On the planet Világ, the Doctor’s meddling lands him in the middle of a dangerous liaison, and Evelyn encounters what she least expected.
On the planet Világ, the Doctor’s meddling lands him in the middle of a dangerous liaison, and Evelyn encounters what she least expected.
ARRANGEMENTS FOR WAR
Despite almost a full year passing since the release of Project: Lazarus, the impact of that play upon the sixth Doctor and Evelyn could not be ignored. With Evelyn, much like with Rose in the new series, a companion was finally seen to be realistically affected by her travels, and to gloss over the tragic loss of Cassie would have been a terrible mistake. Unfortunately, given the shockingly poor attempts at romance seen in the eighth Doctor audios, I was doubtful of Big Finish’s ability to convince in this regard — but Paul Sutton’s Arrangements for War managed instead to deliver the most convincing romantic material the range had ever seen.
Sutton chooses to present a very traditional setting: two countries, at war for years, about to finally reconcile their differences through an arranged marriage. Of course, the princess scheduled to be married is in love with one of the palace guards and is faced with the choice of love or duty. But, unusually for this sort of story, there are third parties involved: on the large scale, there is a third country helping to broker the peace between the larger two, and on the small scale, there is the Doctor, finding himself caught between the two young lovers. And on top of all that is Evelyn, desperately seeking emotional healing after her encounter with the Forge, and finding it with the governor of the smaller nation. This play could easily have slipped into a bad cliche, but Sutton uses his third parties to create a unique spin on the format that keeps the listener guessing.
Yes, the play occasionally dips into melodrama, but it works. The plot isn’t particularly intricate — it’s focused on its characters — so the broad strokes that don’t provide a lot of detail don’t annoy. Indeed, the simplicity of the plot is refreshing. The climax is somewhat muddled, unfortunately: the screaming goes a little over the top and it’s difficult to tell what’s going on with the gunshots, but the conclusion that follows is brilliant and the final scene is praiseworthy. Sutton has clearly spent a great deal of time and care on his characters and their relationships, and every one save one is sympathetic in one way or another.
Colin Baker gives yet another brilliant performance here as the sixth Doctor, showing the character at his quietest and most mournful. There’s a poignant insecurity which comes out in his first conversation with Marcus, something which continues throughout the play and shows itself in Baker’s marvelous voice. For a play that appears to be about Evelyn at the outset, its emotional heart is the Doctor — and at the end, when he’s been stripped down to almost nothing, it is impossible to predict what actions he’ll take. This is an incredibly challenging role for Baker and yet he pulls it off perfectly.
Of course, the play is also about Evelyn’s emotional healing, and so Maggie Stables takes center stage for a large percentage of the running time. Thanks to the scope of Sutton’s play — one of the longest periods of time over which a Doctor Who story has ever taken place — we are able to see Evelyn at various stages of her healing process, from her initial anger with the Doctor to her talks with Rossiter to the conclusion, where she is finally able to understand the Doctor’s perspective. As the Doctor explains in the final scene, Evelyn is a unique companion — and Stables gives one of the greatest companion performances you’re ever going to hear in this production.
After his classic turn as Sutekh in Pyramids of Mars, one would not expect Gabriel Woolf to be able to take the part of a kind, romantic old politician — yet here he does exactly that in a remarkably sympathetic performance. He and Stables have wonderful chemistry, and it’s a delight to hear a romance between two older people, something rarely seen in drama. Katarina Olsson is every inch the stereotype princess as Krisztina, but she plays the role with such charisma that it doesn’t matter, while Lewis Rae is equally effective as Marcus. Sadly, Kraig Thornber is a weak link: Pokol is little more than a plot device in character form and Thornber goes way over the top with his performance.
Steve Foxon makes his Doctor Who debut, and for the most part his sound design is exceptional. His use of water effects, for example, really helps set the tone of the play, and the score cannot be praised enough: much like the piano score in The Wormery, the use of the various instrument sounds heard here make this one of the greatest, most dynamic scores ever composed for the range. Unfortunately, I recognized a few of the sound effects from computer games — this isn’t Foxon’s fault, of course, but something like that can take you out of the fictional reality. Still, this is outstanding work. Gary Russell directs yet again, and here with an excellent script he works great performances from his actors and keeps a very strong pace to a story with very little action.
There are some minor flaws here and there that keep Arrangements for War from reaching the pinnacle of BF’s releases, but as a demonstration of how the format of Doctor Who can be stretched it’ll be tough to top this. I expected that Big Finish would want to deal with the emotional fallout from Project: Lazarus but I never suspected they’d devote an entire play to it — and then turn out one of their most poignant releases in the process. Amazing, and highly recommended.
9/10