Hex is dead. And a distraught Ace holds the Doctor responsible.
She forces him to take a trip to 21st century Liverpool to break the news to Hex’s beloved nan and, to pay tribute to Thomas Hector Schofield, the pair seek out his family and friends to tell them of his adventures. They’re helped by Private Sally Morgan, who has her own peace to find.
The Doctor, Ace and Sally must each face the fallout of the loss of their friend – to commemorate him, remember him, and finally to move on. But can they do it together, or will their attempts drive them apart?
AFTERLIFE
The final monthly release of 2013, Matt Fitton’s “Afterlife” returns to the story of the Doctor, Ace, and Hex, purporting to deal with the fallout of Hex’s death at the end of the terrible “Gods and Monsters.” It’s a good effort, though it’s crushingly unsubtle in places and sets up future events that won’t work unless they proceed in a specific direction. But it’s an honest effort to deal with emotions, and for that it deserves a lot of credit.
The first episode is set entirely within the TARDIS, featuring the Doctor and Ace each trying to come to terms with the other’s grief. We’ve seen this sort of thing before – the human companion unable to understand the Time Lord’s natural detachment – but rarely has this much time been spent on the subject. It’s generally effective, especially Ace’s rage and frustration, but the biggest problem here is a lack of subtlety. To compare to two better stories: first, at the end of the first half of “Project: Lazarus,” Evelyn is crushed over Cassie’s death and the Doctor doesn’t know what to do to comfort her. He knows she loves chocolate cake, and so he awkwardly offers her a piece, but that only makes things worse – ironically, he doesn’t know that the one thing she needs more than anything is time. Here, the Doctor makes a similarly futile gesture, making pancakes for his heartbroken companion, but his thought process is “She just needs to get her blood sugar up!” The Doctor isn’t an idiot, nor is he a robot unaware of how these “humans” think, so to make him this inexplicably ignorant is a baffling decision. Second, during the sublime “A Death in the Family” – where all this should have ended, incidentally – we see Ace trying to live a normal life with an ordinary man but failing miserably. Through these scenes, it becomes clear that Ace has been traveling with the Doctor for so long that she’s unable to return to the real world, and this is one of the many ways we see the Doctor’s impact on his companions. In “Afterlife,” the same point about Ace is made, but it’s made by Ace herself yelling at the Doctor that she’s been traveling with him for too long and can’t go back to the real world. This is fine if you like the theme scrawled in flaming letters like God’s Final Message To His Creation, but it certainly doesn’t ask the listener to think at all.
Once the first episode passes, though, the Doctor becomes a particular highlight of the story. His awkward attempt at a memorial speech is painful yet understandable, and the sudden appearance of Sally to bail him out is a decided relief. The flashbacks make a point of the Doctor keeping secrets from his companions, and even at the climax he once again has to ask Ace to trust him – and, like always, she does. This is one of the rare times we see him unleash his full fury, and much like “The Family of Blood” speech it homages, it inspires awe and fear in equal measure. McCoy is in fine form, though he rolls his “R”s a bit too much, and he convincingly presents the Doctor’s alien thought processes.
Ace is a different problem altogether. While I’ve already seen complaints about the end of the story, and the way Philip Olivier is allowed to continue as a TARDIS regular, I think the idea could be successful – but only if Ace is proven wrong. Even the Doctor comments that Ace struggles with human emotions, and the way she acts throughout the story is irrational at best: she tries to bring Thomas to Hex’s grandmother for protection, and she’s fortunate the two of them didn’t meet, given the obvious potential for emotional fallout. At the very end, when she says “This is me, moving on,” it goes without saying that she’s lying to herself, doing the exact opposite of moving on. The Doctor tries to tell her that Thomas isn’t Hex, that he lacks all of his memories, but she won’t listen, consumed with the desire to bring her friend back. This could be a great arc if it’s used to explore Ace, if she does indeed get it all wrong, if she can’t bring her friend back, if it focuses on her inability to relate to the real world. But if, as I fear, it becomes a quest narrative that ends with Hex back in the TARDIS, it’ll be a colossal failure. Still, you can’t punish “Afterlife” for what does or does not happen in future stories, and I’m interested to see where things go.
The rest of the story isn’t much to speak of. My dislike for the Elder Gods plot knows no bounds, and trying to tie it up in a clichéd gangster narrative doesn’t clean it up at all. The brief scene with Hex negotiating a return to Earth with a fire elemental is cringe-inducing – “over the top” doesn’t even begin to describe it, though “absolutely terrible” does. Jean Boht is magnificent, though, a relatable rock in an increasingly turbulent sea of a plot. The production is also a success, with particular mention of Andy Hardwick’s emotional score.
Overall, “Afterlife” is a success. It’s not brilliant – it’s too unsubtle for that, and it occasionally retreads ground from the same arc. It also drags in the middle and the conclusion raises serious eyebrows. But it’s nice to hear an entire story dedicated to dealing with consequences, not just hopping into the TARDIS and heading off on further adventures. It’s nice to hear the regulars challenged with strong emotional scenes. It’s nice to hear basically an entire episode as a two-hander between Doctor and companion. That really sums it up – it’s nice.
Recommended.
7/10