The search for the fourth segment of the Key to Time brings the Doctor and Romana back to Earth in the present day.
In a small village in Norfolk, former astronaut Lady Millicent Ferril has established an observatory, tracking a meteorite from the Cronquist System. It is a meteorite that almost killed her years before – and perhaps left her not entirely human.
As Ferril’s power grows, so does her influence. She can control metal. And anything metal – from a suit of armour to a bicycle – is now lethal…
THE COMPANION CHRONICLES: FERRIL’S FOLLY
I can’t say I know anything about what happened behind the scenes of “Ferril’s Folly,” the eleventh Companion Chronicle in the fifth series – all I know is that it was announced for 2009 but didn’t see release until 2011. Whatever the case, the final result, from writer Peter Anghelides, underwhelms, as it takes a new narrative idea and fails to do anything interesting with it.
“Ferril’s Folly” takes the approach of a few Companion Chronicles before it by delivering exposition through two narrators instead of the usual one. Anghelides puts a unique spin on this by using the villain, Lady Ferril (Madeleine Potter), as one of those narrators in addition to the companion. It’s certainly interesting to have a Doctor Who story narrated by an outsider, someone unfamiliar with the TARDIS crew – we can see the Time Lords’ obvious intelligence counterpointed against their seemingly erratic behavior, the Doctor’s lack of seriousness, and so forth. But that’s as far as the interest goes: the script does not take advantage of the medium, as we learn little about the villain or her motivation. In fact, we learn those things when Romana is narrating, which to my mind defeats the purpose of the exercise. (Or we learn those things from the product synopsis, which casually gives away revelations from the second episode. Funny that I didn’t feel like I’d been spoiled.)
There’s really not much to say about this story. There’s a former astronaut under the influence of an alien race, and one of those influences gives her the power to control iron. (Get it? Her name is Ferril? It’s similar to the Latin? Eh?) So there’s the obligatory scene with household tools coming to life and attacking people and… that’s pretty much it. The plot is perfectly standard, the resolution comes without a great deal of effort, and the Key to Time is crowbarred in because the story is set in season 16. This time they actually find a segment, but they can’t convert it for plot reasons, so instead it’s dispersed and found later. As exciting resolutions go, that’s not so great.
“Ferril’s Folly” also has absolutely no framing device. Romana leaps into the narration and off we go – it’s basically an audiobook of a first-person short story. This was okay at the start of the range when it was finding its feet, but now it just serves as a red flag. The Companion Chronicles have done brilliant things with the format, but this is just another standard Doctor Who story. And it’s especially galling in retrospect that this is the late Mary Tamm’s second and final Companion Chronicle – she was an excellent narrator and she was wasted on this and “The Stealers from Saiph.” Even the production isn’t great – Lisa Bowerman’s direction is fine, but the sound design from Daniel Brett is occasionally overwrought and unconvincing. Overall, “Ferril’s Folly” has an awfully fitting title.
4/10