Business is bad for intergalactic media mogul Augustus Scullop, whose Trans-Gal empire is on the rocks. But, having retreated to his own private planet, Transmission, Scullop is about to gamble his fortune on a new show, made with an entirely new technology. And the name of that show… is Laser.
Back in the real world, far from the realms of small screen sci-fi fantasies about monsters and aliens, the Doctor is interested only in watching Test Match cricket… but finds himself drawn into Scullop’s world when his new travelling companion, Flip, is snatched from inside the TARDIS.
So, while the Doctor uncovers the terrible secret of Trans-Gal’s new tech, Flip battles to survive in a barren wilderness ruled over by the indestructible Lord Krarn and his pig-like servants, the Warmongers. And the name of that wilderness… is ‘Stevenage’.
THE FOURTH WALL
The second installment in the trilogy featuring Colin Baker and new companion Flip, “The Fourth Wall” also marks the full-length main range debut of author John Dorney, who previously penned the superlative “Special Features” as part of “The Demons of Red Lodge and Other Stories.” While “Fourth Wall” is not without its flaws, those are mostly related to the direction of the range as a whole – as a self-contained piece of drama, it’s generally excellent, an intelligent examination of the nature of fictional narrative.
On the private planet Transmission, media supremo Augustus Scullop (Julian Wadham) has created a television show with new technology: real characters generated from actors’ performances in an entirely fictional, yet tangible, world. This show, “Laser,” is the worst sort of science fiction cliché: dashing hero, helpless girl, ludicrously evil, motiveless villain, etc. So when Flip gets trapped inside the show – through a mishap with the Time-Space Visualiser! – it goes in rather predictable directions at first. She challenges the nonsense at every turn, and the characters are taken aback, unable to answer the most basic questions about their motives. If Dorney had stuck with this as the theme, it would have made for an entertaining but unenlightening story – so it’s when the villain Krarn (Martin Hutson) abruptly kills her that the story takes a rapid positive turn.
When the fictional world bleeds through into the real one, it answers an interesting question: what if a one-dimensional villain like Krarn was actually real? Dorney doesn’t pull his punches, portraying Krarn as an unstoppable force of terror and mayhem. And why not? He’s not driven by any particular goal, he doesn’t have any particular set of moral qualms to rely on, he’s just evil for the sake of it. The body count is incredibly high, but rightfully so – and somehow the humor sprinkled throughout manages to keep the story from getting unnecessarily dark. Best of all, though, is the brilliant scene between Scullop and Krarn, creator and created – he should have written him with mercy after all.
If I have a complaint, it’s with how the story handles Flip. She’s more appealing here than in “Curse of Davros,” certainly, forthright without being obnoxious – but she’s separated from the Doctor for most of the first two episodes and then abruptly killed off! The Doctor’s grief is mostly academic as a result, but how could it be anything else? He barely even knows her, after all. We’ve basically had a companion for two entire stories without seeing her spend any significant time with the Doctor. If “Wirrn Isle” opens with the two of them laughing and joking about dozens of unseen adventures that happen between now and then, I’ll put my foot through the speakers.
There’s some other entertaining meta content, especially with the Porcines, utterly incompetent pig-like bad guys who can’t get out of their own way without falling down. But while much fun is had at their expense, the fictional story recasts them as Warmongers, brutally efficient servants of Krarn. And so the real-life Porcines are left dreaming of the day they become as efficient as their fictional counterparts. I also very much like the conclusion, and the resurrection of Flip: yes, it’s a cheap retcon, but it works entirely within the rules of the story and serves as an ingenious bit of lateral thinking on the Doctor’s part. You couldn’t tell this story every month, of course, but once in a while this sort of thing amuses.
The actors all have a delight playing dual roles, and Colin Baker gets a great scene at the end where he plays the Doctor acting – scenes like that elegantly demonstrate Baker’s acting talent. But the production front is first-rate, with Nicholas Briggs directing and sound designer Jamie Robertson keeping the pace and tone of a difficult story throughout. Overall, “The Fourth Wall” is a fine example of imaginative Doctor Who and the calling card of a promising author.
Highly recommended.
8/10