The Doctor, Ace and Hex become involved in the political conflicts of a colony world – all reported by the colony’s rolling radio news show.
The Doctor, Ace and Hex become involved in the political conflicts of a colony world – all reported by the colony’s rolling radio news show.
LIVE 34
After the poor start to 2005, I would have thought this impossible, but BF did it anyway: consecutive releases of classic Davison, McGann, and Baker audios. To complete the set they’d need a McCoy, and next on the pile was an experimental script from James Parsons & Andrew Stirling-Brown (hereafter “the authors”): Live 34. And wouldn’t you know, it’s another strong release — not the best thing BF has ever done, but a welcome experiment coupled with some strong performances nonetheless.
Live 34 is unique among Doctor Who stories in that it is presented as a series of live news and public affairs broadcasts over an Earth colony radio station. There are no opening or closing credits, nor is there any incidental music — all sound is diagetic. The authors remain incredibly faithful to this concept, and it is to the benefit of the script; speaking as someone with some radio experience, I was surprised at the realism of the sound design. Complaints have been made that the play is “boring,” or that the sound effects of faulty microphones take listeners out of the story — well, if you’ve ever done an on-site live report for a low-budget radio station, you’ll know that sound glitches are infinitely preferable to complete malfunctions. Of course, if Live 34 was intended as a major media outlet akin to WGN, then this portrayal is faulty, but such an intent appears nowhere in the script. The authors could easily have made concessions to drama, but instead they leave the audience wanting in places, exactly as happens during real broadcasts.
Unfortunately, the subject matter isn’t particularly interesting. The first episode’s use of audio clips and interviews, followed by the dramatic episode two visit to the Red Queen, keeps the listener intrigued by building natural suspense. But with half of episode three’s report wasted on tea with a harmless old lady, and all of episode four being taken up with a revelatory argument in the town square, it quickly becomes apparent that the authors could have put more work into their plot. The corrupt-regime-stealing-our-liberties plot is as old as the hills, and is certainly executed competently, but there is no sense of inevitability or grand drama present to counterbalance the predictability of events. The dual twists at the conclusion do not help — it would have been easier to leave Jaeger as one man, corrupted by power, while the revelation about the bodies is so ludicrous it defies belief.
The play also carries a modern relevance, as Jaeger’s regime sounds like the logical extension of the paranoiac’s vision of the future of the Bush administration. I guess the burning of the bodies is a reference to oil, but that’s poorly-communicated in a play that is otherwise as subtle as The Green Death. In any case, these flaws are ameliorated by the format. Had this been one in a series of plays told as radio news reports, it wouldn’t rate very highly, but as Live 34 also represents a new way of telling Doctor Who stories, it must be judged a success. It’s just a shame there isn’t much to discuss.
Sylvester McCoy had not done well in his last few performances, but he is back on form in Live 34, with barely a misstep. He even manages to do anger — during the final confrontation, it is easy to accept McCoy in total control of the situation, such is the command in his voice. It’s also nice to see the “manipulator” Doctor back in action — this isn’t quite the Cartmel Doctor, as he still presents himself as the face of the FDP, but he’s quite clearly in control. Sophie Aldred, meanwhile, is finally allowed to play a fully-matured Ace, absent even the McShane nonsense, and she’s all the better for it — this is a confident, assured portrayal of a character with a surprising amount of world-weariness and fatigue. Philip Olivier doesn’t get much to do as Hex, but one can tell this is still early in the character’s travels, as he frantically improvises to keep his stories straight.
Andrew Collins headlines the supporting cast, and though I gather his role approximates his current career, he turns in a fine performance nonetheless. Note the change in his intonation during episode four: broken and sullen rather than pleasant and upbeat. Zehra Naqvi can be so enthusiastic and forthright as Charlotte that the character grows annoying from time to time, but there are so many reporters like that out there that this performance cannot be called anything but realistic. Duncan Wisbey portrays the overblown self-important drama of a man with his own weekend feature show — and also the shock at discovering actual drama during his report. Lastly, the character of Jaeger is an almost complete cliché, and William Hoyland plays this to the hilt.
I constantly laud Big Finish’s production, but the design work on Live 34 is truly exceptional. The clicks and buzzes, the microphone distortion, the music, the cheesy jingle — it’s exactly like listening to the radio, and massive credit must go to David Darlington for his work. Gary Russell’s direction deserves merit simply for getting that performance out of McCoy, but he also keeps the confidence of the authors’ script. The cover, too, is beautiful — and the shadowed picture of the Doctor on the back cover of the liner notes is haunting.
An overly simplistic plot coupled with some frankly bizarre twists keep Live 34 from reaching the top rank of Big Finish releases. However, this is still a well above-average release, and it certainly qualifies as a worthwhile experiment with Doctor Who’s format. Parsons and Stirling-Brown have clearly listened to a lot of radio in their time and seen a lot of Doctor Who. Many of us can say that, though — it took these two authors to put them together.
Highly recommended.
8/10