A Meeting of History and Morality

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 6.03

Title: Medicinal Purposes
Written By: Robert Ross
Team TARDIS: Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe
Adversary: Dr. Robert Knox
Originally Released: August 2004
Range and Number: Big Finish Main Range, #60

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -
Edinburgh, 1827. The infamous body snatchers William Burke and William Hare are at large. The local prostitutes dull their fear with cheap whisky. The graveyard owls are hooting. Business is good.

When accidental tourists the Doctor and Evelyn Smythe stumble upon one of Britain's most lurid, illuminating chapters in history, a simple case of interest in the work of dedicated man of science Doctor Robert Knox, quickly turns sour. Just what is that time-bending Scots mist? Whatever it is may put the very fabric of the universe under threat...

As always.

My Review:
Yeah, yeah, I know. Another Big Finish Sixth Doctor review... At this point, I’m not so much “bending the rules” as I've outright chucked them out the window. But I figure, the Fourth Doctor got two TV reviews - shouldn't Six get two Big Finish reviews? (besides, I’m discovering that I am having way too much fun with this stuff and I may find excuses to do more beyond November 23).

While finding a TV story for dear ol’ Sixie isn't too terribly difficult (there aren't that many to choose from), pinning him down one audio story is another endeavor altogether (I imagine I’ll have a similar conundrum when it comes to reviewing an Eighth Doctor audio). This is a result of combination of factors - fantastic storytelling, a new lease on life for the Sixth Doctor (you only have to listen to a few minutes of any Sixth Doctor story to know that Colin Baker is having the time of his life with this stuff), and wonderful original-to-Big-Finish companions. And, as far as I’m concerned, the poster child for wonderful original-to-Big-Finish companion is Dr. Evelyn Smythe. How could I stiff Evelyn in being featured in my blogging project? That would be a crime to the world of Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Celebratory Blogs!

(Apparently, I just made that a new sub-category of blogs. Go me!)

Evelyn Smythe is a history professor at Sheffield Hallam University when the Doctor meets her and she takes her profession very seriously. You just don’t mess around with Dr. Smythe - but she will treat you to her famously delicious chocolate cake if you’re having a rough day (she reminds me a lot of Professor McGonagall in Harry Potter, who is another no-nonsense-woman-with-a-squishy-candy-center that I adore to bits). I wanted to give Evelyn some time in these reviews because of her great contributions in the Big Finish canon - but I didn't want to review her first story, “The Marian Conspiracy,” because it’s one that gets a lot of attention (I may fudge the numbers here, but I’m not going to deviate from my mission to shower love on some largely unnoticed stories). Didn't want to do “Arrangements for War” or “Thicker Than Water” or “Doctor Who and the Pirates” for the same reason (that’s not to say you shouldn't listen to those because they’re fabulous and you totally should!) Plus, there are a few where Evelyn is the companion, but she doesn't do a whole lot and there wouldn't be much to talk about for her. But the one that I really liked that I hadn't seen many reviews of was “Medicinal Purposes.”

The basic premise of “Medicinal Purposes” is the time period during which the infamous grave-robbers/murderers, Burke and Hare, were at large in Edinburgh, Scotland. When I started listening to this story, I confess I’d never heard of these guys - or the rhymes or folktales that had materialized around their history. But, doing a little old fashioned research (read: I looked it up on Wikipedia), I learned pretty much all I needed to know to understand this story (and they say Doctor Who’s educational value ended when the Daleks showed up). Just for a quick-and-dirty summary - Burke and Hare were hired by Dr. Robert Knox to supply him with cadavers to study for his well-attended anatomy lectures. They started out with simply digging corpses up from cemeteries, but Knox eventually wanted fresher specimens to study, so Burke and Hare obliged by killing low-class nobodies (mainly criminals, drunks, and prostitutes) and delivering the bodies to Knox for study. It was when the people who attended Knox’s lectures started recognizing the victims that their little scheme got caught.

Just from reading the Wikipedia entry, the story is morbid and sad enough. But then you have a historian like Dr. Evelyn Smythe who actually meets the victims and to give voice to your own concerns - it’s positively gut-wrenching. Some of the first people the Doctor and Evelyn meet are Mary Paterson and “Daft” Jamie Wilson - who were both victims of Burke and Hare - and they’re such great characters. The Doctor takes a shine to Jamie in particular - noting that the Doctor once had another young friend from Scotland named Jamie (“a noble name for a noble young man”) and if that doesn't break your heart, I don’t know what will (oh, and the part of Jamie is played by a certain Scottish actor that you might have heard by the name of David Tennant. This was the last Big Finish Doctor Who he recorded before being cast as the Tenth Doctor). Evelyn tries to convince Mary and Jamie to get out of Edinburgh - not unlike Donna trying to convince people to leave Pompeii - even though she knows that their deaths are part of history.

