During one of Nyssa’s experiments, the TARDIS’s temporal scanner picks up a message: ‘Idra’. Just one word, but enough to draw the Doctor to the Archipelago of Sirius.
There, the Autarch is about to announce a new crusade. A mighty war against Seth, Prince of the Dark…
But who is Seth? What is the secret of Queen Anahita, Mistress of the Poisons? And what terror awaits on Level 14?
THE LOST STORIES: THE CHILDREN OF SETH
After “The Elite” and “Hexagora,” the third and final release featuring the fifth Doctor, Christopher Bailey and Marc Platt’s “The Children of Seth,” continues the third series of Lost Stories. As one would expect from the author of “Kinda” and “Snakedance,” it’s a rather thoughtful story, and while it’s hardly intense, it’s certainly successful.
Unusually for Doctor Who, “The Children of Seth” in no way prioritizes a strong plot. I’m definitely a fan of stories like this, in part because I think Doctor Who fandom focuses too much on plot when evaluating quality. Bailey and Platt bombard the listener with some wonderful ideas, and structure the story as an exploration of the culture of Sirius. The priority, instead, is world building: while the Doctor and his companions are shuttled between prison cells as usual, they actually learn about what’s happening around them. They stumble across the law forbidding the construction of androids, without any real initial explanation of why that law is in place. They witness the paranoia and double-dealing of almost everyone involved in the government. They witness (and experience) the means of punishment, and the crimes that warrant them. Yes, this is a 1980s Doctor Who story about overthrowing a futuristic government, but it’s so unlike its fellows that it deserves a listen based purely on the differences. Even the title is interesting – Seth was one of the Biblical sons of Adam, and Seth’s children were said to be ideologically pure until they fell through intermingling with the children of Cain. Not only are there suggestions about the empire’s fall from grace, the revelation of the true children of Seth fits the parallel, with androids “corrupted” by human influence and turning against them.
The characterization is first-rate, too, something that set apart Bailey’s television scripts as well. It’s hard to pick out the best, so I’ll start with Honor Blackman’s Anahita, an old acquaintance of the Doctor and probably the deepest character in the story. At first she seems impotent, a formerly powerful woman now sidelined in her own empire, but as the story progresses her power and influence become increasingly obvious. She’s utterly ruthless in many ways, but crucially this never makes her unsympathetic, something that nicely sets her apart from Byzan. Adrian Lukis gives Byzan just the right amount of desperation: he’s essentially in charge, and he eventually manipulates his way to the top, but any challenge sets him on edge – this is a man who knows the dangers of his own society. And while David Warner gets the cover, he plays something of a minor role – yet his performance as the Autarch is stunningly good, hauntingly capturing a once-powerful man on the brink of dementia. It’s obvious how the Autarch used to be respected and feared; it’s also obvious that he’ll never get back to that point, and all of this is communicated through the subtleties of Warner’s performance. Gushing about those three leaves out Vernon Dobtcheff’s wonderfully weary performance as ancient warrior Shamur, or indeed Matt Addis’s increasingly disturbing turn as Albis. Big Finish often assembles excellent casts, but a story like this essentially requires talents like these.
I haven’t mentioned the regulars, largely because they don’t have a lot to do! Even the Doctor is sidelined for most of the story – he steps to the forefront in the final episode but spends much of it crippled by his exposure to the defense network. This isn’t a complaint – we haven’t seen much of Davison’s vulnerability in his Big Finish work, but here he depends on his friends and companions for his survival. Tegan’s role is quite significant in the first half of the story, as she’s largely the character through which we learn about Sirian society, but her involvement tails off in the second half. Janet Fielding gets to play a wonderful seduction scene, though, something that made me sit up and take notice of how unusual it was. Nyssa, of course, has her mind wiped and is shuttled off to Level 14, spending most of the story there and not contributing in any significant fashion. In fact, my biggest complaint is about this part of the story: while Level 14 lends itself to some wonderful imagery, it’s almost totally unexplained and seems to be there largely to pad out the script.
“The Children of Seth” certainly isn’t perfect. The android storyline comes almost out of nowhere in the fourth episode and yet it’s crucial to resolving the story. The various themes aren’t tied together as strongly as they could be – the banned book that created Seth should have featured more heavily, for example. And the story lacks a consistent tone, something that elevated “Kinda” and “Snakedance” to classic level. “It’s not a masterpiece” is hardly a condemnation, though: I haven’t even mentioned the fine production, from Ken Bentley’s skillful direction to the subtle, effective score by Richard Fox and Lauren Yason. Overall, “The Children of Seth” is a strong success, both because of its content and because we don’t see too many Doctor Who stories trying (and largely succeeding) to be as different as this.
Great stuff.
9/10