Prison in Space adapted by Simon Guerrier
A relaxing break for the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe becomes something decidedly more sinister when they are arrested for trespass. But what has happened to the planet Earth? And how has the malevolent Chairman Babs gained control? As the Doctor and Jamie are incarcerated in a prison that they can never escape from, Zoe is forced to change sides…
The Daleks: The Destroyers
adapted by Nicholas Briggs and John Dorney
In 1967, the Daleks were written out of Doctor Who as their creator, Terry Nation, prepared to launch them in their own TV series. Production was halted at the eleventh hour, but the script has survived – now making its debut on audio.
When the crew of Explorer Base One is attacked by the Daleks, Space Security Agents Sara Kingdom, Mark Seven and Jason Corey are sent to investigate. They discover a plan that threatens the future of the entire galaxy…
THE LOST STORIES: THE SECOND DOCTOR BOX SET
PRISON IN SPACE
After recapturing much of the lost “season 23” in the first series of the Lost Stories, and then journeying back to the Hartnell era in a wonderful box set, it was no surprise for Big Finish to continue forward into the Troughton era to produce another unmade story. And so the Second Doctor Box Set opens with “Prison in Space,” a script by Dick Sharples (adapted by Simon Guerrier) originally intended for production in season 6, featuring the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe. Unfortunately, the story rapidly demonstrates why it should never have been made in the first place: it is quite possibly the most morally repugnant story in the long history of Doctor Who.
Let’s get the good parts out of the way first. Much like William Russell and Carole Ann Ford before them, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury share narration duties on “Prison in Space.” It’s an odd yet effective choice: they narrate seemingly at random, largely portraying the male and female characters respectively but often switching back and forth. It goes without saying at this point that Hines’ Troughton is magnificent – he may not capture all the high notes but he absolutely nails his Doctor’s vocal inflections. It’s also fun to hear him switch so readily from his measured narrative tones to Jamie’s thicker accent. Unfortunately (and understandably!), Padbury doesn’t sound much like Zoe anymore, but she demonstrates admirable range switching between the characters. David Darlington’s sound design and especially his score are first-rate, and Lisa Bowerman’s direction gives an otherwise uninspiring story an exciting pace.
I rarely get political in my Doctor Who reviewing, largely because the series itself usually remains apolitical or takes broad, uncontroversial positions on social issues. While Lawrence Miles’ reading of “The Unquiet Dead,” to take a controversial example, is certainly valid, that’s not the approach I tend to use when reading Doctor Who. But it’s impossible to avoid this approach when reviewing “Prison in Space,” as Sharples’ script, despite its comic overtones, is clearly staking out a thoroughly negative position on feminism. Here’s a society in which women have fought for their rights – and upon winning, disenfranchised all men and sent them to a life of labor in the servant class. Perhaps this is all satirical, intended to demonstrate through inversion the plight faced by women? That would be nice, but Sharples is quite clear throughout that a society run by women is unnatural, and demonstrates repeatedly that the secret at the heart of the female society is a strong desire for men to come back and run things for them.
Chairman Babs (Susan Brown) – and simply having a character named “Chairman Babs” in a story about feminism should tell you enough – might be the most generic sort of science fiction dictator, but that only lasts until the Doctor shows up. Once that happens, this immensely-powerful woman who rules the entire earth is reduced to the schoolgirl infatuations of a teenager, pining after the Doctor in private and stroking her fingertips over his image, entirely because he’s the right sort of man for her. Jamie spends the story spouting sexist lines about women – and while the Doctor is quick to excuse him for not knowing any better, the story does absolutely nothing to prove him wrong. The women in the story parade around in skin-tight black rubber costumes for no apparent reason other than titillation – but at whom is this directed, if all the men are locked up? The narrative itself is no better – I’m not sure how much of this is Guerrier and how much is Sharples, but every single woman in the story is defined largely by her appearance. Sergeant Alice has a crew cut, she’s stocky, she’s “butch” – and what a shock at the end when she turns out to be an elegant, skilled dancer! And the tall, thin one is clumsy! You mean obvious lesbian analogues can act like women, too? Boy, the script sure got me there! And let’s not forget the real reason we know that Chairman Babs is evil, and a poor leader – she’s ugly, as every male character in the story is quick to remind us over and over again.
