Finally, the Sixth Doctor challenges Charlotte Pollard to tell him the truth. Who is she really? What is she doing in the TARDIS?
To discover the answers, the Doctor must travel back in time, beyond all known civilisations to the vast, mysterious Amethyst Viral Containment Station. But answers lie within the TARDIS too. Someone who has been there a long, long time.
PATIENT ZERO
After finally rediscovering the itch to hear some Doctor Who audio drama, I dove back into the range with Nicholas Briggs’ “Patient Zero” — and promptly had to listen to it a second time because I had no idea what to make of it. It’s an odd duck: there’s a ton going on despite very little actually happening, impressive characters battling for time with utterly uninspiring ones. The performances are all over the place, too. But can these disparate elements come together into a successful whole?
I’ll start with Mila (Jess Robinson), on the whole an excellent character. She’s been along for the ride in the TARDIS since the days of “The Chase,” unseen by the Doctor and his companions while bearing witness to their every move. As she watches their adventures, she develops an insane longing to join in, waiting for the day when she can finally become part of the TARDIS crew. The metaphor is so obvious I hesistate to even use the term, but come on: she’s a Doctor Who fan! I’ve seen more of the Doctor’s adventures than she has, and if I could hop aboard and displace India Fisher in the process, sign me up! Joking aside, the events of the play set up a fascinating situation: the companion in Doctor Who is usually the audience surrogate, and Charley is actually being transplanted into Mila’s role of the audience itself, while the fan actually gets to travel with the Doctor.
Unless, of course, the Viyrans intervene — and in contrast, they’re utterly uninteresting. I’ll quote myself from my review of “Mission of the Viyrans” to sum up my feelings: “I’m also not sure I like the concept of the Viyrans themselves: they created deadly viruses (and they’re called Viyrans! get it?!) and are now acting like an interstellar biohazard cleanup crew. That’s… well, that’s not interesting at all.” They’re slightly more interesting here, due to their ability to shrug off Daleks as a minor threat, but they don’t do nearly enough to earn the endless buildup they’ve received. We do get to see the origins of the so-called “Virus Strand” that followed multiple one-part BF Doctor Who stories (“Urgent Calls,” etc.), but I’m waiting to see if that comes across as anything more than a forced commonality in stories that didn’t have many similarities. Still, the story isn’t over yet, so I’ll refrain from passing final judgment.
The Daleks, on the other hand, are at their absolute best in this story. After voicing them in multiple modern-era TV stories, Briggs has clearly figured out what makes the Daleks dangerous: their intelligence. Their attack on the Amethyst Viral Containment Station is cautious and manipulative rather than overwhelming, and they only resort to all-out violence when other strategies fail. The Dalek Time Controller is a fascinating creation: much like Russell T. Davies’ Cult of Skaro, it’s clearly there to devise theories apart from the usual Dalek philosophy, and in that light I don’t think the vocal similarity to Dalek Caan is a coincidence. The final scene between the Time Controller and the Doctor is a masterpiece, the Dalek leader pulling the rug from under the Time Lord and revealing the extent of his manipulations. People complain about Dalek overload in Doctor Who, but I could listen to Daleks like this all day.
Unfortunately, that fantastic final scene comes after three-plus episodes of relative tedium. We learn early on that Charley is sick and the Doctor needs to find a cure, that Mila wants to escape her perpetual imprisonment, that the Daleks have an interest in a virus aboard the station, and that the Viyrans are en route to clean everything up. Virtually none of this is addressed in the middle two episodes, which are devoted almost entirely to the Doctor running between two or three rooms of the station and stopping intermittently to yell either at the Daleks or Fratalin (Michael Maloney) about their respective moral responsibilities.
It also doesn’t help that Colin Baker is, unusually, completely off his game: he constantly veers completely over the top and doesn’t seem aware that communication is possible in any tone other than a shout. India Fisher, meanwhile, sounds like someone slipped her a sleeping pill, and she only wakes up near the end once she switches places with Mila. I’ve already touched on how Briggs wrote the Daleks for this one, but his performance is just as good as the writing, and Maloney’s turn as the various Fratalins is superb as well. So what on earth happened to the regulars? I’d call it unacceptable for a Doctor Who story, but it’s so unusual I’m calling it confusing instead. The production, on the other hand, is excellent: Briggs unusually relinquishes control of the sound design and music to Howard Carter, and his work is first-rate. Briggs’ direction is fine, but again, how do you get a bad performance out of Colin Baker?
Overall, then, I have very little idea what to make of “Patient Zero.” It’s a fantastic Dalek story, but as a vehicle to re-introduce the Viyrans it’s lacking. It introduces a fascinating new character in Mila, but it does so at the expense of Charley’s rapidly-ending story. It has some wonderful set pieces, but they’re hard to find among the repetitive running and yelling. Ultimately, does the good outweigh the bad? Yes, but not by much.
As above, an odd duck.
6/10