The Following Takes Place Between "Spearhead from Space" and "Inferno"

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 3.02

Title: The Last Post
Written by: James Goss
Team TARDIS: Third Doctor, Liz Shaw, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Adversary: Daniel Prestaigne, The Apocalypse Clock
Release Date: October 2012
Range and Number: Companion Chronicles 7.04

Synopsis (from TARDIS Wikia) -
People are dying. Just a few, over a period of months... but the strange thing is that each person received a letter predicting the date and time of their death.
Throughout her time as the Doctor’s assistant, Liz Shaw has been documenting these passings. Her investigation ultimately uncovers a threat that could lead to the end of the world, but this time Liz has someone to help her.
Her mother.

My Review:
One of the most grievous errors that gets made in assessing the Doctor's various companions is the short shrift given to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw.  Yes, she was only there the one season. No, she never traveled in the TARDIS (thanks either to Time Lord exile or BBC budgetary issues - take your pick).  But she is one of my favorites and no discussion of the Pertwee era would be complete without remarking on her additions to the show.

Something I hadn't known until very recently was how close Doctor Who was to being canceled in 1970.  On the "Spearhead from Space" DVD, there's a documentary about this transition period for the show and they discussed how most of the BBC brass figured that Doctor Who had a good run, but six years was good enough for any show and it was time for something completely new.  But they didn't have anything in mind, so they granted Doctor Who a one-year reprieve until they could decide what to fill the slot with.  In many ways, Doctor Who gave the BBC a completely brand new show within the old one - the Doctor was stranded on Earth, UNIT became a permanent fixture, and it was in color!  And the companion? Well, the companion wasn't going to be a traditional companion.  At least, not that you could compare to what had come before (though I'm going to try to).

Liz Shaw is the scientific advisor for UNIT (at least, she is until the Doctor comes in).  She isn't this wide-eyed kid that the Doctor charms with promises of adventures in time and space because, well, he doesn't have that to offer anymore.  Liz is a very competent career woman with her own objectives and goals and scientific achievements.  Furthermore, she doesn't take crap from anybody, not even the Doctor.  She does come to trust him, however, especially in instances where she is waaaaay out of her depth (to be fair - everybody's out of their depth when shop-window dummies start attacking people or when the Silurians come out to play).  Liz is the type of companion the show hadn't seen... probably since Barbara Wright - a mature, adult woman who's got her life pretty well in order and doesn't want to do anything to upset that, but all that gets knocked askew when the Doctor comes into the picture (though obviously, Liz's experiences are drastically different than Barbara's - but the basis for both characters is remarkably similar).

Doctor Who is at its best when change is in the air.  The most obvious types of change are changes in the Doctor or companions, but that could also mean change in producers or storytelling techniques or episode format or villains.  I contend that, outside of the 2005 revival, the 1970 season was the time that Doctor Who experienced the most change.  Everything was brand new - even the adversaries (Daleks or Cybermen  never even came up, nor did any references to past companions).  It is against this backdrop "The Last Post" is set.

(Ha. Wondered how I was going to transition, didn't you?)

"The Last Post" starts out with Liz having lunch with her mother, Emily.  Right off the bat, Liz Shaw is getting the kind of treatment that I imagine she would had she been around for more than one season.  Emily Shaw (played by Rowena Cooper) is as different from her scientifically-minded daughter as it is possible to be - Dame Emily (as other characters refer to her as, and it fits perfectly) is an expert in medieval belief systems at Oxford and she doesn't give a whit about science and would much rather discuss art, poetry, mythology and superstition.  It would be so easy to say that Liz and her mother don't get along based on their different academic pursuits - but it's the exact opposite!  Emily is very proud of her daughter, even though Liz diverged from the family tradition of the arts (I call it a "family tradition" because Liz's sister, Lucy, is an architect and it's implied that most of the family has gone into artistic fields).  And Liz actually goes to her mother for help in solving a problem that seems to have its roots in the supernatural.

This story takes the idea that all the strange deaths that happened in Season 7 were loosely connected, in that the people who died were sent letters telling them the date and time they would meet their end.  I'm not as well-versed in Season 7 as I'd like to be, but in the interview included at the end of this audio, writer James Goss said that there were so many government officials who died in Season 7 of really bizarre causes and he wondered if maybe there was a reason for all of that.  The story as a whole takes place throughout the events of Season 7 and there are plenty of fun little mentions of the stories from that season (alien plastic, lizard men, missing astronauts - just to name a few).  Turns out that these officials were all on a committee to predict life expectancy - but they ended up dependent on a machine that could ultimately predict the end of the world (a machine, interestingly enough, that has its roots in WOTAN from "The War Machines" - there are some nice little nods to that story as well).

