The Doctor and Romana meet the spiritualist Talbot, who has been called to investigate ghostly apparitions in a 1920’s mansion.
The Doctor and Romana meet the spiritualist Talbot, who has been called to investigate ghostly apparitions in a 1920’s mansion.
THE HAUNTING OF MALKIN PLACE
The sixth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures rolls on with “The Haunting of Malkin Place,” a ghost story in the classical style from Phil Mulryne. It’s a straightforward story, well told, that doesn’t do much to distinguish itself and continues to make a mockery of the idea that this series is set in season 18.
I must say that I’m impressed with Mulryne’s ability to structure a story. The footsteps overhead in the early parts of the story are fully explained as it continues while simultaneously paralleling the story’s own future events. The events in “Malkin Place” hang together remarkably well. The characterization is solid without resorting to obvious clichés. I like the random introduction of the Doctor and Romana arriving by train to the main plot, and I like the emotional underpinnings of the resolution. I like that there isn’t a clichéd megalomaniac behind everything. I like the device of a séance, and I really like how the spiritualist Talbot (Simon Jones) isn’t shown up as a charlatan or an idiot even though his theories are wrong. Heck, I even like the third usage this month of the “Doctor waits a long time” trope involved in the resolution and how it ties back into the footsteps in the attic.
But I don’t have much to say about the story other than that. Despite the emotional ties the characters have to the story, it doesn’t have much resonance or thematic significance. Lalla Ward continues to play Romana as the least patient, most irritable person in the universe for reasons that are still unclear to me. I’m getting tired of belaboring this point, but I’ll keep doing it: there is literally nothing about this story apart from the theme arrangement that identifies it as part of season 18. It’s not even the bridge between seasons 17 and 18 that has been discussed behind the scenes – this is straight out of the Hinchcliffe era. It’s looking more and more like the “season 18” advertising was specifically and cynically designed to get people to subscribe without any concern about delivering on the promise. And while this doesn’t affect the individual qualities of the stories, I’m also not a fan of being lied to.
“The Haunting of Malkin Place” is a solid release, better than most in the range. The supporting cast is great, Nicholas Briggs directs very well, and the sound design and music from Jamie Robertson are first-rate. But it’s not especially memorable, not especially meaningful, and not especially faithful to its intended setting. Still, it’s a decent Doctor Who story, and there’s always room for those.
7/10