The story poses an interesting question of morality - what Burke and Hare did in murdering those people was wrong. But those murders resulted in lots of medical advancements, which eventually would save lives. That’s the basis of an argument the Doctor and Evelyn have toward the beginning of the story and neither one of them comes up with a good enough solution. In fact, it cuts to the heart of Evelyn’s character - she wants to appreciate history and stay faithful to what actually happened, but at the same time she realizes that these are real people and these terrible things actually happened. Evelyn is a kind, tender-hearted person underneath her somewhat gruff, no-nonsense professorial exterior (she’s a lot like the Doctor in many respects and I think that quality of hers is what influences the Sixth Doctor toward becoming a much more softer and mellower person) and it’s tough for her to come to like Mary and Jamie, only to know how it all ends for the both of them.

Even though the Doctor and Evelyn have to let history take its course, it turns out there is another villain lurking around 1827 Edinburgh. It turns out that this particular time period has become a tourist destination, of sorts, for many entities that live outside time. They’re sort of like the Eternals from “Enlightenment,” but not really (at least, that’s what they reminded me of) and their idea of a great vacation is to experience history firsthand by inhabiting the lives of historical figures. Once the historical experience is over, it restarts within the time bubble and the next batch of people get to experience history, but they actually take over the people who lived through it - so, in a way, they keep reliving these horrible events (why this particular point in history has become such a popular tourist destination, I have absolutely no idea). The Doctor has to put a stop to this incessant repetition of time and set history back on its regular course - which means Mary and Jamie and all the other victims of Burke and Hare will die and the world will go on without them (but not without first becoming famous - as Jamie so joyfully observes).

I think this story needed a companion like Evelyn to bring out the humanity in these people.  Other companions could do it as well, but to have someone of Evelyn's maturity, morality and intelligence brings the whole issue to the fore.  Evelyn is a unique companion in many ways, but she reminded me a lot of both Barbara Wright and Donna Noble. This could just be because I watched "The Aztecs" and "The Fires of Pompeii" and listened to "The Reign of Terror" and "Medicinal Purposes" all within a month of each other - (it is the 50th Anniversary - MY TIME MUST BE CONSUMED WITH DOCTOR WHO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, right?) - but I could see so many wonderful similarities between these three characters.  Both Evelyn and Barbara have to reconcile their feelings about meeting these historical figures and seeing how human they are, while also maintaining that history must remain as it is.  And then you have Donna's impassioned pleading with the Doctor to "just save someone" at the end of "The Fires of Pompeii" - and as much as Evelyn tries to warn people, she can't.  Especially since the timeline's been messed with so much.  But it's the wanting that makes all the difference in the moral depth of a character and Evelyn has it in spades.

(Drawing these conclusions makes me want to see this little Trifecta of Awesome to meet up in a Doctor Who short story or something. There is a fanfic in which a young PhD student named Evelyn Smythe meets one Barbara Chesterton, who’s come to give a university lecture about the religious practices of the Aztecs. Evelyn and Barbara meet up again years later while Evelyn is traveling with the Doctor - and Six meeting up with Ian and Barbara again is so heartwarming that it turns your insides to goo and your day automatically becomes filled with sunshine, rainbows, ponies and strawberry ice cream.)

On the whole, Evelyn is a great addition to the companion lineup and we are damn lucky to have her along for the ride.  It's not so much that Six needed a humbling influence - he needs what the Doctor always needs: a friend.

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 6.04 - The Sixth Doctor meets Winston Churchill. This should be interesting.

Previously -
Review 6.02 - Hello, Doctor. It's So Very Nice to Meet Me.

Hello Doctor. It Is So Very Nice to Meet Me.

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 6.02

Title: The Wrong Doctors
Written By: Matt Fitton
Team TARDIS: Sixth Doctor, Melanie Bush
Adversary: Mr. Petherbridge
Originally Released: January 2013
Range and Number: Big Finish Main Range, #169

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -
With Evelyn gone, the Doctor sets course for his destiny... in the form of his first meeting with Miss Melanie Bush, a computer programmer from the village of Pease Pottage, currently busy rehearsing with the local Amateur Dramatic Society – and blissfully unaware that her future is on its way, in his TARDIS.

