugs and distribute them, while back at the thal camp, the party argues over the ethics of asking the peaceful thal to help them fight the daleks, and the Doctor admits that the whole thing is his fault. Ian performs a social experiment and convinces the thal to fight. The daleks who had the new drugs go insane and die and the council realizes their race has adapted to the radiation and in fact now needs it to survive, planning to set off another neutron bomb. The Doctor, Susan, Aladon and some thal will sneak into the city through the mountains while Ian, Barbara, Ganatus, Aladon’s second, and some thal will sneak into the city through the swamps and underground water pipes.

S1E2 Part 6 – The Ordeal

In the swamp, a thal is sucked into the lake by a mutated creature and the daleks realize that constructing a neutron bomb will take too long and the only solution is to breach their main reactor and vent the radiation. The party discover an underground passage and follow it, even though Ganatus’ brother is scared, while the party at the edge of the city attack dalek sensors and sneak in. The Doctor and Susan use the TARDIS key to short-circuit the main breaker for the city, but the daleks capture them and explain their plan to irradiate the planet again. Meanwhile, underground, Ganatus’ brother falls down a chasm, dragging Ian towards the edge.

S1E2 Part 7 – The Rescue

Ganatus’ brother cuts the rope and falls to his death, saving Ian. The party underground find a path to the surface while the Doctor offers to help the daleks build a TARDIS in exchange for not irradiating the planet, but even though the trick gets him the missing part, the daleks plan to investigate the TARDIS after everyone’s dead. The thal begin their assault on the city, joined by the party and an all-out fight breaks out in the control room, resulting in the reactor being stopped. The last dalek alive begs the Doctor for mercy but he confesses he doesn’t know how to save them, and the last dalek dies. The Doctor refuses to give the thal advice, but notes he may return someday, Barbara and Ganatus share a quick kiss and then the TARDIS leaves.

Interpretation:

I'll start off the analysis saying that I really enjoyed this arc; the plot was very good and the acting is an improvement over the last one. I continue to be very put-off by Susan as her lines really do need to come from a younger actress. Ian and Barbara are still a bit whiny although not as whiny as they could be, and I'm enjoying Ian and the Doctor constantly butting heads over leadership of the party. Knowing that the daleks play a significant part of the Doctor Who universe, I'm glad that their introductory arc was so well written.

The formula seems to have borrowed a bit from the previous arc, as in there's lots of time spent being held captive again and another clever trick to escape, as well as a band of strangers with primative ways who just happen to need a new young leader, who just happens to be the character who interacts with the party. I'm hoping that the series becomes more creative as it progresses and these set pieces don't just keep repeating.

That said, I warmed to the Doctor a lot more during this series. The idea of an old man wanting his way so bad he lies to his friends and almost gets everyone killed just tickles me for some reason, and it's just as satisfying to see him grudgingly take responsibility. The Doctor also seems to be warming to his companions and while still just as willing to leave them behind while he and Susan escape, he has at least begun to show compassion for them and consider them as more than uninvited pests.

Scoring:

Strength of Plot: 10/10
Innovation: 7/10
Acting: 8/10
Enjoyability: 10/10

Total: 35/40

S1E2 - The Daleks (Part One)

(Since this arc has 7 parts, this article will be split in half to prevent length issues on the overall article)

S1E2 Part 1 – The Dead Planet

We pick up immediately from last adventure, and the TARDIS has landed in a forest and the radiation readings seem normal but increase to dangerous once the Doctor walks away. They go outside to investigate and discover an ashen forest, the Doctor theorizes the planet is dead following a catastrophic disaster, and Ian discovers a ruined city. While the Doctor wants to explore, it’s too late and they go back to the TARDIS for the night. Barbara’s got a headache which Susan treats, and since the others want to leave without exploring the city, the Doctor takes a part from the TARDIS and claims he needs mercury to power it again, mercury that he’s sure he can find in the city. Ian smells a rat but after finding a strange metal box of vials outside the TARDIS, they go anyway, splitting up, and Barbara is trapped in a room while investigating a building.