The framing device in this story - as with all the Companion Chronicles I've reviews thus far; I'm beginning to think this is a trend - is really clever.  The first scene in the story has Liz and her mother in the same place talking to each other, just to establish the characters' relationship.  But from there on out, the narrative takes the form of letters and phone calls between Liz and Emily.  That framework gives the story room and time to take place over the course of a full season (how long that is in real time, who really has a clue?) and it also gives Emily's character time to grow and the listener to become familiar with her.  After all, as a companion's mother she should be a very sympathetic individual.

I have to give some mention to the Brigadier. He is simply delightful in this - even through Liz’s POV. When Liz says “The world is ending,” the Brigadier replies “Does the Doctor say so?” (the Doctor’s been knocked out by a sting from an alien scorpion thing, but he’s okay). I loved this because even though the Doctor and the Brigadier disagree on various things and bicker from time to time, he still trusts the Doctor.  It's just fun to still have the Brig around in Big Finish, even though Nicholas Courtney has passed.

There are some particular lines in this story that I just love.  Liz is usually seen as a straight-laced, mature, responsible person - which she is.  But she also has a bit of a snarky side and Goss gave her some great dialogue to work with (and I have to point out that Caroline John still sounds like Liz Shaw from 1970 - I could easily imagine Liz as she was on TV in this story).  Some of my favorites:

- "The Brigadier even reads neatly." (Caroline John's impression of the Brigadier is just lovely).

- (Speaking about Prestaigne): "If the Doctor were here, he'd break out the Venusian Akido. I just wanted to kick him in the shins."

- (Speaking about the Doctor): "The first time he came to UNIT he looked like a geography teacher."

This one isn't Liz's, but it's good anyway -

The Apocalypse Clock: "Doctor who? He is required" (cute little nod to "The War Machines")

A few words on the interview included on the audio: as I listened to the interview, I felt incredibly sad. Mostly because Caroline John passed away a few months after recording this, but also because she, Rowena Cooper and the production team all talk like there will be more Big Finish stories with Liz and her mother. The idea sounds incredible because Liz and Emily are such great characters. Even though they’re both very different - Liz is a scientist and Emily is into the arts - there’s still a lot of love between this mother and daughter combination. You don’t often get that - usually when there’s a parent-child dichotomy, they end up fighting at some point. While Liz and Emily do have their moments of being annoyed with each other, it never becomes heated or angry. There’s always a softer element of love and admiration between the two - a definite family bond that would have been lovely to see again.

When I heard about the passing of Caroline John last summer, there was a great sadness.  I really liked Liz as a companion and she's one of those people that I would love to have met at a convention and just be able to say how much I enjoy her performance in Doctor Who (along with Jacqueline Hill and Michael Craze and Mary Tamm and Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen - yeah, pretty much everyone ever).  But I am grateful for the stories she did leave us with and that we all get to keep Liz Shaw with us as long as we want to.  With that in mind, I'd like to end this review with Babelcolour's tribute to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw -


*I owe a debt in part to io9's lovely article they posted soon after Caroline John's passing asserting how the character of Liz Shaw helped saved Doctor Who in 1970.  It's a wonderful little read, so go check it out.

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 3.03 - Oh, were you using this planet? My bad...

Previously -
Review 3.01 - Those Best Suited to Rule

A Reunion of Friends

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 2.02 

Title: The Forbidden Time
Written by: David Lock
Team TARDIS: Second Doctor, Ben, Polly (narrates), Jamie (supporting character)
Adversary: The Vist
Release Date: March 2011
Range and Number: Companion Chronicles 5.09


Synopsis:

Time Walkers have descended upon the Earth. This alien race, known as The Vist, has claimed an area of time for itself – any species entering into the immediate future will pay the most terrible forfeit.

The human race is in a state of panic, but one woman knows the truth. Her name is Polly Wright, and she visited that future many years ago, with the Doctor, Jamie and Ben.

