“The future folds into the past. The homeless hero has fallen. Now begins the time of three tales: The Tale of the Herald, The Tale of the Hidden Woman and The Tale of the Final Speaker. When the last tale is told, all the lights shall fail. The world will end.”
21st century London: Nobody No One, the extra-dimensional Word Lord, is again running amok. Only this time, he’s unbeatable – and a terrible tragedy is about to unfold.
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
And so, after resolving the Forge storylines in “Project: Destiny,” the time came to answer the remaining questions about the Doctor, Ace, and Hex, Hex’s troubled past, and any other issue facing this troubled TARDIS crew. To handle this character-driven brief, Big Finish employed Steven Hall, whose “The Word Lord” was the best of the “Forty-Five” stories – and that decision was a stroke of genius. Too often I have written reviews complaining about the company’s seeming inability to produce satisfactory conclusions, but no such complaint is here forthcoming: “A Death in the Family” just might be the best Doctor Who story they’ve ever done.
I frequently make the point that I don’t prioritize plotting in drama: a solid plot is a pleasant surprise, but I’ll always favor atmosphere and character work. “A Death in the Family,” however, is plotted so elegantly it sings: there isn’t a significant hole or loose thread left hanging. The action halts twice in the fourth episode, first for Ace (well, Professor Noone) and then the Doctor to explain the details of their schemes – but these schemes have been layered so expertly throughout the story that it’s hard not to grin in delight at the revelations. The Noone revelation goes in a different direction than the obvious, but best of all is the clue that I completely missed on first listen: “No one really dies on Pelachan.” Pelachan itself is similarly wonderful, a society sketched in broad strokes but centered on the Handovale, a spoken narrative summary of its entire history. I could go on, but “A Death in the Family” is about its characters, each of whom deserves discussion.
Hex’s departure in “Project: Destiny” was too abrupt to be final, but it certainly wouldn’t have been a surprise if this story marked the end of his travels in the TARDIS. He’s been run through the wringer time and again, never really feeling truly part of the crew despite months (years?) of travels with the Doctor and Ace. He’s right when he says he never gets a moment’s respite – indeed, when he tries to get exactly that, the Word Lord turns up – so it’s fitting that the Doctor sends him to Pelachan to recover. Philip Olivier’s performance is masterful throughout: his anger at the Doctor rapidly turns to heartbreak as his friend dies, followed by a difficult, emotional recovery with Evelyn and Ayl-San (Alison Thea-Skot). Hall’s script allows Hex to finally mature before our ears: he comes to understand the effect of his travels on his life and, presented with the opportunity to leave it behind, opts to rejoin the crew for further adventures. You can’t go back to the old Hex after this; it’ll be interesting to see where Big Finish takes the character from here.
While Hex is sent away to recover, Ace is left in the thick of the action. The so-called Cartmel Masterplan involved the Doctor training Ace as a surrogate Time Lord, and the New Adventures featured similar themes – and those same themes come to the surface here in Big Finish for the first time. Hall expertly presents Ace as a woman out of time, someone for whom travel in the TARDIS is so common she has no idea how to relate to ordinary people for any length of time. Henry (John Dorney) is an appropriate, put-upon foil for her, but more than anything he represents Ace’s potential future should she elect to stop traveling. Yet simultaneously we see the Doctor’s trust in her: the younger Doctor may have elected to die, but the older Doctor gives her the tools she needs to save him without a word of explanation, knowing she’ll work it out. She’s the ultimate companion: while Hex worries that he’s starting to become like the Doctor, Ace is already most of the way there, meaning there was never any realistic chance she’d stay behind. She weeps for her lost future with Henry on the TARDIS floor, but when the Doctor calls, she abandons Henry without a further word. Her doppelganger’s manipulation of Nobody No One is worthy of the Time Lord himself, and there’s never any doubt that Ace herself lacks this ability. Sophie Aldred is also asked to run the full range of emotions, and her performance is generally fantastic – only a brief hysterical crying scene fails to convince, though the image of Ace crying hysterically is jarring enough.