Make that two TARDISes. Because at that very moment, a slightly younger Doctor is flying into Pease Pottage, too – returning his future companion Melanie Bush to her rightful place and time, after they were flung together during the course of his Time Lord trial.

Time travel is a complicated business – the iguanadon terrorising Pease Pottage being a case in point. But how much more complicated could things possibly become, if the wrong Doctor were to bump into the wrong Mel?

My Review:

Six and Big Finish. Seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly. Ketchup and french fries. Shoes and socks. Fred and George Weasley. Melanie Bush and Pease Pottage.

(Sorry - not going to sing Grease. Just... no).

Choosing a Sixth Doctor audio story to review was hard. And not because there aren’t any good ones. Actually, pretty much anything that Big Finish does for the Sixth Doctor is going to be good (granted, I haven’t heard everything, but I’ve listened to a pretty good sampling and I haven’t found a stinker yet - *mandatory disclaimer about personal opinion and such*). It’s common knowledge that Big Finish has allowed Colin Baker to flesh out the Sixth Doctor in a way that he was not allowed to do on television. If for nothing else, Big Finish deserves all the praise and patronage fans can give them (but there are other reasons to throw money at Big Finish - some of which I’ve covered and some that I’ll get to later). While I did warm up to ol’ Sixie through his TV run, it was Big Finish that solidified him as a personal favorite.

There is always a thrill at the prospect of having past Doctors come back, even so many years later (doesn't matter that Peter Davison is so much older and doesn't look much like he did when he last played the Doctor, my fangirl senses go nuts every time I see "Time Crash").  It's partially nostalgia, but also fun at seeing the Doctor meet his past or future selves.  But we often get bogged down in thinking that the Doctor has to meet Five or Six or Seven or Eight or whoever and sometimes we miss the obvious - why not have the Doctor meet himself earlier or later in the same regeneration?

TV could conceivably do it.  Special effects are such that it can be done.  But having the Doctor meet himself in audio? That just takes some clever work on the part of the actor (and some very clever writing).

The Sixth Doctor is an interesting choice for this because of how much he has changed since "The Twin Dilemma."  That was always by design from the start.  The Sixth Doctor was supposed to start out as a patently unlikeable guy (chalk it up to regeneration gone wrong) and then over time would smooth out the rough edges and he'd become more... mature, I guess would be the word.  Of course, the Powers That Be had other plans and that never came to pass on TV.

If you've never heard any Sixth Doctor audios and just want to know how this Sixth Doctor compares to the one you know from TV - "The Wrong Doctors" is an excellent place to begin.  All you have to know is that he's traveled with a few other companions and he's mellowed out a bit. This story is a prime example of how the Sixth Doctor has changes during this regeneration and it also explores the long-term plans that were in place for the Sixth Doctor originally - for him to go from this brash, unlikable person to someone more kindly and (for lack of a better term) “squishy” - but still have that underlying edge that marks him as the Sixth Doctor.  But, in reality, he's just a big teddy bear.

(Hey - there's a marketing idea! A Sixth Doctor coat for Build-a-Bear! Even better - a Build-a-Bear range for every Doctor! Get someone on that!)

This story sees the Doctor right after the events of "The Trial of a Time Lord" when he is taking Mel back to her home in Pease Pottage (despite her protests that she didn't meet the Doctor in Pease Pottage - but he's too much of a know-it-all to listen).  This story also sees the Doctor right after Evelyn Smythe (an original-to-Big-Finish companion, whom I'll get to soon enough) has left.  The contrast between the two versions of the Sixth Doctor could not be more striking - and it's not just down to his decision to wear a much more toned-down blue version of his costume.  Doctor 6.1 is still pretty gruff and shouty, but Doctor 6.2 is more reflective and he makes the conscious decision to go find Mel - figuring that it's time that she takes the stage in his life.  Things go wonky when they figure out that Pease Pottage is a the scene of some Time Distortion Shenanigans involving a time energy being harvested through some weird time bubble (the mechanics of which I don't quite understand beyond "Some weird shit is going down and the Doctor needs to fix it."  Usually, that's all I need to know).  It's unclear whether or not the time bubble caused there to be two Sixth Doctors or what the deal is, but hearing Colin Baker play off himself as the 1980s Doctor and the 2012 Doctor is just so brilliant that I quit worrying about it after Doctor 6.1 got after Doctor 6.2 for wearing Necros mourning colors.

There is also a marked difference in Mel - who there is also two of.  Because the Doctor dropped Mel off when he did, there is a younger Mel trapped in the goofed-up Pease Pottage and there is an older Mel that has traveled with the Doctor... yet, not traveled with him (the wibbly-wobbly timeline of "Trial of a Time Lord" has just mucked everything up - sometimes it's just better to smile and nod and go with it.  And I'm not explaining it very well - but it is really good, trust me!)

