The Fifth Doctor, Peri and Erimem face witches, corporate greed and a deadly secret on the planet Talderun.
1 Comment
Styre
on May 7, 2016 at 11:37 PM
NEKROMANTEIA
Scriptwriter Austen Atkinson was drafted to write the first Peter Davison release of the fortieth anniversary season, and the reception of the result, Nekromanteia, was lukewarm at best. Though it makes a valiant attempt at capturing the grim mood of season 21, and succeeds in places, Nekromanteia ultimately fails as a production, falling down due to obvious, boring plotting, poor acting, and some questionable sound work.
It shouldn’t be particularly surprising that the main objection to Nekromanteia since its release has been over the content. This is not a forgiving play, featuring as it does cannibalism, beheadings, attempted rape, nudity, and a million other elements that couldn’t be seen on the BBC at 5:25 on a Saturday. I do not, however, join with those that question the inclusion of these elements: it is my firm belief that Doctor Who can accommodate any subject matter that does not alter the essential character of the regulars, and as such there is nothing in Nekromanteia that offends me on its face.
Furthermore, Atkinson is plainly familiar with the latter days of the Peter Davison era on television. Yes, the Doctor is ineffectual in this play, but for once this is appropriate: that is *exactly* how the fifth Doctor was portrayed on television in his final episodes. Yes, terrible things happen to the companions, but Resurrection and Androzani weren’t exactly kind. However, Atkinson misses two key elements of season 21: first, this is not a precisely fatalistic fifth Doctor like we saw in that year, and secondly the characters are forced to reset themselves at the play’s conclusion. I admit I haven’t heard the next Peri/Erimem story but if they were to come off this audio unchanged it would sadly be inappropriate.
Unfortunately, the plot doesn’t support these embellishments. Sure, there’s a whole clash-of-cultures thing going on, plus an evil corporation and a hard-bitten starship crew, but the actual plot is nothing more than a group of people pursuing one thing. And as none of the characters (save perhaps the regulars) are sympathetic, it’s impossible to care about who gets there first, since as far as I was concerned the whole group of supporting characters could have accidentally fallen into the sun.
Peter Davison bravely recaptures his season 21 persona in this play, and, as stated above, the ineffectual nature of his character in the script is entirely acceptable. Davison is at his best when he is allowed to play the character with a hint (or more) of desperation, and that is certainly the case in Nekromanteia. He is, of course, perfectly situated at the fictional cricket match, and his interactions with Shara are, from his perspective, fun to hear.
Peri, on the other hand, is dealt with in somewhat questionable fashion. She is given realistic lines (the famous “I was born with the word trouble tattooed on my ass” comes to mind) that would probably work coming from the mouth of a believable American character, but unfortunately Nicola Bryant isn’t American and Peri isn’t believable. Bryant does what she can with the material, but this is a poorly-characterized version of Peri and it doesn’t really hold up.
Erimem, meanwhile, might have developed in an entirely different direction had this been her second story as originally intended. Here she’s almost raped, fighting Harlon off to avoid it — and her reaction afterward is believable. Her reaction to Rom’s death is fascinating as well, though between that and her threats of violence Atkinson draws dangerously close to transforming her into Leela II. Fortunately this extra step never takes place and the character remains believable.
The supporting cast, for the first time in a long time, has its faults. Glyn Owen is awful as Harlon, failing to convince in any measurable sense, especially when trying to be evil. Ivor Danvers is okay as Marr, though the character is the worst type of cliche, and Simon Williams is decent as Addison, but someone needs to check up on Gilly Cohen right now to make sure she’s stopped cackling. Ugh. Gary Russell, though, is really quite good as Thesanius at the play’s open.
David Darlington’s score is reminiscent of his Excelis work, and it is accomplished — it’s not what I would have conceived of as the score for this script, but it works quite well. The sound design is solid as well, though unfortunately the recording failed in at least one area: during the latter half of the play, especially in episode three, there are several occasions in which Bryant’s levels clip — this is especially noticeable when she is yelling with clipping and someone else is yelling back without it. John Ainsworth’s direction is a bit obvious in places but works rather well despite the source material — but wow, that cover looks great!
Overall, Nekromanteia is a disappointment. With a few rewrites and some different casting decisions, it might have been much better, but as it stands it’s a failed attempt to do something darker with the fifth Doctor. It has its redeeming moments, but overall it’s hard to recommend.
