‘Anyone who’s prepared to kill for a book interests me.’ Ireland, 1006. Strange things have been happening at the isolated Abbey of Kells: disembodied voices, unexplained disappearances, sudden death. The monks whisper of imps and demons. Could the Lord of the Dead himself be stalking these hallowed cloisters? The Doctor and his companion find themselves in the midst of a medieval mystery.
THE BOOK OF KELLS
The pseudo-historical is a storytelling tradition unique to Doctor Who: for the vast majority of its existence, the series has eschewed the so-called “pure historical” for stories set in Earth’s past but featuring a strong science fiction element. In the early days, however, pure historicals were the norm – the first historical to introduce sci-fi elements didn’t come along until the very last story of season 2, “The Time Meddler.” Decades later, Big Finish and writer-director Barnaby Edwards would release “The Book of Kells,” an homage to that classic story in almost every way, including the quality of the writing and production.
Let’s get the big spoiler out of the way immediately while drawing comparisons: much like “The Time Meddler,” this story features an adventure revolving around an 11th century monastery with the Meddling Monk in charge, manipulating history to his own ends. He’s using the events surrounding the disappearance of the Liber Columbae – the titular Book of Kells – to fashion a new circuit for his TARDIS, until the Doctor naturally turns up to stop him. The story has a generally humorous tone punctuated with moments of seriousness and a small helping of medieval politics. Even the casting is a tribute: the late comedy star Peter Butterworth is here supplanted by comedy star Graeme Garden. The revelation makes perfect sense even outside of this story: we know a rogue Time Lord has been operating in parallel to the Doctor, and it simply isn’t the Master’s or the Rani’s style to hold a companion audition.
Unfortunately, the tribute is so comprehensive that it effectively ruins the surprise! I didn’t know this was coming when the play started, but I’d guessed what was going on well before the revelation: between the setting and Garden’s performance, it was fairly obvious. Of course, guessing a twist needn’t ruin anything, but the story spends a great deal of time after the revelation watching the Doctor pursue Brother Bernard (Jim Carter, also great) when it’s painfully obvious the Abbot is the Monk. Still, once the truth is out, we’re treated to a great confrontation between the Monk and the Doctor. Garden pitches his performance a bit more seriously than Butterworth did, but still retains the character’s essential humor, and he and McGann demonstrate a natural rapport. The Monk calling himself Thelonius… hell, it made me laugh.
It’s also nice to see a pseudo-historical revolving around an actual historical event, in this case the mysterious disappearance of the Book of Kells in 1006. The explanation fits elegantly with the plot and doesn’t feel forced in any way. Additionally, the script finally affords Tamsin some actual character development: she spends the majority of the story at the heart of events with the Doctor, and when she’s separated she physically subdues the mysterious Lucianus and recovers the Book. Niky Wardley plays Tamsin with her body about half a step ahead of her brain: she’s enthusiastic and desperate to keep up, meaning she ends up being impulsive and taking a number of risks. She’s not stupid by any means, but one gets the impression she’s too far out over her skis, and the Doctor is still exasperated with her in ways he was not by this time with Charley or Lucie. It’s a shame it took three whole stories to get to know the new companion, but I definitely like her thus far.
The production front is best illustrated by discussing the post-credits twist: there’s a character called Lucianus with a distinct accent, an odd voice, played by someone called Ash Hidminster, and yet Edwards had me the entire way. I had no idea this was Lucie Miller back so soon – but at least now I see who won the companion auditions! Martin Johnson’s sound design convincingly presents the present/past technology divide, and Edwards’ direction is faultless. Overall, “The Book of Kells” meanders a bit too much in the middle to rank among the pinnacle of Big Finish releases, but it’s easily one of the best-ever plays in this McGann range. More of this, please!
Highly recommended.
9/10