I love that Big Finish is taking the time to explore what we never got to see on TV.  I love that it's tackling these difficult snares in continuity - which, there are few bigger snares than when Mel joined the Doctor and how the events of "Trial" are supposed to work out.  I love that we get to see the Doctor's personality smooth over and how he matures.  It's almost like Six was a petulant child (sometimes - not all the time) at the beginning of his regeneration, but his companions each have a marked effect on him in their turn and he becomes so much more than the scary, disturbed Doctor that tried to strangle Peri in "The Twin Dilemma" (he's never going to live that down - though he is trying).  It's like how the First Doctor was gruff and distrustful and suspicious at the very beginning, but Ian and Barbara brought out the good in him over time and by the time they left, he had this mischievous twinkle in his eye and a knowing grin and you can't help but love him.  It is such a joy to see how the Doctor's companions influence him for the better.  It's like he's recognized how much better he is with an entourage - not necessarily just to have someone to pass him test tubes and tell him how wonderful he is, but to point out when he's making mistakes and show him how much better he could be.  And he wants to be a better person, but he just needs someone to show him how to do that.  Once he gets the hang of it - it's a brilliant piece of work.

Anyway - Sixth Doctor and Mel. Cute as can be. I don't think any other Doctor/companion team has been so well-matched.  Not just the fact that their hairstyles are a '80s-Curly-Hair-Extravanganza - but they play off each other and their personalities fit like a dream.  I love Six and Mel.  There is a scene (kind of a crucial scene, so I won't spoil it) but Mel says that she misses the Doctor's old Coat of Many Colors (like I said, he's taken on the more subdued blue by this time) and the Doctor promises to go back to wearing that coat for her because she liked it so much.  It's such a sweet moment and beautifully written (and the fact that it fixes that particular bit of continuity is just an added bonus at the end of the day).  But it is cute that the older Mel calls Doctor 6.2 "Indigo Jones."

"The Wrong Doctors" is just a fun and fantastic celebration of the Sixth Doctor and one of the best outings for Big Finish.  It acknowledges that something went very wrong in one of the Doctor's lives (both in-story and in the messy world of television production) and sets out to make it right and knocks it out of the park.  Colin Baker is having a blast playing the Doctor and I get to have a blast listening to his performance. And there is nothing wrong about that.

(ba-dum-tish)

***
I found this audio clip of Colin Baker talking about the Sixth Doctor and he particularly mentions this story, but also about the ideas behind the Sixth Doctor's personality and where things were supposed to go.  I thought it be appropriate to include in this review, since I've had some of the same thoughts and ideas about the Sixth Doctor and it's quite nice to hear the Doctor himself give voice to some of those thoughts - "The Sixth Doctor was a Brave Idea"

(And here, I must cheer and applaud and whoop at the fact that the Sixth Doctor is "not just the embodiment of his costume." That statement made me very happy ^_^)

***

Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 6.03 - Watch Out, History! Here Comes Evelyn Smythe!

Previously -
Review 6.01 - Telling Conventional Fan Wisdom™ Where To Stick It

Telling Conventional Fan Wisdom™ Where To Stick It

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 6.01

Title: Timelash
Written by: Glen McCoy
Team TARDIS: Sixth Doctor, Peri Brown
Adversary: The Borad, Maylin Tekker
Originally Aired: March 9 and 16, 1985
Number of Episodes: 2 (45 minutes each)

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -
On the planet Karfel and in 1885 Scotland, the Sixth Doctor and Peri, together with a young man named Herbert, become entangled with the machinations of the despotic Borad.

My Review:
At the beginning of this blogging project, I noted that I wanted to review stories not necessarily based on what Conventional Fan Wisdom™ tells us is good. As much as I love things like “The Aztecs” and “Earthshock” and “Remembrance of the Daleks” - those reviews have been done to death and I felt it was time to show some love to other stories in the Doctor Who family. I also wanted to dispense with Conventional Fan Wisdom™ in reviewing things that fandom tells us are horrible, terrible, utter shit and Simply Not Worth Your Time (the red-headed stepchildren of Whodom, if you will).

When I first embarked on my voyage through Classic Who, I tried to stay away from fan opinion for the simple fact that I wanted to go into it the way I went into New Series - untainted by outside opinion and able to form my own reactions and thoughts to each story in turn (this is why I was so surprised when Conventional Fan Wisdom™ told me to hate the “Daleks in Manhattan” two-parter when I actually loved it - it was also my first indication that Conventional Fan Wisdom™ was not all it was cracked up to be). But I also wanted to get into fandom and carve out my own little corner and stake out a presence and be known on some small level. It was a hard balance to strike, lemme tell you.