S1E2 Part 2 – The Survivors

Ian, Susan and the Doctor are visibly ill, and go looking for Barbara, finding a laboratory and the Doctor points out this advanced civilization was the victim of a neutron bomb, meaning that they’re all suffering from radiation sickness and will die without treatment. They run into a group of robots who paralyze Ian’s legs and force them into a cell with Barbara. The robots interrogate the Doctor, and introduce themselves as daleks, survivors of a 500-years past war, and accuse him of being a thal, the other race that lived on the planet, and having anti-radiation drugs. The Doctor realizes a thal must have left the drugs for them, but they’re back at the TARDIS and the daleks can’t leave the city, and as the Doctor and Barbara are too ill and Ian’s legs are paralyzed, Susan must go alone to fetch the box.

S1E2 Part 3 – The Escape

Outside the TARDIS, Susan encounters a man, a thal who introduces himself as Aladon, who left the drugs for them. She tells him what happened and he suggests that the daleks want the drugs for themselves, not the party and gives her an extra box for them to use. Back in the city, the daleks let Susan keep the second box and she treats the others, reviving them. The daleks listen in on the party and discover the thal are facing crop failure and are starving, so they take Susan and dictate a letter to send to the thals, about how the daleks will give them food if they help recultivate the planet; a trap to lure them in. Back in the cell, the Doctor theorizes that the daleks draw power from the metal floor and they lie in wait, disabling a dalek and removing the creature, an evil crawly thing, so Ian can climb inside and ‘escort the prisoners’ to freedom.

S1E2 Part 4 – The Ambush

Ian-dalek manages to bluff everyone onto a lift, but his armor malfunctions and he orders them to leave him to face the daleks, though by the time they’ve cut through the door, he’s escaped the armor and gotten onto the lift. The party disable the lift and rush outside to prevent the ambush, and again Ian sends them on ahead and remains to warn the thal, which he does, but not before the thal leader is killed. Back at the thal camp, Aladon steps up as leader and we learn that the thal were the warrior-aggressors in the war and the daleks were teachers and philosophers. The thal have become a peaceful farming people and want peace with the daleks and the party prepare to leave, only to discover that the ‘broken’ part was in Ian’s pocket and was taken by the daleks when the party was captured.

How Shall He Be Judged?

Something that occured to me while watching the second series (viewing still in progress, expect that post in a few days) is that while I've got concrete criteria to evaluate the arcs themselves, I have nothing by which to judge the character of the Doctor.

My natural instinct is to weigh his character by the means I use in real life; empathy, intelligence, humor, honor, loyalty and compassion.  However, those seem irrational and arbitrary criteria to use and I'm reminded that's a distinctly 'female' set of categories.  Am I shooting myself in the foot by evaluating the Doctor's character on 'soft' criteria and not, for example; logic, level-headedness, technical ability, strategic thinking, and capability as a hero?

I've also heard many fans lamenting because there was a modern companion who fell in love with the Doctor, which brought up something else to consider, the possibility that the Doctor's character can be judged by the set of criteria that would be used by his companion at the time.  Meaning that the first series would involve both the 'soft' and 'hard' criteria; while Barbara comments on the Doctor's lack of compassion, Ian often questions the Doctor's sanity and ability to lead.

This would mean that the picture of the Doctor I'm forming as I continue with the project is only half formed from the man himself and half by his interations/reactions with/to his companions.  Which, come to think of it, would make the Doctor just as human as the rest of us, in that regard.

S1E1 - An Unearthly Child

S1E1 – An Unearthly Child

The first part of this arc opens in London in the 60’s and involves two high school teachers, Ian and Barbara, who are concerned for a savant student of theirs, Susan Foreman.  They stake-out her address, a junkyard, and when they follow her in, encounter a police box and an old man.  The man is amused and tries to blow them off, but convinced Susan is in danger, they force their way into the police box and find the inside of the TARDIS.  Susan and the old man (the Doctor) explain they’re travelers through time and space but the teachers don’t buy it.  The Doctor refuses to let them leave or to let Susan stay in the 20^th century, and so starts up the TARDIS, landing in a bleak desert.

