Before Totter’s Yard, before Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, before the Chameleon Circuit was broken… the Doctor and Susan travelled alone.
The planet Quinnis in the Fourth Universe appears, at first glance, to be an agreeable, exotic refuge for the two travellers. But the world is experiencing a terrible drought, and the Doctor becomes its unwilling rainmaker.
Meanwhile, Susan makes an ally in a young girl called Meedla. But friends are not always what they appear, and the long-awaited rain isn’t necessarily good news…
THE COMPANION CHRONICLES: QUINNIS
The fifth season of Companion Chronicles rolls on with Marc Platt’s “Quinnis,” a rare story in the range for its setting: before “An Unearthly Child” and the start of Doctor Who on television. Platt has explored something like this area on audio before, in speculative Unbound release “Auld Mortality,” but this is the first time the company entered that era. And it’s largely successful, though perhaps most curious is how little the story actually does with its series placement!
I won’t say that Platt doesn’t embrace the concept, of course. There are all kinds of wonderful little nods to the era: the Doctor and Susan traveling to the Fourth Universe, the TARDIS chameleon circuit working, the Doctor seeming to have more control over the Ship before it breaks, and so forth. The framing device, which is simultaneously a companion piece to the Eighth Doctor Adventures and the Doctor’s reunion with his granddaughter, fleshes out Susan’s relationship with her grandfather. In many ways, it’s a traditional story of a teenager trying to engage with a beloved yet often unapproachable authority figure, something that Platt captures beautifully. And the Doctor is certainly more difficult than he often was on television, something that also hints at the story placement. But the story doesn’t go far enough in these areas for my taste: sure, the Doctor is more irascible, but there’s very little here of the man willing to execute an injured caveman to facilitate his own escape or the man willing to sabotage his own ship to force his companions to explore an alien city. And the setting, while beautifully evoked, is hardly a departure from Doctor Who norms. Honestly, with a few tweaks, this wouldn’t feel much different from the Hartnell era as we know it, and that’s something of a missed opportunity to me.
That said, there’s certainly nothing wrong with “Quinnis” as presented. Platt is at his best when allowed to engage in world building, and his city of bridges, elevated on posts and attacked from below by vicious alien weeds, is a delightful creation. The people aren’t incomprehensible but are still different enough to feel alien. I liked the monster, and its relationship with the culture, though its child form grew somewhat irritating by its final appearance. Susan’s natural empathy and desire to belong make her an easy target for exploitation, and I liked that Platt didn’t beat around that bush, setting her directly against the Doctor in places.
Carole Ann Ford makes her second appearance in a Companion Chronicle, and she’s every bit as good here as she was in “Here There Be Monsters.” Susan was helpless and two-dimensional far too often on television, but Ford makes her incredibly sympathetic in this story: you can feel her loneliness and teenage angst in every line. This isn’t a very different character to the one we saw on television, but she’s different enough, and that’s largely down to Ford’s performance. Her Hartnell impression has also improved, largely because she’s cut down on the “Hmm?” in every other line. The production is also successful, with able direction from Lisa Bowerman and nicely atmospheric sound design from Nigel Fairs. Overall, “Quinnis” is a success, with a fine central performance supporting some of Marc Platt’s best traits. Pick it up if you want a good story — just don’t expect much of anything from the “before it all started” setting.
Recommended.
7/10