On their mission to explore the Mariana Trench at the very bottom of the ocean, the deepest and most inhospitable place on Earth, the crew of the deep sea vehicle Erebus make an unusual and startling discovery.
A battered blue police box.
As the Doctor, Romana and K9 join them on their journey, the submariners soon discover that the TARDIS is not the only unusual find lurking on the sea floor.
Super-intelligent squid, long-lost submarines and their miraculous occupants are only the start of their troubles. The Goblins are coming. And they won’t let anyone out alive.
PHANTOMS OF THE DEEP
The second series of Fourth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish rolls on into its second half with “Phantoms of the Deep,” the second script in the series from Jonathan Morris and certainly the most scare-oriented of the whole range, “Night of the Stormcrow” excepted. It’s a largely effective, atmospheric story, though a few issues keep it from reaching any significant heights of greatness.
I very much enjoy Doctor Who stories that unabashedly aim for scares, and the first episode of “Phantoms of the Deep” falls solidly into that category. Morris wisely elects to use the claustrophobic setting of a deep-sea submarine exploring the Mariana Trench, putting the Doctor, Romana, and K9 down there hiding from the Black Guardian, because why not? The slow revelation of their surroundings, including the lost WWII submarine with a single remaining crewmember, is structured very well, building both tension and mystery in equal measure. Morris also tones down the humorous overtones and Tom Baker cooperates with a serious performance evocative of his early seasons. With phantoms appearing and unexpected possessions, the cliffhanger is gripping in a way that hasn’t been seen much in these Tom Baker stories and almost compels the listener to continue to the second part.
The second part, unfortunately, lets the side down somewhat. While I understand that providing a scientific explanation for something mysterious is part and parcel of Doctor Who, stories like this could stand to be more vague. A creepy story involving unidentifiable phantoms roaming the ocean floor is delightful; spending most of an episode explaining precisely how an alien race is actually trying to gain access to human consciousness is less so. It also shows up the limitations of the two-part format: by the end of episode 1, neither the characters nor the audience have any idea what’s happening, meaning that episode 2 must contain the investigation, the explanation, and the resolution. Morris is a talented writer, so he does make everything suitably dramatic, but it still feels overcrowded and somewhat rushed.
I digress a bit here, but the ending, in which the Doctor is prepared to sacrifice his life until one of the supporting cast intervenes and takes his place, made me wonder: what is it about the Doctor that inspires people to heroic suicide? We’ve seen this plot device numerous times: the Doctor is preparing to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the day, but someone either incapacitates him or convinces him to flee that they may become the hero instead. Personally, if I’m on a submarine miles below the surface and I find my life threatened, and some deranged lunatic in a scarf that I met on the sea floor is prepared to sacrifice himself to save me, I take him up on it and run the hell away!
Getting back to the story, the cast is good across the board. Baker is great, though the lack of witty repartee is somewhat surprising coming from Morris. Mary Tamm again struggles with the more intense scenes – but then I can almost believe this Romana being just that blasé about being trapped in a flooding airlock. Alice Krige headlines the guest cast, and naturally her performance as Patricia Sawyer is first rate, while Gwilym Lee shows some impressive depth as stranded submariner Jack Hodges. The production is excellent: Ken Bentley is one of Big Finish’s ace directors, and Jamie Robertson’s sound design ably captures the scary tone of the story. Overall, “Phantoms of the Deep” is a success. It’s not a great story by any means, but it’s the sort of well-crafted, entertaining material that we should be expecting every month from a premier range like this.
Recommended.
7/10