Arriving in a hail of musket fire, the Doctor unexpectedly finds himself in the highlands of Scotland, where the ruthless Black Donald and his band of rebels are fighting the Redcoats. But the highland warriors no longer fight for the Jacobite cause and the English officers answer only to the mysterious Overlord. What has happened to Scotland and why are its moors littered with advanced, oil-pumping technology?
Reunited with his faithful companion Jamie McCrimmon, the Doctor must venture into the sinister City of Spires to find the answers.
CITY OF SPIRES
I’ve been a bit suspicious of this portion of the Big Finish range: while the trilogy format has been quite successful, the foundations of these trilogies have been remarkably backward-looking. Another quest for the Key to Time? A trilogy revolving around a minor Big Finish villain from a decade earlier? It’s a risky proposition – and here we go again with “City of Spires,” which involves the sixth Doctor landing in 18th-century Scotland and meeting his former companion Jamie McCrimmon.
What’s immediately striking about “City of Spires,” from main range newcomer Simon Bovey, is the extent to which it embraces the trilogy format. There are a number of mysteries on display here: someone’s interfering with Earth’s timeline, someone’s mining Scotland for oil several decades too early, the “oil” they’re mining might not be oil at all, and it’s being sold to a mysterious customer. The identity of the “oil” prospectors is revealed, but none of the other questions are answered – indeed, most of them aren’t even posed until the final episode. The story closes with the Doctor and Jamie headed for the TARDIS to investigate the mystery, setting up the second story. I like that Big Finish is more thoroughly embracing linked stories like this – it’s something we only saw two or three times in 26 seasons of the classic series and it gives us the opportunity to develop series regulars in new ways.
Speaking of series regulars, this story marks the return of Frazer Hines to the role of Jamie and his first appearance in the main Big Finish audio range. Frankly, the idea of the Doctor returning to Jamie and/or Zoe is so obvious it’s surprising it took Big Finish this long to try it, but their approach to the situation is surprisingly restrained. Rather than restoring Jamie’s memories and engaging in a jolly reunion, the script even strips his memories of his first meeting with the Doctor, so they meet as strangers once again. Bovey writes their relationship quite well, fortunately, and Hines slips effortlessly back into the role: you understand immediately that these men once traveled together, even if one of them doesn’t remember.
Unfortunately, even with all these pieces in place, the script does little of interest with them. While the most fascinating questions are deferred to future plays, “City of Spires” is content to engage in traditional Doctor Who runaround. Jamie and the Doctor are captured, released, captured again, released again, enslaved, shot… but it all seems to be filler until the fourth episode, when the Doctor finally meets the mysterious Overlord. Georgia Moffett gives a fine performance as Alice, but her role is the standard local-girl-who-rises-above-her-station. Richard Earl’s Victor easily convinces, but again, here’s the tortured scientist, betrayed by his emotions, who comes around just in time to defeat the enemy.
There’s also an attempt at social commentary here, and I praise the author for the attempt – but it’s about as subtle as anything else that came out of ‘60s Doctor Who. What’s that? The evil corporate leader is literally a pile of alien leeches sucking the blood out of a human host? Even the Doctor remarks how obvious that is, and he’s a character in the story! Ultimately, the script is relentlessly generic. It may be setting up more interesting stories, but apart from the wonderful scenes between the Doctor and Jamie, there’s nothing else here to sink the teeth into.
The production, on the other hand, is spectacular: there are several crowd scenes and several large fight scenes, and Andy Hardwick makes them all incredibly convincing. The score is more memorable at the start of the play, unfortunately becoming less so along with the script. Nicholas Briggs directs, and impresses: I’m sure Colin Baker and Frazer Hines needed little guidance, but the cast is quite impressive and the direction is capable enough that it almost overcomes the repetitive script. Overall, “City of Spires” is difficult to review as the start of a trilogy, as it leaves so much unanswered. But it’s rather easy to review as a standalone: some wonderful character moments overshadowed by well-produced but heavy padding.
Not my favorite, but not bad.
6/10