Visiting Brighton in England, 1936, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn discover all is not right in the normally happy seaside resort.
Visiting Brighton in England, 1936, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn discover all is not right in the normally happy seaside resort.
PIER PRESSURE
The last Big Finish play from Robert Ross, “Medicinal Purposes,” earned a 7/10 rating largely on the strength of its production, acting, and characterization — the plot was awful, but the other parts of the release made up for it. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Ross’ second attempt, “Pier Pressure,” which has precious little to offer aside from some exceptional sound design.
I’m very reluctant to throw the word “lazy” around when it comes to writing, because effort clearly goes into even the most offensively poor script. Perhaps a lazy imagination would be the best criticism to level at Ross for this script, because it’s almost completely devoid of innovation. I’ve never had a problem with run-of-the-mill Doctor Who stories, but this one seems determined to be as boring as possible: the threat — aliens, of course, desire to take over the Earth — is vague, unexplained, and wholly unthreatening, as the alien force is never seen to do anything even vaguely intimidating. Okay, they possess people, but honestly — “walk, attack, kill?!”
The historical setting is remarkably wrong-footed as well. I’ll admit from the start that, going in, I had no idea who Max Miller (ably portrayed by Roy Hudd) was, but the script does absolutely nothing to flesh him out, apart from informing me that he was a “national treasure” of a comedian known for risqué material. But there’s no reason for Max Miller to be in this play in the first place — he adds nothing to the plot and serves as little more than a sarcastic distraction — and the themes, such as they are, do not reflect the setting or the historical characters.
Not that the characterization itself is anything to speak of. The Doctor (Colin Baker) is reduced to empty pronouncements about how dangerous and horrific the situation is; dramatic events fail to support his claims and make him look silly. Evelyn was sidelined enough in “Medicinal Purposes,” but here it’s just insulting — when she’s not reduced to “What is it, Doctor?!” exclamations she’s stuck in the TARDIS with Miller playing I Spy! Baker and Maggie Stables give it their all, but you can’t squeeze blood from the proverbial stone. If you were writing a book on clichés, you’d open it with Albert (Chris Simmons) and Emily (Sally Ann Curran), two monumentally uninteresting characters good for little but pining for each other and dying. And lastly there’s the bad guy, Professor Talbot (Doug Bradley of “Hellraiser” fame) — we know he’s evil because every so often he talks to himself in funny voices. Bradley does his best, and it’s really an admirable job, but it’s a shame that Pinhead was wasted on this role.
Where’s the script editor? Why was this play 125 minutes long? I’m fairly confident that every single scene is longer than it should be, and many are totally unnecessary. I criticized “Medicinal Purposes” for being overlong and repetitive, and “Pier Pressure” is even worse — 95% of the action takes place along one stretch of beach, and an exercise in minimalist expression this is not.
As above, the one saving grace of “Pier Pressure” is the production. Gareth Jenkins’ sound design is suitably eerie for the setting and subject matter, and Andy Hardwick’s score is astonishing — I’ve often thought that string scores work remarkably well in Doctor Who, and this is a fine example. Sometimes actors in these plays are audibly bored with the script, but this doesn’t happen here — there’s little director Gary Russell can do to improve the pacing, but he’s trying his best.
There’s so little to say about Pier Pressure — it’s stunningly boring, almost as if it was constructed that way, it doesn’t appear to have anything to say about anything, and its characters are little more than mere ciphers. I suppose it doesn’t actually offend the listener, but is that to be praised? It used to be that Colin Baker releases were the most reliable of all — well, we’ve only had one good one since “Medicinal Purposes” came out, and judging by “Pier Pressure” we shouldn’t be holding our breath.
Quite possibly the worst Colin Baker release in BF history — I’d certainly say so.
3/10