“A Death in the Family” also marks the final (chronological) appearance of Evelyn Smythe, arguably the greatest of Big Finish’s original companions. As the story aims to examine the seventh Doctor’s effect on his companions, Hall takes care to present Evelyn as a companion of a different Doctor. It’s clear they still harbor a great deal of affection – and Maggie Stables and Sylvester McCoy have an easy chemistry – but Evelyn is quick to chastise the Doctor for becoming so manipulative and willing to overlook the consequences of his actions. This has an effect, of course – the older Doctor directly references the conversation! – but her role in the story isn’t to change things, it’s to provide a reference point. Even this final conversation takes place as part of a grand manipulation, after all. Hall’s ability to tie past events together is again evident with Evelyn, as he brings her heart trouble, her history with both Doctors, and her time on Vilag into an elegant, heroic conclusion. Yes, she dies, but she does so saving the world, and in calm, almost joyful fashion. It’s not surprising that Maggie Stables once again turns in an excellent performance, but it’s a pleasure to hear her establish herself once again as one of the giants of the range.
Nobody No One, the titular Word Lord from Hall’s earlier script, returns, regenerated from Paul Reynolds to Ian Reddington, and quickly establishes himself as one of the most memorable, frightening villains of the McCoy era. (Of course, Reddington played one of the other ones, “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’s” Chief Clown!) He’s dangerously unstable, quick to anger, and thoroughly unconcerned with the fate of anyone but himself. The sheer brilliance of the concept allows for great moments – forcing a soldier simply to say “No one has the power of life and death over the Doctor” – and fantastic linguistic give and take with the regulars. He’s not the main focus of the script, of course, given that he isn’t even in the middle episodes, but he steals almost every scene when he does appear. Reddington’s performance is terrifying, and yet he manages to make the villain sympathetic in his final scene, confronted with his own death and unable to stop it. The juxtaposition between the Word Lord and the dying Evelyn is yet another fantastic moment in a great production.
Everything in Doctor Who comes back to the Doctor, and so it is with this story, which features two seventh Doctors meeting at once. The ultimate question is if the Doctor’s effect on his companions is a positive thing, and to Hall’s credit he offers no easy answers. It’s unquestionable that this Doctor manipulates his companions and makes them more like him – we see it happen over and over in this script alone – but here we’re left uneasy about the prospect. Even as the younger Doctor bravely sacrifices himself to stop the Word Lord, the older Doctor is already making preparations to save his earlier self. Every action he takes is pointed toward this end – yet he also repairs Hex’s psyche and gives Ace a chance at a better life in the process. Is this intentional? Was he willing to risk his further existence to allow Ace an ordinary, happy life? Or did he know she’d never make that choice? I suspect the latter, which suggests that the elder Doctor hasn’t really changed his ways at all: he’s just become subtler and more effective. I’ve always lauded Sylvester McCoy as an actor, and I’ve praised his Big Finish performances of late, but he surpasses himself here. I’m not sure if it’s up to his turn in “Death Comes to Time,” which is among the greatest lead performances in the entire history of Doctor Who, but it’s got to be the best work he’s done for Big Finish. That it’s also arguably his best Big Finish script is no coincidence, but in any case we’re unbelievably lucky to have him.
With such a character-focused story, and with such great performances from the regulars, director Ken Bentley is worthy of high praise for his handling of the script. Richard Fox and Lauren Yason contribute some excellent sound design – the montage of Big Finish Doctor Who clips is a particular standout – but their score is truly sublime, one of the best Big Finish has seen since the Russell Stone days. I could continue to praise “A Death in the Family” until I run out of bandwidth, but suffice it to say that this is the sort of modern classic the main range was once known for. It’s churlish to call Steven Hall “the next Rob Shearman,” as each author is his own man, but this script contains the sort of literacy, depth, and intelligence that marks not just great Doctor Who but great drama in general. “Project: Destiny” was great, but “A Death in the Family” is astonishing. I’ll put it up against any Doctor Who story in any medium. It’s that good.
A true classic.
10/10