Thirty years on from the Daleks’ invasion of Earth, the scars still haven’t healed. The survivors inhabit a world thrown back two hundred years, a world of crop shortages and civil unrest. A world where the brightest and best of its young people are drawn to the xenophobic Earth United group.
A world sliding into a new Dark Age, believes Susan Campbell, widow of one of the heroes of the Occupation. A world in need of alien intervention. A world in need of hope.
But as Susan takes drastic action to secure the planet’s future, she’s oblivious to the fact that her student son, Alex, ensnared by Earth United, is in need of alien intervention too. Or so Alex’s
great-grandfather thinks.
AN EARTHLY CHILD
At the conclusion of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” when the Doctor intentionally left earth without his granddaughter Susan, he delivered one of the most famous speeches in series history. “One day, I shall come back,” he promised, but it was a promise he would never keep. Instead, it started a trend not reversed until the series’ rebirth in 2005: the Doctor doesn’t come back and the TARDIS doors never open again once they shut. But what about the Doctor’s promise to his granddaughter? What if he did come back? John Peel attempted to tell this story in his novel “Legacy of the Daleks” – and this attempt now resides comfortably in the bottom 10 Doctor Who novels of all time. Over a decade later, Big Finish finally made their own attempt, and in turning to Marc Platt for the script produced a much more rewarding story.
The story, unusually for a Platt script, is very straightforward. Earth is slowly rebuilding after the Dalek invasion, and technology has regressed to that of the 1960s. A bitter political divide exists among the survivors: one faction, led in spirit by Susan herself, seeks to enlist the help of alien races in rebuilding; the other, a nationalist group, seeks to purge all alien presence from Earth. Clearly, these two disparate views cannot coexist, and so runs the central conflict of the story. To his credit, Platt does not resort to cliché: Susan is as naïve as ever, allowing the race with whom she communicates access to potentially conquer the earth – but at the same time, she is a famous figure and respected speaker easily able to sway public opinion. Her son Alex (Jake McGann) respects his mother but finds himself falling in with the nationalists and torn between sides. And then there’s the Doctor, who roams the sidelines mostly out of concern for his granddaughter and great-grandson.
If there’s a major complaint about the play, it’s with the resolution of this conflict: within about five minutes at the conclusion, every side reveals themselves to the others and the alien force goes from threat to defeated. We’re used to the Doctor’s ability to resolve complicated situations, but almost all of the drama derived from this, and it strikes me as a mistake on Platt’s part to incorporate such a hurried resolution.
Then again, nobody’s listening to this story for the political intrigue – and the main attraction, the reunion of the Doctor and Susan, is spectacular. Carole Ann Ford is wonderfully surprised to see her grandfather again, and her performance as Susan repeatedly hugs the Doctor is heartwarming. Paul McGann, for his part, takes a subtler approach to the scene, but his ability to convey a grandfatherly love and concern through what is otherwise a youthful performance is masterful. The two performers spark easily off each other in almost every scene together – the helicopter ride, stilted and uncomfortable, is the notable exception – and it is delightfully easy to accept this as the same relationship started by William Hartnell in 1963. The conclusion, especially resonant after “Death in Blackpool,” is painful, the Doctor showing both his loneliness and his essential lack of understanding of family roles.
This is one of the two most “important” of the eight Big Finish special releases – with Shada the only other contender – and the production is up to the level of the material. The supporting cast is generally excellent, particularly Matt Addis as the leader of the nationalist movement, and Leslie Ash as the ill-fated reporter Marion Fleming. Jake McGann is improved on his atrocious performance in “Immortal Beloved,” but struggles nonetheless with the material. Hopefully his performances will improve with future appearances. Nicholas Briggs directs with aplomb, and it’s good to hear David Darlington’s reliable soundscapes, this time combining ‘60s technology with a futuristic wasteland.
Overall, “An Earthly Child” is a surprising story considering its initial placement as a subscriber bonus. It tells a story anticipated since 1964 and it quite clearly sets up future Paul McGann stories – frankly, this doesn’t strike me as the sort of thing one should miss. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s still very good – and it’s all worth it for that one wonderful scene where the irascible old man finally does come back to find that he truly wasn’t mistaken in his beliefs.
Recommended.
8/10