St Matilda’s College, Oxford is haunted. The building was formerly a convent and, so the story goes, three ghostly nuns wander its passages during the hours of darkness. The story goes on to say that anyone who sees the ‘three sisters’ will not be long for this world.
When one of the students mysteriously disappears, the Dean of the College, Dame Emily Shaw, has no option but to call in the police. Her call appears to be answered when a Police Box arrives in her study; the Doctor and Leela have come to investigate and uncover the dark secret that has lain buried beneath the college for almost a thousand years…
THE CLOISTERS OF TERROR
The sixth entry in the fourth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures, Jonathan Morris’ “The Cloisters of Terror,” marks yet another return to the ultra-traditional feel this range is known for. Fortunately, it’s a reasonably entertaining story, but – yet again – if you’re looking for anything substantial, you’ve come to the wrong place.
Frankly, you couldn’t write a more Hinchcliffe-type story if you tried. Set in the cloistered halls of a 1970s women’s college, largely under the darkness of night, there’s a ghostly presence stalking the students: if you see the three sisters, you are doomed to die! So we spend the first episode fleeing from ghosts until we discover, in the second, that the “ghosts” are in fact telepathic manifestations of a crashed alien spaceship, one that will destroy the country if left unattended, and it’s up to the Doctor to fix it and save the day. The Doctor’s involvement has a “Seeds of Doom” feel to it – he intercepts a police transmission and uses his UNIT credentials to justify his involvement. The problem, as with so many other stories in this range, is that Morris does absolutely nothing more with the script than what tradition dictates.
In the recent anthology release “Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories,” Una McCormick’s script “An Eye for Murder” was one of the best in the collection. It also featured a women’s college – though a bit earlier, historically – and spent time engaging with the concept, the struggles of the characters, and the Doctor’s interaction with an all-female environment. “The Cloisters of Terror,” on the other hand, could be set on the moon for all the difference the setting makes to the plot. Even the two students, Megan (Claudia Grant) and Lynn (Allison McKenzie), are interchangeable ciphers, to the extent that I lost track of which one was which. And the plot develops exactly as one would expect, with nothing in the way of surprise along the way.
There’s also an appearance from Dame Emily Shaw (Rowena Cooper), evidently the mother of companion Liz Shaw, and evidently introduced in a Companion Chronicle that I haven’t heard. While there’s nothing wrong with the character, I’m not really sure why she was included – she’s a fairly typical investigator, and apart from a brief conversation with the Doctor about Liz, there’s nothing that really sets her apart from other, similar characters. Is this some attempt to duplicate the success of Kate Stewart from the TV show? Otherwise I can’t really see the point.
The production is very good, especially Jamie Robertson’s sound design, which expertly captures the oppressive atmosphere of a dark, stormy night. But as usual with this range, I’ve run out of things to say. “The Cloisters of Terror” is a well-made but thoroughly uninspiring Doctor Who story. I know I’m beating a dead horse at this point, but we’ve literally had hundreds of these, and I just don’t see the point of making more.
Oh well.
5/10