The year is 1987 and there’s a deadly new narcotic on the streets of London. As part of their investigations the Doctor and his companions Chris and Roz move into the Quadrant, a rundown housing estate. An ancient alien menace has been unleashed, a menace somehow linked to a local gang leader known as The Capper, a charmed young boy called Gabriel and his mother Winnie, the enigmatic Frei Foundation, and Eva Jericho, a woman driven to the brink of madness.
As London descends into an apocalyptic nightmare, the Doctor must uncover the truth about the residents of the Quadrant and a desperate bargain made one dark Christmas Eve.
DAMAGED GOODS
Given what we know now, it’s amazing, in retrospect, that Russell T. Davies actually wrote a New Adventure. Already a celebrated dramatist, and years before bringing Doctor Who back at shocking levels of success, he wrote “Damaged Goods” for the tie-in range – and it instantly became one of the best novels in the series. It’s one of the most influential novels, by definition – the seeds of Davies’ concept of the new TV series are visible throughout, even as he keeps to the grimmer house style of the NAs. All these factors make “Damaged Goods” an obvious target for an audio adaptation, and Big Finish turned to Jonathan Morris for just that reason.
Many of the hallmarks of RTD’s Doctor Who writing are here: a focus on working-class, urban families (one of whom is called the Tylers); a respectful look at sexuality that never feels tokenistic; a fascination with Time Lord technology and past and future wars; and so on. So even though Sylvester McCoy is playing the title role, this is an RTD story through and through, and fans who don’t appreciate his work probably won’t enjoy “Damaged Goods,” either. Fortunately, I am not one of those fans – I think RTD is quite possibly the best writer the series has ever had, and even through the lens of adaptation this story helps you understand why. For starters, the family dynamic between Winnie (Michelle Collins), Bev (Georgie Fuller), and Gabriel Tyler (Tayler Marshall) is utterly believable, even though it’s somewhat thinly sketched. It’s easy to understand why Winnie did what she did, and the story makes her sympathetic without ever arguing that she did the right thing in selling her child. Bev is the picture of teenage angst – listening to the Seventh Doctor trying to turn his manipulative skills on a teenage girl is quite entertaining – and Gabriel is caught in the middle of everything.
The biggest problem with this adaptation is that it can’t possibly capture everything in the novel, so it makes a number of edits for time and pacing. While this is understandable, it does make events feel rushed: the quiet, brooding tone of the first episode gives way to a frantic runaround in the second, with all the characters getting into place for a rapid conclusion. Mrs. Jericho’s (Denise Black) descent into madness shifts too quickly from hallucinatory to murderous, and the elimination of a subplot from the book strips her character of some of its depth. And while Chris (Travis Oliver) and Roz (Yasmin Bannerman) were long-time companions by this point in the NAs, this is their first audio appearance – and unfortunately they don’t have much to do other than fetch things for the Doctor, so it’s hard to see their appeal.
When it comes to adaptations, however, it’s a fool’s errand to compare them too closely to the source material. Unless you go the Game of Thrones route and dedicate 10 hours to every book, compromises have to be made, and the adaptations should be considered on their own terms as a result. And on its own terms, “Damaged Goods” is a fantastic Big Finish release. There are so many wonderful little scenes, from the Doctor being asked what he sees when he looks at Gabriel to Chris’s casual acceptance of differing sexualities – a precursor to the attitudes embodied by Jack Harkness, perhaps? And while the companions may be slightly shortchanged, the Doctor certainly is not: this is a tour de force performance from Sylvester McCoy, one in which he never puts a foot wrong. I really liked the “I’m talking!” snap; it was the sort of immediate, reactionary anger we rarely see from this character. The supporting cast is similarly excellent, particularly Michelle Collins – and I know Peter Barrett has come in for criticism for going wildly over the top as the Capper, but I think the performance is actually quite suitable for the story.
Big Finish production values are almost always high, but Howard Carter deserves some sort of award for his score, which is one of the best and most memorable in many years of Big Finish releases. It’s haunting, beautiful work that will stay with you long after the story is over. I assume he also arranged the new version of the theme, which is equally brilliant and seems quite appropriate for the later NAs. Credit as well to director Ken Bentley for organizing such a large, diverse cast and bringing a challenging script to fruition. Overall, “Damaged Goods” is a triumph. It’s entertaining, thought-provoking, emotional Doctor Who with a true sense of maturity. No, it’s not quite as good or as detailed as the novel, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t great. It even incorporates some references to the modern series, both to eliminate complicated long-term plots from the NAs and to provide little Easter eggs to new series fans looking to check out RTD’s other Doctor Who work. In sum, this is a great adaptation of a brilliant book.
Fantastic.
10/10