In search of “a taste of the real Spain”, the TARDIS transports the Doctor, Ace and rejoined crewmember Mel not to sizzling Fuerteventura, or the golden sands of the Costa Brava – but to 1938, amid the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.
Having fallen in with a rag-tag column of Republican soldiers, the time and space travellers seek shelter from Franco’s bombers in the walled town of Farissa – only to discover themselves besieged by dead men returned to life…
FIESTA OF THE DAMNED
It’s August, it’s the second installment of this year’s Sylvester McCoy main range trilogy, it’s “Fiesta of the Damned” by Guy Adams. It’s well produced, it features an evocative historical setting, and it does absolutely nothing interesting with any of its elements. It’s another dreary entry in the monthly range, in other words, and it’s another in a long line of stories that are increasingly difficult to critique.
This is the first time Big Finish has taken Doctor Who to the Spanish Civil War, and to their credit they do a remarkable job of recreating 1930s Spain. Martin Montague’s sound design is excellent, from insect noises to alien technology, making the story a pleasure to hear. Juan Romero (Enzo Squillino, Jr.) is an interesting and sympathetic character, doomed to keep fighting what he knows is a losing battle for the Republican forces. And the local color is interesting, from the people of Farissa to the nearby leper colony and beyond. This is, in short, one of the best jobs Big Finish has recently done of building a believable, lived-in historical setting. So what went wrong?
The biggest problem here is that there is virtually no conflict on display. Yes, it’s set in the Spanish Civil War, but aside from a couple of airplane bombing runs, we never catch a glimpse of the Nationalist forces. Farissa is a town sympathetic to the Republican cause, but nobody there supports the other side or even questions their involvement in the conflict. When Luis (Tom Alexander) visits from the leper colony, he is shunned, but by the end of the story he is welcomed with open arms and offered a simple apology for his mistreatment, which he gladly accepts. Juan makes the difficult decision to abandon his wounded men in an attempt to save his healthy soldiers, but this decision has no serious consequences by story’s end. And this lack of conflict doesn’t just extend to the guest characters: there was some tension between the Doctor and Mel in “A Life of Crime” that is completely ignored here. Everything is back to normal between them; in fact, if it wasn’t for the presence of Ace, this story could easily be set in season 24 for all the differences in their relationship.
Yeah, there are aliens – or at least an alien computer that transforms humans into aliens – but everyone gets changed back by the end and everything is fine. Adams tries to draw some significance out of the alien conflict by having Juan remark on how they’re trying to force people to adopt their perspective – just like the Nationalists, get it??? – but it’s so tortured and obvious that it doesn’t work. There’s an English journalist, George (Christopher Hatherall), whom Ace correctly diagnoses as an “adrenaline junkie” – but his reckless, impulsive nature leads to precisely no lasting problems.
This is the problem with “Fiesta of the Damned,” in a nutshell: nothing really happens. There’s an alien invasion, until there isn’t; there are relationships between the characters, until there aren’t; the Doctor’s plan isn’t going to work, until it does. The sound design is great. I liked Jamie Robertson’s score. Ken Bentley directs well. The performances are solid across the board. But I was bored throughout. Big Finish’s relentless drive to make the monthly range “accessible” has resulted in nothing more than meaningless story after meaningless story. Sure, some of them are still very good or even great, but I very much doubt if we’ll ever hear a story like “A Death in the Family” from Big Finish ever again. Instead, we get “Fiesta of the Damned:” pleasant yet utterly disposable.
Snore.
5/10