NEKROMANTEIA
Scriptwriter Austen Atkinson was drafted to write the first Peter Davison release of the fortieth anniversary season, and the reception of the result, Nekromanteia, was lukewarm at best. Though it makes a valiant attempt at capturing the grim mood of season 21, and succeeds in places, Nekromanteia ultimately fails as a production, falling down due to obvious, boring plotting, poor acting, and some questionable sound work.
It shouldn’t be particularly surprising that the main objection to Nekromanteia since its release has been over the content. This is not a forgiving play, featuring as it does cannibalism, beheadings, attempted rape, nudity, and a million other elements that couldn’t be seen on the BBC at 5:25 on a Saturday. I do not, however, join with those that question the inclusion of these elements: it is my firm belief that Doctor Who can accommodate any subject matter that does not alter the essential character of the regulars, and as such there is nothing in Nekromanteia that offends me on its face.
Furthermore, Atkinson is plainly familiar with the latter days of the Peter Davison era on television. Yes, the Doctor is ineffectual in this play, but for once this is appropriate: that is *exactly* how the fifth Doctor was portrayed on television in his final episodes. Yes, terrible things happen to the companions, but Resurrection and Androzani weren’t exactly kind. However, Atkinson misses two key elements of season 21: first, this is not a precisely fatalistic fifth Doctor like we saw in that year, and secondly the characters are forced to reset themselves at the play’s conclusion. I admit I haven’t heard the next Peri/Erimem story but if they were to come off this audio unchanged it would sadly be inappropriate.
Unfortunately, the plot doesn’t support these embellishments. Sure, there’s a whole clash-of-cultures thing going on, plus an evil corporation and a hard-bitten starship crew, but the actual plot is nothing more than a group of people pursuing one thing. And as none of the characters (save perhaps the regulars) are sympathetic, it’s impossible to care about who gets there first, since as far as I was concerned the whole group of supporting characters could have accidentally fallen into the sun.
Peter Davison bravely recaptures his season 21 persona in this play, and, as stated above, the ineffectual nature of his character in the script is entirely acceptable. Davison is at his best when he is allowed to play the character with a hint (or more) of desperation, and that is certainly the case in Nekromanteia. He is, of course, perfectly situated at the fictional cricket match, and his interactions with Shara are, from his perspective, fun to hear.
Peri, on the other hand, is dealt with in somewhat questionable fashion. She is given realistic lines (the famous “I was born with the word trouble tattooed on my ass” comes to mind) that would probably work coming from the mouth of a believable American character, but unfortunately Nicola Bryant isn’t American and Peri isn’t believable. Bryant does what she can with the material, but this is a poorly-characterized version of Peri and it doesn’t really hold up.
Erimem, meanwhile, might have developed in an entirely different direction had this been her second story as originally intended. Here she’s almost raped, fighting Harlon off to avoid it — and her reaction afterward is believable. Her reaction to Rom’s death is fascinating as well, though between that and her threats of violence Atkinson draws dangerously close to transforming her into Leela II. Fortunately this extra step never takes place and the character remains believable.
The supporting cast, for the first time in a long time, has its faults. Glyn Owen is awful as Harlon, failing to convince in any measurable sense, especially when trying to be evil. Ivor Danvers is okay as Marr, though the character is the worst type of cliche, and Simon Williams is decent as Addison, but someone needs to check up on Gilly Cohen right now to make sure she’s stopped cackling. Ugh. Gary Russell, though, is really quite good as Thesanius at the play’s open.
David Darlington’s score is reminiscent of his Excelis work, and it is accomplished — it’s not what I would have conceived of as the score for this script, but it works quite well. The sound design is solid as well, though unfortunately the recording failed in at least one area: during the latter half of the play, especially in episode three, there are several occasions in which Bryant’s levels clip — this is especially noticeable when she is yelling with clipping and someone else is yelling back without it. John Ainsworth’s direction is a bit obvious in places but works rather well despite the source material — but wow, that cover looks great!
Overall, Nekromanteia is a disappointment. With a few rewrites and some different casting decisions, it might have been much better, but as it stands it’s a failed attempt to do something darker with the fifth Doctor. It has its redeeming moments, but overall it’s hard to recommend.
Not so great.
4/10