She has stepped into the Forbidden Time – and this is her story…


My Review: 

Soon after coming home from Gallifrey One this past February, I was motivated to go on a splurge of '60s Who.  Not sure why, exactly - maybe it was meeting such luminaries like Peter Purves, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling or maybe it was seeing the heretofore missing episode 2 of "Galaxy 4" with a convention ballroom full of my new best friends. Or maybe I just wanted to find some new-to-me Doctor Who.  Whatever the reason, the fact remains that I went seeking out eras of Doctor Who I'd only ever heard about and not experienced for myself.  In the course of this adventure, I discovered the rather unsung companion duo of Ben and Polly.

Ben and Polly were the first companions to experience their Doctor regenerating - they joined Team TARDIS in the Hartnell-era "The War Machines" and left in the Troughton story "The Faceless Ones."  I don't know the numbers precisely, but there is a substantial percentage of their stories missing - maybe theirs are missing the most, who knows?  But I've come to enjoy Ben and Polly quite a bit - just from the standpoint of them both being such ordinary, modern (for the 1960s) people.  Ben is a sailor in the navy on shore leave and Polly is a secretary for a high-powered scientist/businessman.  They're joined later by Jamie McCrimmon, who I fangirled over extensively in my previous entry (and rightly so).  I know this is kind of backwards, but like I mentioned before, Jamie really takes a backseat to Ben and Polly in his earliest stories - probably for similar reasons that Turlough gets captured or knocked out or locked up a lot in the Fifth Doctor's era - the writers didn't really know what to do with a third companion.  Which is why "The Forbidden Time" is so much fun.

Like the last Companion Chronicle I reviewed, this story also makes use of cutting between two narrative structures.  The difference here is, where “The Rocket Men” cut between different points in Ian’s timeline, “The Forbidden Time” cuts between two different characters’ points of view of similar events (in this case, Polly and Jamie - with the help of a digital voice recorder that Jamie becomes quite adept at using.  Like I said, he’s a fast learner).  Also, this story is an anomaly for the Companion Chronicles line in that both of the actors in the story are companions, even though one is clearly the lead narrator for the story.  This was a fantastic decision on the part of Big Finish because, while Jamie was often the second fiddle to Ben and Polly in televised Who, this story makes it clear that he was learning and adapting to time-and-space travel even before he became the Second Doctor's right-hand-man.  It also gives a clearer picture of how he interacted with Ben and Polly and how they all regarded each other as sort of a sibling, let's-all-look-out-for-each-other relationship.

I also loved this story because of the one-on-one time Polly gets with the Doctor.  Team TARDIS gets separated early on, with Ben being displaced in time by the Vist's time fence and Jamie simply running in the opposite direction (though equipped with a digital recording device that Polly gave him at the beginning of the story that she uses as evidence when the Vist's mysterious message comes back years later to haunt the people of Earth).  So, Polly becomes the audience's eyes-and-ears to what the Doctor is doing.  And it turns out that the Doctor tells Polly a lot more that the TV stories ever let on.  This is due in no small part to Polly's thoughtful questions and tenacity in confronting these problems head-on. I like the opportunity that Polly gets to spend this time on her own with the Doctor. She gets to ask him some things that she wouldn't normally ask him if Ben and Jamie were around.  It’s not anything that would ruin continuity, but it’s a chance to see another companion try to connect with the Doctor on an emotional level (it happens with the Doctor and Victoria in “The Tomb of the Cybermen” when Victoria asks the Doctor about his family). It’s just nice to get to know these people who you’re spending all this time with running from peril to peril, that’s all.

I want to talk about Polly as a companion in general because some of the way she's perceived really bugs me. I don’t know where this idea comes from of Polly being this simpering, coffee-making doormat that haunts feminism’s nightmares, but the only time I've ever seen (or heard) her do that was in “The Moonbase” and the coffee actually turned out to be a rather important plot point (well, the sugar in the coffee, anyway). She certainly has her scared-out-of-her-wits moments - who doesn’t? - but she’s also a very competent and resilient girl. One moment of hers that I really loved was in “The Underwater Menace” when she's about to be turned into a fish-slave and - prepped for surgery and strapped to a gurney while people are waving hypodermic needles around, no less - she yells out defiantly, “You’re not turning me into a fish!” So, yeah, Polly’s not a pushover.

(Don't know about the rest of you, but the needles alone would be enough to reduce me to a weeping pile of mush).

