Professor Nightshade – tea time terror for all the family, and the most loved show in Britain. But Professor Nightshade’s days are long over, and Edmund Trevithick is now just an unemployed actor in a retirement home, fondly remembering his past.
It’s the same through the entire village of Crook Marsham – people are falling prey to their memories. At first harmlessly, and then, the bodies begin to turn up.
The Doctor and Ace arrive on the scene – but, with the Doctor planning his retirement, it may be time for Professor Nightshade to solve one last case.
NIGHTSHADE
When “Nightshade” was released as part of the New Adventures back in 1992, it was acclaimed for two reasons: for “trad” fans it was an island in an ocean of experimental early novels, and author Mark Gatiss expertly captured his characters’ emotions, tying them skillfully to the themes of the book. 24 years later, the Big Finish audio adaptation by Kyle C. Szikora doesn’t exist in the same context, and the necessities of adaptation to a two-hour script mean that the story loses much of its depth.
It’s generally unfair to compare adaptations to the source material unless there’s a stated desire to capture the source as closely as possible. Audio drama has many advantages over and limitations compared to prose and vice versa. Adaptations should also be able to blaze their own trails, as “Nightshade” does when Szikora’s ending differs completely from the Gatiss original. Throughout the book and the audio, the Doctor contemplates retirement and Ace contemplates leaving the Doctor to stay behind in Crook Marsham. But unlike the book, here Ace is decidedly unsure about what she wants to do. Her resolve to leave fades in the face of the implications of staying in one place and one time, and she never actually makes the decision – the credits roll as she stands outside the TARDIS, torn about her future. I like this ending, as it’s a smart way to let us inside Ace’s head – and it also allows Sophie Aldred to turn in some surprisingly convincing emotional acting, probably some of the best she’s done for Big Finish. But it’s also a plot thread that should be explored in the subsequent story – which we’ve already heard, called “Love and War.” In that context, the original ending matches up much better with “Love and War” – but I’m not sure if we’re even supposed to consider these Novel Adaptations in those terms, so I’m not going to complain.
The problem with “Nightshade” on audio is that it feels disjointed, as though it’s not sure what direction it wants to go. There’s not much of a plot – an ancient alien is feeding on memories and must be stopped – and so the story spends a great deal of time with its characters. Normally I’d salute this decision, but the characters aren’t fleshed out to any particular degree. And when the villain is feeding on the characters’ memories, you need knowledge of their pasts to appreciate what’s going on. This was the best part of the novel, and it’s almost completely absent here. When Lawrence (Jonny Magnanti) is visited by his dead brother, it’s presented as heartbreaking – but we barely know him. Two of the best-developed characters, Robin (Samuel Barnett) and Hawthorne (Edward Harrison), aren’t even given this chance at further development. And then there’s Edmund Trevithick (John Castle), star of the Doctor Who analogue Professor Nightshade, who’s actually given a bit of a character arc. But when his end comes, and he declares that he’s always been a coward but now he will finally stand up and fight, we haven’t actually seen much evidence of this cowardice. Yes, he berates the staff at his retirement home and yes, he’s isolated from any family he might have, but from what is he being redeemed?
Ultimately, I enjoyed “Nightshade.” The production is excellent, which is par for the course for this range, from Scott Handcock’s direction and Iain Meadows’ sound design. Particular credit to Blair Mowat for a score that sounds just like the sort of thing Mark Ayres might have given us had “Nightshade” been on television. The script also gives us some of the best Doctor/Ace material we’ve had, with great performances from the two leads. But the story needed either more length or more discipline, and neither is present.
Not bad, but could have been better.
6/10.