I couldn’t get away from the disparaging comments and snide remarks about the Sixth Doctor’s era. I quickly learned about the behind-the-scenes woes and turmoil with hiatuses and complaints (to my great shame, the very first thing I learned about Colin Baker was that he was the first actor to actually be fired from the role of the Doctor - something I now know was patently unfair and Michael Grade is a big, fat, sissy, nincompoop - excuse me my potty language). Among these disparaging opinions was the Conventional Fan Wisdom™ that “Timelash” was The Absolute Worst Doctor Who story ever committed to screen (though there were some diverging opinions that distinction actually belonged to “The Twin Dilemma” or “Silver Nemesis” - that Mighty 200 poll did more harm than good, if you ask me). I approached all three of these stories with much trepidation. Didn’t help that I had recently bawled my eyes out at the end of “The Caves of Androzani” with the death of the Fifth Doctor and I wasn’t sure if I was going to take too kindly to Peter Davison’s successor, simply on principle.

(I’d like to just take a moment and reflect on how I was sore about something that happened almost thirty years ago and is now a long-gone memory in the annals of television, but I was reacting strongly to it in 2011. That’s what this show does to you. Plus, I’m an emotional twerp. Hell, I cried at the end of “The Chase” - but those were happy tears. That’s another story - remind me to tell you about it later).

Well - chalk it up to another tick in the “Conventional Fan Wisdom™ SUCKS!” column because “Timelash” is not as eye-blindingly bad as “everyone” (quote,unquote) seems to think.  In fact, it's one that I rather enjoy.  And it also lends to the idea that some people are merely “fans” in that they like to have a platform to bash incessantly on the show (or they like to bash incessantly on anything.  Fandom, sometimes I just don't get you).

Something I've noticed about the Colin Baker era of Doctor Who is the amount of dystopian stories there are.  This may come down to percentages simply because there are a lot fewer of ol' Sixie's televised stories out there, but there is a distinct 1984/The Giver/The Hunger Games feel to much of his run.  Between "Timelash" and "Vengeance on Varos," there is plenty of Crapsack World to go around (don't click that link if you value your free time).  And I'm not sure that Doctor Who had done a whole lot of that up to this point.  Personally, I enjoy a good dystopia story (I have The Giver listed on my personal "List of Greatest Books Written In All of Our Lifetimes And Beyond," if that tells you anything...) and I am intrigued to see how far they could have taken this theme in the Sixth Doctor's era, had it been allowed to continue.

But it's not all Doom and Gloom in Karfel.  Part of it is the Doctor's brightly colored coat - which, for all the assertions that it was meant as a commentary on how his regeneration went wonky and he wasn't right in the head, I actually think it's a mark of his colorful and outgoing personality.  The Sixth Doctor wants you to know that he's there, that he's not going to disappear into the background without a fight and you are going to take notice of him, regardless of the shit you try to pull (the BBC - and fandom, really - could have taken note of that).  That's one thing that I find so fun about Six - and I didn't expect to.  The Sixth Doctor is one that took me completely by surprise how much I enjoy his portrayal.  Not enough to unseat Five as my Doctor, but enough for me to create an "I Love the Eighties" tag on my Tumblr (I already had "I Love the Sixties" - but I'm not sure if the Seventies are going to get that distinction).

What was I saying - oh yes - Doom and Gloom in Karfel.  Well, we establish early-on that the ruling class on Karfel are a bunch of jerks and there's an underground resistance force that hasn't gotten very far with the whole "You Rebel Scum" act (the most they've been able to do is not get eaten by the Morlox).  The daughter of the pro-temp leader, Vena, has run off with the Maylin's Artifact of Great Power But Not So Much Responsbility and she's fallen into the deadly-dangerous Timelash.  Meanwhile, the Doctor and Peri are dealing with the TARDIS's inexplicable moods and they've indavertantly fallen into the time tunnel that makes up part of the Timelash. They run into Vena, land on Karfel, and get separated (as is tradition once the Doctor and his companion(s) join up with the adventure - already in progress).

And - due to the technology of the time tunnel - the Doctor ends up with one of his most charming one-off companions.  A shy-yet-adventurous young man named Herbert.  Herbert positively sparkles in this story.  And I so wanted him and Vena to get it together by the end of the story.  But when it's revealed that Herbert is actually H.G. Wells and he's got a story or two to write back on Earth... well, it's not meant to be (dammit).  But I do enjoy the Wellsian story aspects (even if I'm not as well-versed in H.G. Wells as I might ought to be - don't kill me!)