I’m starting to think that the stereotype of the weakling girly companion is just something the press made up to pick on Doctor Who back when the cool kids were picking on the show and its fans. Actually, they still do it when there’s a new companion and she’s suddenly the only one ever that hasn't been a screamer, even though the last four or five haven’t been either (according to the press, anyway. Fans who know what they’re talking about just roll their eyes and get on with their damn day). I've never really gotten the impression that any of the girls were truly that helpless. Okay... maybe Mel and even then, only at cliffhangers. But other than that - yeah, can’t really think of one (and because I know someone will come along and bitch about Jo Grant and that she was this screaming ninny in a miniskirt - your smackdown is coming. Never fear).

Back to “The Forbidden Time” - I really like the framing device for this story where the human race is being threatened by alien creatures in the future and Polly, as one of the Doctor’s former companions, comes forward to share her knowledge of the threat. It’s very reminiscent of what Sarah Jane's gang does in The Sarah Jane Adventures and I’d like to think that other companions have done similar things.  The opening setting of "The Forbidden Time  sounds almost like a press conference of sorts and Polly proves that she’s been on these fantastic adventures by producing the voice recorder that has Jamie telling his side of the story as he is wandering around in this “time fence” that the Vist have created.

According to TARDIS Wikia, this is the first time since “The Faceless Ones” that Anneke Wills and Frazer Hines actually appear together performing their characters from Doctor Who, even though they both had other stories in the Companion Chronicles range previous to this story. It is cool to hear Jamie and Polly in the same story, sort of interacting via the voice recorder.  This framing device was used so well that I almost forgot that Polly and Jamie were supposed to be separated.  That sense of friendship and shared experience even works at the end when Polly's alone and she rewinds the recording of Jamie saying that he would not have traded traveling with the Doctor, Ben and Polly for anything.  And Polly closes out the story be replying "That goes for me, too."  I don't know how better to end this very special story that reunites friends and companions - if only for a short time and not in a very precise way.  It underscores the special experience of being the Doctor's companion - kind of like an exclusive club that the rest of us get to look in on from time to time.

I wouldn't trade it for anything.

***
Next Time, on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 2.03 - Let's Checkmate Caesar!

Previously -
Review 2.01 - A Work of Heart

I Think It's Gonna Be a Long, Long Time

Librarian in the TARDIS, Review 1.02

Title: The Rocket Men
Written by: John Dorney
Team TARDIS: First Doctor, Ian (narrates), Barbara, Vicki
Adversaries: Ashman, the Rocket Men
Release Date: August 2011
Range and Number: Companion Chronicles 6.02

Okay, Whovian boys and girls - I have a teeny-tiny confession to make.

I am a shipper.

I know, I know - you're thinking of those 15-year-old girls on Tumblr photoshopping Ten and Rose into all sorts of, shall we say, compromising positions or poorly-written slash-fic about Captain Jack, Sabalom Glitz and a mango (don't ask me how I know of these things - it scares me too).  But I come from a more sweeter brand of shipper.  The kind that appreciates a sprinkling of warm-fuzzies living harmonious alongside the requisite "Yeah, man! Let's blow crap up!" in her speculative fiction.  Admittedly, some people don't.  Their reaction is "Feelings are icky!"  That is perfectly fine.  But that doesn't stop me from going "Awwww..." when two characters share A Moment, no matter how brief.

That being said - is there anyone out there doubting that Ian and Barbara are an Item?  It may not be exactly canon, but it's darn near to it*.  I figured it out somewhere between "The Reign of Terror" and "Planet of Giants" (Sue beat me by four stories - she figured it out in "The Keys of Marinus," so more power to her).  While I have many reasons why I enjoyed "The Rocket Men," the exploration of Ian and Barbara's relationship may be my number one reason why I liked this story so much.

(I think I just scared away all the fanboys *evil cackle*)

Anyway - I’m getting off-subject here (I listen to Traveling the Vortex. They tangent. A lot. It rubs off on me. I have an excuse). “The Rocket Men” is from Big Finish’s Companion Chronicles line, so it’s a little different than the main range. The stories are shorter and they only involve two people - one of the Doctor’s companions telling the story and one other voice as supporting cast (though this pattern doesn’t hold true for all of them. There are a few with two companions and one that I know of - “Peri and the Piscon Paradox” - actually features the Sixth Doctor as the supporting character). Personally, I like the Companion Chronicles because it gives Big Finish a chance to create stories taking place in eras of Doctor Who where the actor who played the Doctor has passed on, but their companions’ actors are still around. And they do some really clever stuff (would we expect anything different from Big Finish? Nope, not at all).