Of course, all this pales in comparison to the conclusion. Midway through the story, Zoe is brainwashed into believing men are inferior, and when it comes time for her to rejoin the TARDIS crew, her conditioning remains. There’s only one solution to this problem – Jamie actually puts her over his knee and beats her until she snaps out of it. And let’s not paper over this and call it “spanking” like we’re in some campy sex comedy – he’s forcibly holding her down, she’s screaming for him to stop, and afterward she’s explicitly described as crying from the pain and humiliation. This is abuse presented as entertainment, and the sheer suggestion that this is supposed to be amusing is the worst offense in a story full of them.
I could go on and describe how the story itself isn’t even good, how it’s an incredibly generic and uninteresting rebels-overthrow-the-empire story, how every beat of the plot is visible from a mile off, etc. But that would be engaging with “Prison in Space” on its own terms, and I don’t want to do that. If someone dug up a lost Doctor Who script in which a persecuted ethnic minority rose up and took over the planet but rapidly discovered that what they really wanted, deep down, was for the whites to be back in charge so they wouldn’t have to worry so much, would Big Finish have produced it? I hope not, but sexism and racism aren’t too far apart, and here’s “Prison in Space.” This should have been left on the scrap heap, not because it’s bad drama but because it’s vile, misogynist garbage. That nobody looked at the script and thought, “Maybe this is a terrible idea” is deeply troubling to me – but hey, it’s a comedy story, right? It’s a bit of harmless fun, right? It’s Doctor Who, how bad can it be, right? Wrong. Everyone involved with this should be ashamed.
Inexcusable.
0/10
THE DALEKS: THE DESTROYERS
One could be forgiven for expecting both stories in “The Second Doctor Box Set” to feature the second Doctor, but in this case one would be wrong. Instead, the second story is not a Doctor Who story at all, but rather Terry Nation’s American Dalek series pilot script “The Destroyers.” Much like the other Lost Stories of this era, Big Finish opts to present the story through narration, this time by Jean Marsh – but the narration is largely adapted from Nation’s own stage directions by Nicholas Briggs and John Dorney. “The Destroyers” is exactly what you’d expect from a Terry Nation Dalek script: hard-bitten space marines, a savage environment where the very plants hunger for human flesh, unstoppable Daleks driven by dreams of conquest, etc. Sara Kingdom is a bit of a step down from her Doctor Who portrayal, pining and sobbing helplessly over her lost brother, but someone had to offset the mercenary characterization of the other members of her team.
The problem with “The Destroyers” is that it’s a terrible pilot episode. It’s full of exciting, action-packed set pieces, but as a hook to follow an ongoing series it doesn’t work at all. We learn surprisingly little about the main characters apart from what the stage directions tell us, their relationships are ill-defined at best, and the Daleks, ostensibly the stars of the show, have only a few brief appearances that do nothing to define their motivations outside of “conquer the Earth.” That’s perhaps the most crucial mistake here: the script assumes its audience is already familiar with the Daleks. Without that knowledge, they come across as irritable tanks that like to blow things up – and be as cynical as you like, but the intended American audience probably would have wanted more than that to keep watching.
This isn’t to say “The Destroyers” is bad all the way around – it just doesn’t amount to much, in the end. But give a ton of credit to Jean Marsh – you don’t need me to tell you that she’s a fantastic actor, but her narration perfectly captures the tone of the script. Sound designer Jamie Robertson absolutely steals the show, with an addictive, memorable period score and a theme tune that is nothing short of amazing. So “The Destroyers” might not be much of a story, but it’s produced with such confidence and its set pieces are so effective in their pulp traditionalism that it’s hard not to enjoy the experience. It’s not a Doctor Who story, but it’s a fun way to experience what might have been.
Why not.
6/10