S1E1 – The Cave of Skulls

So here in the freezing desert live a tribe of cavefolk and they’re having a Machiavellian power struggle over making fire and leading the tribe.  The teachers wake up on the TARDIS, argue with the Doctor about science, and then everyone goes outside to investigate.  The Doctor, while lighting his pipe, is ambushed by a caveman while separated from the party, who hear the struggle but arrive too late.  He’s been captured by Kal, one of the scheming cavemen, and is taken back to the caves where they demand he make fire.  While the cavemen posture, the party breaks in to rescue the Doctor, but are overwhelmed and tied up in the Cave of Skulls, awaiting death.

S1E1 – The Forest of Fear

That night, an old cavewoman sneaks into the Cave of Skulls and frees the party, demanding they not make fire, which will bring death and destruction.  A young cavewoman sees her leave and awakens Za, the other caveman vying for power, but they’re too late, the party has escaped into the forest where a great beast lives.  Ian and Barbara argue with the Doctor while they escape but Za hears and follows, only to be mauled by the beast.  Everyone but the Doctor stops to help Za and out of compassion, bring him to the TARDIS.  Meanwhile, Kal has awoken, finds the old woman near death and the party escaped, kills her, and leads his men back to the TARDIS, where they ambush the party and wounded Za.

S1E1 – The Firemaker

Kal accuses Za of killing the old woman but the Doctor uses logic to expose Kal as the murderer and rallies the tribe against him, driving him out.  Za orders the party locked in the Cave of Skulls again, where they use survival skills to start a fire and give it to Za, who promises to free them.  Kal breaks in and they fight, ending with Kal dead and Za the leader of the tribe, but instead of freeing the party, demands they join his tribe.  Via skulls on burning pikes, the party scare the cavefolk and escape through the forest, reaching the TARDIS just in time, and landing in a forest with a dangerously high level of radiation.

Interpretation:

Even with the grainy visuals, rough sound, and obvious stage-sets, I really enjoyed this arc.  It establishes a lot of things right off the bat but still manages to leave a lot of things up in the air.  For example, we know the Doctor and Susan (who calls him grandfather even though they may not actually be related to each other) are from another world and time, but not where and when.  Also established is the fact that the TARDIS should be changing shape, but seems to be stuck as a police box since leaving London.  We end on a cliff-hanger and I'm eager to see more.

The acting was good, if a bit over-the-top, although I'll blame that on it being TV versus film, and the fact that it was a style in the 60's.  I'm guessing that Ian and Barbara are the First Doctor's first companions, and I could get into that, if Barbara stopped freaking out every few scenes.  The character of Susan grates on me a bit; she seems at times too young for 15 despite her actress' height and I think a younger actress would have pulled it off better.  It was also pretty unrealistic that the cavefolk spoke English, but that's the only plot issue the arc had.

My first impression of the Doctor is also positive.  He's like everyone's Great-Uncle, amused and mocking your youth or yelling at you when you do it wrong, but he's not all kindness.  When Za is wounded, the Doctor picks up a rock, intending to finish him off so they can return to the TARDIS, but stops when Ian catches him.  He's also quite willing to leave Ian and Barbara to their fate with the cavefolk and escape with Susan, and it's only her refusal that stops him, as he won't leave her behind, even though he threatened to at the end of the first episode of the arc.

Scoring:

Strength of Plot: 8/10
Innovation: 8/10
Acting: 7/10
Enjoyability: 9/10

Total: 32/40

The Empty Archetype

In preparation for the task at hand (translation: before the site formally launches and while I acquire the first series), I'd like to stop and examine the character of the Doctor, as he is a stranger to me.