“The Rocket Men” is the story of the First Doctor taking Ian, Barbara and Vicki to the resort plant of Jobis for a short holiday from running away from monsters and tyrants and all manner of baddies. Of course, this being Doctor Who, something bad has to happen. That something bad takes the form of a bunch of intergalactic pirates flying around on trademark rocket packs invading the resort and looking for the Doctor (who, conveniently enough, has gone off somewhere to collaborate with some other scientist doing science-y things. Hey, the guy’s on holiday. That’s what he does).

There are a fair number of stories in Doctor Who that involve the Doctor taking his companions on a vacation of sorts (“Midnight” did it for TV, “Vampires of Venice” was supposed to be this, and there are a few other Big Finish audios and novels that use this trope as well). But the way this audio starts out with Ian (as played by William Russell, who’s falls into the character of Ian, even years later) talking about “When do you know?” in a very thoughtful and meaningful way that clues you into the fact that this is not going to be a typical death-defying adventure - though there certainly is plenty of death-defying to go around.

The action begins with a group of hostages - Ian, Barbara and Vicki among them - being menaced by a bunch of space pirates led by the slimy Ashman. The Rocket Men (so called because of the rocket packs they fly around on) are looking for the Doctor and they know he's checked into the resort with three other people and they're looking for the Doctor's companions. However, the narrative doesn't stay linear. It keeps flashing back to when they first arrived on Jobis, showing how much fun and relaxing the trip started out. It's meant to be jarring - showing that, yes, traveling with the Doctor can be fun and amazing and life-changing, but it's risky too.

You'd think the narrative jumps would be jarring, but they're written in such a way that the story almost drifts between the relaxation and mortal peril. This is especially evident in the scene where Ian is diving after Barbara after Ashman throws her out off the observation deck above the planet - sort of like a "life flash before your eyes" thing.

Oh - and after Ian rescues Barbara and she's going to be perfectly safe? Ashman shows up for a mid-air hand-to-hand dogfight. And it is fantastic! (sheesh - my high school chemistry teacher was never this badass. Mostly he was an ass. That's another story).

I started out this post talking about shipping and how I enjoy a little bit of romantic fluff in my sci-fi. Well, "The Rocket Men" certainly has it's share of fluff and then some. Though, it seems a little strange to call this "fluff," since it fits so seamlessly into the action. It's all Ian's stream-of-consciousness thoughts - one minute he'll be thinking "Wow, this planet's pretty neat" or "Crap, we're in trouble now" and the next minute he's all "I really like Barbara" (it's much more elegantly written than that, but you get the picture - when the shipper goggles come out to play, I tend to get quite silly).

(And it turns out that the Doctor's a bit of a shipper too. The fact that even the "old and grumpy" First Doctor has to give Ian a bit of a nudge at the end gave me all kinds of joyful-fangirl-happy giggles).

The best part is a bit at the end where Ian reflects on how much he and Barbara have been through in their travels and it was fun to hear my own thoughts and theories voiced in this story. I don't think it's possible for anyone to share something so extraordinary and dangerous with someone else without coming away with at least some affection for the other person. Ian and Barbara come from similar backgrounds, they were both kidnapped by the Doctor, they more or less stuck with each other through the beginning of their travels, it was some time before they really trusted the Doctor and Susan, and they left the TARDIS together. Who else are you going to talk to about your adventures when you get home? Fans can write and speculate about this stuff all they want, but it's nice to see it acknowledged in some way by official media. Even more sweet is when the characters themselves give voice to it (which is why I would much rather ship characters that are plausible within canon and leave Jack, Glitz and the mango firmly in the domain of Tumblr). It's probably silly to get all giddy about this story (after all people DIE!), but I do. And the whole thing makes me quite happy.

On that note - should I post the song? It has absolutely nothing to do with my post, but I've been humming it all day while I've worked on this, so I think you all should be infected with the earworm as well. Enjoy.

 

***
*I take that back - at the end of the Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Death of the Doctor," Sarah Jane lists off a bunch of the Doctor's past companions and she specifically mentions that Ian and Barbara are married. So, yeah, RTD took care of that for us - HOORAY!

***
Next Time on Librarian in the TARDIS -
Review 1.03 - A Doctor Who novel influenced by the writing of Agatha Christie.

Previously -
Review 1.01 - A Call to Adventure