The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex seek shelter in a remote mansion where a group of academics are gathered. Soon the murders begin.
The Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex seek shelter in a remote mansion where a group of academics are gathered. Soon the murders begin.
NIGHT THOUGHTS
Among the many wonderful and varied styles Big Finish has adopted in its Doctor Who audio plays, horror has never featured heavily. Sure, many releases have been suspenseful, with a few scary scenes or intense confrontations, but Big Finish has rarely set out to terrify the listener. Night Thoughts, an updated proposed Doctor Who television script from writer Edward Young, feels no such limitation: it’s scary as hell. Of course, it isn’t all about the horror — it’s a rather intelligent script to boot, and the production features some wonderful performances. It’s rare for Big Finish to release two quality Sylvester McCoy audios in a row, but Night Thoughts — coming off the back of the fine LIVE 34 — isn’t just quality, it’s one of the best McCoy releases of all time.
Much ado has been made about the play’s portrayal of time travel, and the effects of changing history on the future. Night Thoughts does indeed present a unique take on this — changes wrought by a certain machine leave only ghostlike effects upon the future with no permanent impact — but there is absolutely nothing wrong with Young’s concept. Doctor Who has never presented a consistent philosophy of time travel: it has always been a simple conceit, able to be manipulated at the will of the author. Despite this, though, the effects of TARDIS-based time travel remain consistent: Major Dickens’ (Bernard Kay) efforts are driven at least in part by the results of the Doctor’s journey into the past, and Young’s script ties that change to the changes brought about by the machine. It’s difficult to say whether a rock-solid chain of logic binds the plot together, but that hardly matters, as Young’s play is about its characters and its atmosphere, not the intricacies of time travel mechanics.
And what an atmosphere it is. From the very beginning of the play, where Hex (Philip Olivier) speaks of odd dreams and Ace (Sophie Aldred) falls into the lake, this is established as a dark, cold environment, and the oppressive atmosphere hardly lightens. It’s easy to see how this was proposed for the Cartmel period: Dickens is a fabulous grotesque villain, echoing Light of “Ghost Light” or Millington of “The Curse of Fenric,” while primal forces are on display in an oppressive environment. The Bursar’s (Joanna McCallum) chair lift is used to impressive dramatic effect, and even McCoy’s voice is sampled and used to terrify. The characters, too, are effective: the Bursar and the Deacon (Ann Beach) are convincingly presented as victims of their own guilt, while Andrew Forbes gives Dr. O’Neill a vaguely tragic sense of nobility. The two stars of the guest cast, though, portray the two best characters: first, the aforementioned Dickens, whom Kay brilliantly realizes as a character whose motivations are never quite clear, and second, Sue (Lizzie Hopley). Sue is a wonderful character — when we first meet her, she seems like an odd girl who prefers to talk through her stuffed rabbit, Happy, but we soon find out she’s an orphan whose mother and sister died under mysterious circumstances and that her psychology has been understandably affected. It isn’t spelled out in the play, but it’s obvious that she has been talking to her dead sister — something which makes the final “I’m Happy” scene all the more effective.
Sylvester McCoy is on brilliant form here. It’s obvious when he’s going to struggle — he speeds through the lines, uses odd inflections, and trips over some language — but absolutely none of that happens in Night Thoughts, one of his most effective performances in the role. He has always conveyed quiet and contemplative well, but he’s genuinely scary in this one, especially in his conversation with the Deacon — “jig, jig, jig.” Philip Olivier is equally brilliant: Hex, by this time, is accustomed to his travels and is free of his “oh my God”s, but nonetheless he is taken aback by events in the house. Olivier gives the character nervous energy, and even manages to make the dreaded scenes of narrative monologue sound convincing. I like what the addition of Hex has done for the TARDIS crew, and I like his chemistry with Ace — and Aldred is delightful in her scenes with Olivier, finally allowed to be free of the angst that has plagued her character for decades. Unfortunately, Aldred tends to overplay some of the dramatic stuff, and Ace as written is a bit too blithe in her acceptance of, say, being caught in a bear trap, but these are minor complaints.
None of the great atmosphere would be possible without exceptional sound design, and Gareth Jenkins comes through in spades. The house feels empty and cold, and the sound effects are suitably terrifying in places. Andy Hardwick’s music is of high quality as well, contributing to the oppressive sense. And Gary Russell does an exceptional job in the director’s chair: the script changes locations and times unexpectedly and often, and the listener never loses track of the environment or the pace.
Overall, this is a stunningly good release. It’s rare enough to hear a great McCoy — and make no mistake, this is the best one since The Fires of Vulcan — but it’s even rarer to be genuinely scared by a Big Finish release. A couple of minor flaws keep it from reaching the heights of perfection, but Night Thoughts is still the sort of release that proves that Big Finish not only “still has it,” they deserve to keep “it” for some time yet.
Highly recommended.
9/10
Night Thoughts written by Ed Young was one of my earliest Big Finish stories, in fact it was my second! I shamefully admit that on first listen, I found it boring and confusing, and left too many loose ends. Only the third issue remains. Night Thoughts is a wonderfully creepy story and is very well-paced. It is filled with atmosphere, eeriness, and after the first death, the story is filled with mystery and suspicion. One of the most delightful things is how the script for this story and the story itself is so engaging, that the fact that a moment of action or any drama happens rarely bears little consequence. You are constantly trying to piece together what is going on, with a brief reminder every now and then that the setting is filled with danger. And that is absolutely fine. i’m not calling it boring, it’s far from it. Like I say, it’s gripping, and the progression of the story makes it a fine and entertaining piece of horror/ science fiction.
For me, the most remarkable thing about this sublime audio adventure is the characterisation and acting. Each of the characters has a dark secret to hie, and that makes them even more realistic. I find the interactions particularly fascinating in this story because they squabble like any ordinary person. The fact that they are like ordinary people makes them so EXTRAordinary- in Doctor Who, characters are often given unrealistic and distinct personalities, which works, but it’s nice to have a cast that truly feel like regular human beings.
And then we have the mains- the Doctor, Ace and Hex. Hex is particularly, and in my opinion, quite thankfully given the centre of attention for most of the first episode. The Harvest focused on him, but he was very naive in comparison to later on his travels, Dreamtime was just a pile of crap, and he was introduced too late in LIVE 34, even though his limited appearance was much-loved by me. Here, especially in episode 1, he is focused on a lot, encountering the hooded figure, his strange dream, finding Hartley’s eyes cut out. Lots of brilliant stuff. Ace and the Doctor are also brilliant as usual. I think that it’s safe to say that Ace is well-utilised as well, though she often is, so I won’t really go into too much detail. Sylvester McCoy portrays a wonderfully dark and secretive version of the Doctor’s seventh incarnation, a lot like in The Curse of Fenric. All in all, fantastic performances all-round.
In summary, I have no choice but to give this story a 9.5/10. It’s only downfall is that it leaves too many loose ends and doesn’t explain itself properly.