I went to Wikipedia to read the article on Doctor Who and several hours later I found myself reading about the hunting habits of the Northeastern Crested Blue Bunting and an hour later it was the history of San Antonio's opera company, so I need to learn to leave Wikipedia be.  At any rate, the mighty Wiki states:

"The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious and eccentric alien, a Time Lord known as the Doctor, who travels through time and space in his time machine, the TARDIS (an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space), which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s British police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, faces a variety of foes and saves civilisations, helping people and righting wrongs."

Helping people and righting wrongs?  Hey, I could get into that.

A dear friend of mine knows probably everything there is to know about Doctor Who and has been explaining a few things, for example, that the original title contained a question mark and so read, "Doctor Who?" as he's only known as the Doctor.  And here I'd thought that he was the well-educated son of Carl and Betty Who, and they gave him some awful name, like Melvin, so he just went by his last name.

It's also been explained to me that the Doctor never dies, only regenerates into a new incarnation, which I think is a really clever way to get around central casting.  No, I kid; what it actually means is a goldmine of a plot device that ensures the series continuation, regardless of writer, director, or cast.  It also allows for different writers and actors to give the character their own distinct spin, which in turn keeps the show fresh.

In my mind, I see a man's silhouette against a dark blue horizon, with pinpoint stars, and he's in the process of turning towards the viewer, so he's caught in a partial profile.

This isn't a new concept, so I'm uncertain why it seems so thematic to me.  Hamlet is re-done and re-imagined on an almost daily basis in our modern world, and TV/film franchises reboot and refresh every few years; try to compile a list of every actor/actress who has ever played the part of Peter Pan, if you'd like a challenge.  Nothing in our world is new and yet the idea of this unknown man (yes, alien technically, but he appears as a man so that's how I'll refer to him) is exciting.

It almost makes me wonder how much the VIEWER brings to the character of the Doctor.  We all find reasons to empathize with characters and usually it's what we brought a priori to watching the show.  It's easy to care about a character when they are a subconscious self-representation, which all of us do to a certain extent when we read/watch a fictional account.  A character that no one can relate to doesn't usually last very long.

Is the Doctor simply an empty archetype to be filled in by the viewer, or is he set in each incarnation, driving forward and letting the viewer along for the ride, regardless of their view of him?

Now I'll pause and ponder another question: As a woman, is it impossible for me to relate to the Doctor?  Was he intended as a man every man wants to be and a man every woman wants to be with?  If the character is meant to transcend the boundries of humanity, does he also transcend gender?

I'm hoping for some answers by the end of the first series.  I'd also like to begin filling in that silhouette.

A Single Step

It's said that a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, and so, here it is.

A great many of my friends are very into Doctor Who, and as these things go, a great many of my friends talk about Doctor Who a lot.  I can rarely follow their conversations, because to my un-elnightened ears, it all sounds like:

"Yes, but in the Evil Alien Death Flu arc in the 104th season, the 27th Doctor gave his companion a code-word that was the name of the child of the woman impregnated by a dalek in the 5th season.  Isn't that AWESOME!?!"

And I nod and smile nervously, because they're now gripping my lapels and ranting excitedly in my face about a sonic screwdriver or some nonsense (I called both Lowe's AND Home Depot and they both told me they don't carry it).  Still, this fandom seems to bring them a lot of fulfillment and interesting arguments on the Internet, so my interest was piqued.

That was, until I found out that there's roughly a metric TRILLION Doctor Who episodes and seasons and story arcs and specials, and radio productions and spin-offs and comic-book series, and unofficial, non-canon productions, and also a partridge in a pair tree.  Different people have advised different start points or certain episodes to "get me into" the show, but that seems a pretty half-assed way to go about this.

So, I'm starting at the beginning.

That's right, I'm going to start at episode 1 (1963) and work my way through.  This blog on my site will be a chronicle of this project, with me watching an episode, writing a short text review, and rating the episode on various criteria.  This will not be a "1 episode per day" kind of thing, as I've got nowhere near that much free time and also I'm not Amy Adams (+5 points if you get the reference), however, I do aim to update most days that I'm able to watch an episode.

Right, well, with MY introduction out of the way, let's meet the Doctor...