Home Truths

Home Truths has proved to be one of the best, if not the best, Companion Chronicle. Big Finish has recently made it obvious (to me, anyway) that it can think wonderfully outside the box, with the last series of Eighth Doctor/Lucie plays, and while the Companion Chronicles in general excel at doing that, this one stands out particularly for subverting expectations in many ways. With influences as diverse as M R James, Chimes of Midnight/ “Ghost Light” and Ray Bradbury, Home Truths captures both elements of Doctor Who—forwards and backwards in time—to create, I would argue, an addition to that line of rare sideways-in-time adventures.

Without giving too much away, it combines all the elements of a fireside yarn, a ghostly house, a Gothic tale-within-a-tale (the isolated atmosphere of “Miss Kingdom”’s house reminded me of “Usher Inn”), a mystery, with an excellent meta-twist. Jean Marsh returns to the role of Sara Kingdom, pooh-poohed as an official companion by some, and creates such an elegy on the character that her legitimacy can never be doubted again. Guerrier has gone to real pains to imagine Sara Kingdom’s past and to make her come alive as a woman, not just a companion. Like Charley in Chimes of Midnight, she has a revelatory moment of coming to terms with time and trauma.

The frame story is not only necessary but more complex than it originally appears. It nicely offsets the ultra-modern story Sara tells in flashback about landing with the Doctor and Steven in a strange house. The play is quite a frightening on with old-fashioned chills. Despite some tense moments, Home Truths is almost a story where “everybody lives,” though at a cost. It alos sets itself up nicely for a sequel, which the popularity of the release then made possible.

I would include this up there with Frostfire and The Mahogany Murderers as the best of the Companion Chronicles.

The Great Space Elevator

Jonathan Morris wanted to give us something wholly of its time—the short period when Troughton, Hines, and Watling graced the screen in futuristic black-and-white—and that knowledge of period is definitely the strength of this Companion Chronicle. It truly feels like a TV adventure that, but for budget constraints, could and would have been produced. The only difference is that it lets Victoria, who is, after all, telling the story, get a more heroic role, relegating Jamie to a bit of silliness, and allowing her to save the day. The plot is simple and very “base-under-siege” with a strong emphasis on science—in that way it dovetails very nicely (but unknowingly) with The Four Doctors, which I listened to recently.

Deborah Watling does a competent job playing Victoria, the Doctor, and Jamie, but the guest artist, Helen Goldwyn[1], is totally wasted on a boring and not very dramatic part, which forces Watling to carry almost the entire play on her own. It ends up feeling a bit like the linking narration of a lost episode.

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[1] Helen Goldwyn is much used by Big Finish, playing everyone from Dr. Evelyn Smythe’s student in Doctor Who and the Pirates! to aliens in Storm Warning to Christine in Phantom of the Opera.

The Catalyst

Leela was somehow not a companion I expected to hear in the Companion Chronicles; I’ve no idea why. Perhaps it had to do with the possible difficulty in narrative voice; as Louise Jameson says in the commentary at the end of the CD, Leela is not stupid, just uneducated. In fact, this makes her quite a good narrative voice for a Companion Chronicle, given that she can only report on her sensual perception, in her own terms, and is not hampered by trying to tell the story from the Doctor’s perspective. My other reason, perhaps, is that the Companion Chronicles I’ve heard so far, with perhaps the exceptions of Transit of Venus and Old Soldiers, featured actors who are good mimics, which helps.

But being a good mimic does not prove to be the be-all and end-all for Companion Chronicles. As Jameson points out, it’s extremely difficult for a woman to mimic Tom Baker’s voice due to the pure physical aspect: large chest cavity and vocal apparatus! This actually lends quite another dimension to Jameson’s performance as the Doctor, somehow making him more like the Doctor Leela herself would have perceived, emphasizing his otherworldliness and moral distance, especially at points where he chides her for using lethal force. The other performances Jameson gives, as the Victorian mother and daughter pair, are quite effective. The Catalyst is quite hilarious in parts; we’ve seen how little time Leela has for creatures like this in Horror of Fang Rock and her often shocking rejoinders to poor Jessica make for great drama. Jessica is, despite her being firmly rooted in her time and class, starting to make for companion material, before things go horribly wrong.

Despite the perhaps light-hearted Gothic trappings that begin The Catalyst, in the end it proves to be a bloodbath. The clever way Timothy Watson is able to play the Z’Nai is helped by some good visual description, always vital for a Companion Chronicle. When Leela is given the power to inflict death by—how do I say this without spoiling you?—pervasive and yet low-effort means, I was reminded of Harry Potter’s surprising power over Quirrell/Voldemort at the end of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This is quite empowering for a female companion in general, but in Leela it seems a surprising “gift” (it of course makes a wicked rejoinder/finale when she is captured as an old woman by the Z’Nai) that could be better spent on someone less formidable than Leela.

Old Soldiers

Old Soldiers

Much as I love Nick Courtney (and The Scarifyers proved he could do a good Brigadier-ish character on audio; he was definitely the best part of those plays), I wasn’t too sure about this play going into it. There is no “device” as such; the Brigadier has just grabbed you, the privileged listener, for a chat and a drink (it sounds like whiskey J ). It’s that much more poignant to listen to this story, written by James Swallow, after Courtney’s death when you realize it’s more of an elegy to the Brigadier than a Companion Chronicle in the strictest sense. Certainly the Third Doctor is involved, from his flashy entrance to his rigging up of some logic-defying gadgety-device, but it’s much more the Brigadier’s story. It’s set directly after “The Silurians” (which is diplomatically referred to as “the incident at Wenley Moor”) which helps it achieve some gravity which fits well with the theme. In tone the story reminded me a bit of The Spectre of Lanyon Moor and some elements of the plot echoed “Invasion of the Dinosaurs”! Nevertheless, it was quite a nice notion to think that, in the spirit of UNIT cooperation of the (1970s? 1980s?) the Brigadier could have struck up so strong a friendship with the German Konrad.

Toby Longworth did well, playing both German roles, and it was impressive that the two actors managed to carry off a cast of literally hundreds, aided in large part by the precise sound design.

This audio underlines the fact that in losing Courtney, we have lost not only the Brigadier, but an excellent actor, who can weave a gripping spell with his voice alone.