The TARDIS materializes on the USS Eldridge, after the Philadelphia Experiment has gone disastrously wrong. Most of the crew are dead, the ship is disintegrating, and the Doctor soon realizes that the problem comes from another dimension.
The TARDIS materializes on the USS Eldridge, after the Philadelphia Experiment has gone disastrously wrong. Most of the crew are dead, the ship is disintegrating, and the Doctor soon realizes that the problem comes from another dimension.
THE LOST STORIES: THE MACROS
The first “season” of Lost Stories from Big Finish, aimed at producing several sixth Doctor and Peri stories originally intended for the approximate season 23 era, comes to a close with “The Macros,” a script by horror film legend Ingrid Pitt and her husband Tony Rudlin. Pitt, herself a Doctor Who acting veteran (“The Time Monster” and “Warriors of the Deep”), rewrote the script with Rudlin for Big Finish shortly before her death in 2010. Unfortunately, while the Lost Stories series has unearthed some potential classics, “The Macros” is definitely not one of them.
An initial clue that “The Macros” isn’t going to be up to much is that the title itself has virtually nothing to do with the story. It’s mentioned briefly that the alternate dimension featured in the script is microscopic compared to our own, but this has no bearing on the plot: the TARDIS essentially auto-corrects for it based simply on the journey. Granted, there’s a process that needs to take place that forms the basis for the resolution, but why is this story called “The Macros?” Who are the Macros? Us? Does anyone even use the term during the course of the story?
Perhaps that’s nitpicking – well, the biggest problem with “The Macros” is that it’s a mess of overused clichés, questionable characterization, and poor decisions. Everything about the alternate dimension is boring and predictable: it’s the simplest sort of rebels-versus-dictator storytelling, with the evil Presidenta Osloo (Linda Marlowe) actually being the hero’s wicked stepmother! The production surrounding this part of the story is admittedly strong – the cast really goes for it, and Marlowe in particular is gloriously over the top – but it’s so clichéd it’s difficult to write about. She’s putting rebels to work as slaves in the mines, she learns of Earth’s existence and decides to conquer it, and so forth.
The material on the USS Eldridge is better, in that it at least piques the interest – but even here, what’s done with the material? The Philadelphia Experiment was a success, but the ship fell into a dimensional gateway, causing it to be trapped in a time loop. You could do a whole story from this, but instead it’s just a base of operations for the Doctor, who comes up with an absolutely ludicrous explanation for why he can’t solve their very simple problem. Of course, that’s only there to drive the Professor (Vincent Pirillo) to betray the Doctor later in the story, but that in turn is indicative of the weakness of the script. Everything happens here for plot-driven reasons, with no character beats or moments to rest. There’s a tedious scene where Peri falls through a hole in the ship and needs to be hauled out that could have been excised completely without changing the story in any way. The cliffhanger is surprising, but it comes so completely out of left field that it unwittingly telegraphs the ending. There’s a brief detour to the 1940s to attempt to stop the experiment that utterly fails and, again, adds nothing to the story. The Doctor (especially the sixth) is bizarrely passive and out of character, while Peri shifts unpredictably between heroism and stupidity. It all holds together, which is something not every script can say, but Pitt and Rudlin fail to do anything interesting along the way.
The production is surprising. The sound design from Richard Fox and Lauren Yason is effective as ever, but the score occasionally comes out of nowhere to transition scenes with a thunderous piano interlude. John Ainsworth directs, and while even the unnecessary scenes are paced well, it’s hard to stop the feeling of futility setting in. Overall, “The Macros” just isn’t very good. It’s generic in all the wrong ways; it’s easy to call it Doctor Who by numbers, but Doctor Who is never this unambitious.
Don’t bother.
4/10