That's not to slag off Peri at all.  True, Peri doesn't come off quite that great in the second part of this story - but she has some brilliant moments in the the first episode.  Her interactions with the Doctor in the TARDIS are a delight - while they might bicker and carry on, she really does want to travel with the Doctor.  There is always an underlying friendship between these two.  There are more layers to the Six/Peri relationship than are immediate apparent.  Looking back, you can tell that they were going for the long game with these two and it's a shame that the BBC couldn't have more patience with what was going on (and here, we must shower Big Finish with all the praise and adoration for giving Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant more opportunity to explore these characters.  Hell, for the run they've given the Sixth Doctor, full-stop, they deserve a spot of honor in the annals of Doctor Who, forever and anon).

I know I talked in my last TV story review about how I didn't give a rat's left pinky toe about special effects as long as the storytelling holds up, and that remains true.  But when I see something I like, I do have to give props (no pun intended).  And I love the effect with the Timelash itself.  The fade-in/fade-out effect as people go in and out of the thing is just great.  Also, the atmospheric feeling the scene when the Doctor is climbing through the Timelash is so neat.  That is something that the writer's imagination can come up with perfectly, even if it gives the set designers and effects team headaches.  But for 1985, that wasn't half bad and I loved it!

Something else I loved about the story structure of "Timelash" is that we-the-audience get to see the action Karfel before the Doctor arrives.  It's like we time-traveled to the adventure before the Doctor did.  We know who the bad guys are and who the oppressed are and what kind of conditions they live on.  Plus, there's an added bonus (we later learn) that the Doctor has been to Karfel before and he is revered as a sort of hero among the people - even so far as they know (or accept) that he can change his appearance and he travels with companions.

Fun Fact: The story as televised says that it was the Third Doctor with Jo Grant that came to Karfel all those years ago - but the original script called for it to have been the First Doctor with Ian, Barbara and Susan. Hence, Tekker's surprise that the Doctor is only traveling with one companion. I couldn't figure that one out because I knew Three only ever had Jo or Sarah Jane when he actually got off-world.  But I suppose that the Third Doctor would have been more recognizable to audiences in 1985 because of VHS availability or reruns or what-have-you, so that's probably the reason for the script change (shame... I would have loved the original Team TARDIS to have gotten a shout-out.  But that's neither here nor there).

I've got to talk about Colin Baker and this is a good place to do it.  Like I said earlier, he is the only actor to have been fired from the role, but that is probably the most unfair thing to ever happen in television.  Because when you get right down to it, Doctor Who has few greater champions than dear Sawbones Hex (as he is known on Twitter - follow his Twitter feed, you will not be sorry).  For all the perception that the Sixth Doctor is brash and mean and unpleasant - there is a certain gleam beneath that rough exterior and that is due in no small part to how wonderfully Colin plays the part.  I'll get more into what's gone on with Big Finish in my next review, but that shine was there even in television and I'm really annoyed that people missed it the first time around (it's like when you hear that Firefly was canceled and you actually watch the show and you wonder how in the world those idiot TV executives and the media got away with the crap they pulled because the show is so good). If anybody has reason to be sore about Doctor Who, it's Colin Baker.  But the great thing is that he's not!  He goes to conventions and does interviews and DVD commentaries (and is so hilarious and lovable) and is just one of the most amazing people you could ever meet (haven't met him myself... yet. Gallifrey One, next February - YAY!) - and, most importantly, he has such a love for the show and it's good to see that hasn't dampened at all. So, yeah, can't say enough good things about Colin or his Doctor.  I think perception's softened up a great deal in years past and more people are giving his era a chance, which I think is wonderful.

In all, this is an enjoyable story.  Also, it goes to show that Conventional Fan Wisdom™ doesn't know what the hell it's talking about half the time.  So, all you Classic Who newbies out there - I'm going to give you this advice: Sample everything and find what you like.  Don't just follow the crowd with what's "good" and certainly don't listen to the crowd about what's "bad." Everyone's tastes run differently.  You may fall in love with the scarf - then again, you may fall in love with the celery or the amazing multicolored dreamcoat (or even something in black and white).  The very best thing about Doctor Who is that it's as wide and varied as the universe and it's not fair to limit ourselves just to what is publicly acclaimed.  If you do that, you will miss out on so many glorious treasures.  And you're only hurting yourself.

