Farewell, Great Macedon
The TARDIS materialises in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, in the year 323 BC. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan meet Alexander the Great – but their excitement is tempered by the realization that these are the final days of Alexander’s life. As the travellers become embroiled in the tragic events, the inevitability of history unfolds around them. But can they – and should they – change it?
The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance
Fragrance is a paradise world – a utopia that the travellers are loathe to leave after a relaxing stay. But the way of life is different here. And so is the way of love – as Barbara discovers when the Fragile Yellow Arc is broken…
THE LOST STORIES: THE FIRST DOCTOR BOX SET
FAREWELL, GREAT MACEDON
The second series of Big Finish’s Lost Stories departs from the “lost season 23” theme of the first, opting instead to tackle other eras of Doctor Who’s lost history. The first release travels all the way back to the William Hartnell era with a box set featuring two scripts from author Moris Farhi adapted to audio by Nigel Robinson. But rather than adapting these stories with a full cast, Big Finish opts to present them as dramatized readings, with narrators, sound effects, and the occasional performed line.
The first story, “Farewell, Great Macedon,” is a traditional Hartnell six-part historical, and it is a brilliant example of its era. It’s important to remember that Farhi penned these scripts during Doctor Who’s first season, because they do not function well as modern drama: they are incredibly slow, drawn-out, and ponderous. The characterization is often anything but subtle, and the story is quite “studio-bound” considering its setting and scale. But the same can be said of “Marco Polo,” and that is widely and justly regarded as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories. Here, the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan arrive in the TARDIS in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, just as the army of Alexander the Great (John Dorney, magnificent) is returning to the great city from the east. In the tradition of the Doctor Who historicals, the regulars essentially walk straight into Alexander’s tent and immediately befriend him, while, behind the scenes, Alexander’s rivals conspire to assassinate both the great king and his line of succession. Susan is panicky and irrational, Ian is scientific, Barbara is the committed historian.
While the elements of the story are predictable, the outcome is more surprising. The Doctor and his companions, with the exception of Ian, are almost completely sidelined during the story, while the conspiracy against the royal line is completely successful. History remains unchanged and Alexander dies, and the Doctor laments his inability to interfere while Susan ponders the meaning of a fixed point in time. The Doctor himself only gets one showpiece, when he walks hot coals in bare feet. “Farewell, Great Macedon” is more of a Macedonian drama guest-starring the Doctor than a Doctor Who episode – but if you think about it, when Farhi wrote this, “Doctor Who episode” wasn’t even a defined concept. Imagine if the series had taken this route – instead of “The Aztecs,” here we see the Doctor citing the Hippocratic oath in his attempts to save Alexander’s life. Here we listen as the Doctor states his belief in an afterlife and an “Almighty” that will call him there when he dies. Here we have an Alexander whose dream is not to conquer, but unite, an Alexander who dreams of a world in which all men of all races live in harmony. And here we have Barbara, telling Alexander in his dying moments that his dream is a lie that will never be fulfilled. Farhi is clearly passionate about this material, and Alexander and Ian spend much of the play eloquently defending the philosophy, making the downbeat ending all the more upsetting. If you have the patience for a story that lasts well over three hours and utilizes the conventions of early-1960s Doctor Who, there’s a lot here to appreciate.
Apart from the script itself, there’s also the narration from Carole Ann Ford and William Russell, and it’s nothing short of fantastic. Ford easily recaptures the voice of Susan from nearly fifty years previous, but her channeling of Jacqueline Hill is even more impressive – it’s easy to forget that she’s not there in the studio with the rest of them. But the star of the show is Russell, a fantastic actor in his own right, gives a dramatic, emotional reading of the narration, a cruel, snarling performance when he portrays the conspirators, and then slips right back into Ian’s shoes, with an effective William Hartnell to boot. And then there’s John Dorney, who doesn’t narrate but instead performs all of Alexander’s lines, giving the young king a tortured, thoughtful nobility while affecting the sort of classically-trained performance and accent one would expect from a BBC drama of the time. The production is similarly impressive, Lisa Bowerman’s direction combining with Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s sound design to elegantly recreate ancient Babylon for the narrators. Overall, it’s very difficult to fault “Farewell, Great Macedon.” Not only would it fit perfectly into the early days of Doctor Who, had it been produced it would likely be regarded as one of the greatest stories of the era, if not the series as a whole.
Classic stuff.
10/10
THE FRAGILE YELLOW ARC OF FRAGRANCE
Rounding out the box set is “The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance,” a script that Moris Farhi wrote as an audition of sorts to the Doctor Who production team. After the traditional structure of “Farewell, Great Macedon,” “Fragrance” is different in almost every way: it’s only one episode long, it’s almost entirely character-oriented, and its ending surprises despite its inevitability. Farhi creates an alien society in which individuals pair-bond for life with their desired mates – and should that relationship ever end, the remaining partner commits ritual suicide. This concept is rather dark, so much so that when the story opens with Barbara entertaining the love-sick affections of a native, the listener really has no idea what’s coming. Everything builds to the conclusion and the Doctor’s cruel, yet entirely rational decision – the parallels to “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” which hadn’t yet aired, are eerie. Unlike “Farewell, Great Macedon,” this story could easily be rewritten to fit right into the current TV series, and to my mind, that’s a hell of a compliment for a script from 1963.
Fantastic.
9/10