Deep space in the distant future, and Captain Greeg and his crew are hunting mile-long Space Whales on a vast harvesting ship. By pure accident, they also capture the TARDIS.
The Doctor and Peri must use all their wits to survive. But what is the creature running loose in the ship’s bowels? And can the Doctor save Megaptera before its song is extinguished forever?
THE LOST STORIES: THE SONG OF MEGAPTERA
The Pat Mills script originally titled “The Song of the Space Whale” has one of the longest histories of any of Big Finish’s Lost Stories. Originally submitted for Tom Baker’s latter seasons, it was again resubmitted for Peter Davison and then again for Colin Baker, but never made it into production. In the end, Big Finish recruited Mills – author of two Eighth Doctor Adventures – to redraft the Colin Baker version of his oft-denied script for audio for the Lost Stories range. Unfortunately, the result isn’t particularly effective, both in terms of message and characterization.
If there’s a way to sum up “The Song of Megaptera” in three words, it’s this: “Whaling is bad!” I won’t disagree with the sentiment, but lord, this is among the most obvious, unsubtle stories in the long history of Doctor Who. It’s barely even allegorical: there are massive whales – IN SPACE! There are even more massive whaling ships that indiscriminately capture and kill these whales – IN SPACE! The whales try to escape by diving beneath the surface – OF TIME! And so forth. The story takes place in a future in which ecological groups apparently have significant political sway, but yet the evil whaling captain (John Benfield) labels the Doctor and Peri “eco-terrorists” guilty of “ecotage” – I’m not sure if this is supposed to be some sort of satirical commentary or just wanton silliness. Honestly, there’s no reason for this to be set in space at all – you could achieve the same effect by setting it on a modern whaling ship.
By doing so, you’d also manage to avoid some of the other problems with the script. While I like the idea of the whale having a “time core” at its center, and how the TARDIS and the time core mutually interfere, Mills also establishes a cult-like society living inside the whale who describe themselves as a “framily.” The term is silly enough on its own – and it’s amusing how Peri, from the early 1980s, easily knows the definition – but it’s repeated over and over again to the point of irritation, while the cult is so mindless and wet they fail to provoke any sympathy or interest. Any conflict on display here is too obvious to be dramatic; any resolution is utterly predictable.
And then there’s the characterization. On the plus side, Mills captures an entertaining, effective sixth Doctor that Colin Baker clearly enjoys. He easily slips into the role of an officious supervisor from an ecological firm, and delights in tormenting the crew of the whaling ship with his skills and intelligence. Peri, on the other hand, is so wildly out of character it’s surprising this is meant to be the same person. Even when she’s not delirious, she’s bizarrely innocent, unusually forthright about her nationality, and more demanding and argumentative than the Doctor. Nicola Bryant’s voice seems slightly different – was this a deliberate choice or the result of discomfort with the script? Either way, it took me out of the story to an unusually significant degree for a Big Finish production.
Other minor issues abound, best illustrated by the decision to have the ship’s computer (John Banks) develop a clichéd “gamer” personality, complete with what Mills amusingly describes as leetspeak. This goes precisely as well as one would expect – think Ace’s “teenage” dialogue from the late ‘80s for evidence. The production, fortunately, is quite good, between John Ainsworth’s direction and Daniel Brett’s convincing sound design – the space whale at the end is particularly haunting. Overall, “The Song of Megaptera” is a missed opportunity – a simplistic central concept with little drama surrounded by poor writing decisions. It’s not as offensively bad as “The Hollows of Time,” but it’s certainly not required listening.
Not recommended.
4/10