***
I have to throw some love toward Verity! for their Sixth Doctor retrospective last month. They mostly discussed "The Mark of the Rani," which is another favorite of mine, but they did have some good things to say about "Timelash," so I'm recommending that episode as a supplement to this review.  But, really, you should be listening to their discussions every week.

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 6.02 - If you start talking to yourself, you're not crazy. You're just a Time Lord.

Previously -
Review 5.03 - Why My Sister Let Me Sleep With the Light On

Fiction > Reality

SPOILER ALERT! The following post contains obscene amounts of SPOILERS for the following Big Finish "Doctor Who" stories: #133 - City of Spires, #134 - The Wreck of the Titan, #135 - Legend of the Cybermen.  Not to mention scattered SPOILERS for all of the Second Doctor's era (especially from "The War Games" and "The Mind Robber") and maybe a few other minor things. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

I love all the Doctor's companions, though some I love more than others.  It's just the way things happen.  One of my absolute favorites is Jamie McCrimmon, the lovable Scottish highlander who was a mainstay of the Patrick Troughton era.  The Second Doctor had a good handful of companions, but Jamie was THE companion in the late 1960s.  He was brave, if a little naive, but definitely a quick learner and always eager for adventure.  He could roll with the changes in the Doctor's traveling lifestyle with ease and the most adorable smile you've ever seen.  Jamie's story arc is one major reason I often bemoan the fact that so little of the Troughton era remains complete - how cool would it be to watch Jamie's character progression from an 18th century Scotsman with little knowledge of anything outside his own circumstances to someone who fully accepts and embraces time-and-space travel?  But there's no point in lamenting what you can't control, I suppose.  But I can get annoyed that Jamie and Zoe Heriot's memories of traveling with the Doctor were taken away by the Time Lords at the end of "The War Games" because - ARGH! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO A COMPANION??? WHY WHY WHY??

Yes, I'm side-eyeing you, RTD. SO HARD! (poor, poor Donna...)

So, when I discovered Big Finish had produced a trilogy of audio stories with the Sixth Doctor with Jamie as the companion, I wondered "How in the name of Gallifrey is this going to work?"  How are they going to justify Jamie meeting the Doctor again and how will he remember the Doctor and what will the Doctor have to do to bring Jamie along on these adventures?

(Before I go on - I'm blaming/crediting Traveling the Vortex for my renewed binge on Big Finish.  Last week, they had a Companion Archive for Evelyn Smythe, who is a Big Finish-only companion.  And we're watching "The War Games" for Friday Night Who last week and this week.  So, this is their fault).

Long story short (and spoiler-free) - Big Finish did all of that. And more.  You owe it to yourself to seek out these three stories and listen to them (and there is a Companion Chronicle that goes with them - "Night's Black Agents" - but I haven't bought it yet. I will soon, though).

Short story made longer - Let's just take this one story at a time:

(SPOILERS really begin here, so if you're looking to remain unspoiled on the Big Finish stuff, this is where you ought to stop. Seriously - stop now.)

"City of Spires" - This starts out where you'd expect Jamie to be, given how "The War Games" ended. The highlanders are at war with the Redcoats (though Jamie doesn't show up until later).  The Sixth Doctor sort of stumbles into the middle of the fighting (you know, like the Doctor always does) and eventually meets up with Jamie, who is now much older and doesn't remember the Doctor at all.  This story is pretty straightforward - your standard Doctor-meets-new-companion (or former companion who's about to get re-recruited) story.  I won't lie - it's a little odd to have Jamie with the Sixth Doctor at first, but the decision to write Jamie as someone older and with more life experience (and not all of it positive) helped make the reunion work.  Plus, there's a mystery for the Doctor to solve that directly relates to Jamie.  Recall that, at the end of "The War Games," when the Time Lords erased Jamie and Zoe's memories, they were allowed to keep the memories of their first adventure with the Doctor, but they never left in the TARDIS.  The mystery here is this: Jamie doesn't remember anything about the Doctor.  Not even his very first meeting (which would have taken place in "The Highlanders").  So, there's that to figure out on top of the other, more pressing weirdness of anachronistic oil drilling in 18th century Scotland.

"The Wreck of the Titan" - This is where things get really odd.  It starts with the title and the trailer for this story.  The trailer mentions the Doctor and Jamie have landed on the Titanic - which is all the trailer could really talk about without giving away the entire thing.  And as similar as the two are, Titanic is NOT Titan.  BUT - and this is where serendipity comes in because I listened to this the weekend all the Titanic centennial commemoration was going on - there is a book called "The Wreck of the Titan" that was published 14 years before the actual Titanic sank (go here to read about the uncanny similarities between the fictional Titan and the real Titanic).  So, I'm wondering where in the world this is going.  This isn't going to be the movie Titanic with Jack and Rose being replaced with the Doctor and Jamie? Because that would be cool on one level, but totally bizarre on another level.

Luckily, they kept James Cameron away from this one and brought in the fictional Titan.  And that's where things start getting interesting (and where I had my AHA! moment).  Right before the Titanic is due for her date with the iceberg, everything shifts and turns into the story of the Titan.  Even the characters change.  And instead of falling into the ocean, the Doctor and one other character wind up on the iceberg being chased by hungry polar bears (it's a lot cooler in the audio, believe me).  In the meantime, Jamie hooks up with Captain Nemo and the Nautilus and it's about here that my absolute favorite Troughton-era story comes into play.

My friends - Big Finish actually revisted "The Mind Robber." And the fandom rejoiced. (don't click that link if you value your free time).

By "fandom," I mean one crazy fangirl that's bouncing up and down in her seat while driving down to visit her folks for the weekend. Amazing that I didn't careen into the ditch.

"Legend of the Cybermen" - And we're back to the Land of Fiction. Oh and Zoe's back!! (HOLY CRAP - IT IS ZOE!)  And the White Robots! And the Karkuss! And the unicorns! And the - and the - *squee!*

(And there is an absolutely hilarious scene where the fictional characters start narrating their own stories - but Jamie thinks he's in a booth in a sound studio recording for a radio play. Complete with Nicholas Briggs directing and the Doctor/Colin Baker tapping the window of Jamie/Frazer Hines' sound booth and referring to them being trapped in meta-fiction.  It's downright brilliant).

All right, all right - not everything is a fantastic trip down memory lane.  For one thing, the Cybermen have invaded the Land of Fiction.  For another, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe discover that the oil that was being drilled clear back in "City of Spires" isn't oil.  It's ink.  And what do you do with ink?  You write stories with it.  Stories like "Alice in Wonderland" and "Dracula" and "Oliver Twist." Oh, and you bring an old traveling companion to life in the Land of Fiction so you can call on the Doctor to come help you get rid of the clunky old aliens that you inadvertently dragged into this place when they attacked your home.

Translation: Zoe became is the Mistress of the Land of Fiction when the Cybermen attacked her home, she created a fictional Jamie from her memories of him, fictional!Jamie took on a life of his own to the point of getting older, the Doctor got pulled into the Land of Fiction by Zoe and I'm a pile of goo because "What? Jamie's not real???"

(That was FOREVER HEARTBREAK when Jamie realizes he's not a real person and even goes so far as to berate the Doctor for never going back to check in on the real Jamie back in Scotland.  I mean, Jamie does have a point - but does he have to be so mean about it?  Well... yeah, he kind of does... Doesn't mean I have to like it, though).

In the end, the Cybermen are defeated.  Jamie sacrifices his own life to allow the Doctor to escape with Zoe.  The Doctor gets Zoe back to her home on the space station, but not before Zoe forgets the Doctor again.  And the end theme tune plays - with the Troughton-era tune melding into the Colin Baker tune and I want to crawl into a corner and sob.

(On a lighter note - I can't help but think that there was someone at the Big Finish studios that, in a fit of boredom fueled by whimsy, doodled various mythical creatures like fairies and mermaids as partially-converted Cybermen.  On the surface, the idea sounds terrible, but it really works and it's even worth a good laugh).

On the whole, I loved this entire trilogy (I'm not even sure what to call it.  The Jamie Trilogy? The Mind Robber sequel?)  It's Big Finish doing what they do best - creating new stories for well-loved characters and putting them in physical and emotional situations that were unheard of Back in the Day (and probably couldn't be done on TV anyway).  I love that Jamie gets another chance to shine and underneath all that life experience as a jaded war hero, he's still that lovable and endearing traveling companion that I absolutely adore.  This aspect of Jamie meshes well with the Sixth Doctor - where Jamie isn't 100% sure of this goofy-looking "Frenchman" and the Doctor is able to handle it with grace and appeal to that part of Jamie that never really forgot his friend (I maintain that the companions who are made to forget the Doctor still retain a bit of remembrance deep in their subconscious because an experience like the Doctor is too wonderful and precious to ever truly erase.  Sure, it's sentimental and goopy but I don't care).

Bottom Line: I need a Jamie marathon now. (I don't care that it's 12:30 in the morning - where is my "Mind Robber" DVD???)