The North Atlantic is a treacherous place at the best of times. 14 April 1912 is the very worst of times. The Doctor and Jamie find themselves trapped aboard the RMS Titanic, 400 miles off Newfoundland and heading towards a conclusive appointment with destiny.
But the iceberg isn’t their only problem. Down in the inky depths, something is hunting: something huge, hostile and hungry. This should certainly be A Night To Remember.
THE WRECK OF THE TITAN
I commented in my “City of Spires” review how Big Finish seemed to be incorporating more and more “fannish” themes and settings. Little did I suspect the direction Barnaby Edwards’ “The Wreck of the Titan” would take! But there’s nothing inherently wrong with a focus like this as long as a strong script supports it, and Edwards provides exactly that with the most epic main range story in quite some time.
Back in “The Bride of Peladon,” Edwards demonstrated an aptitude for surprising, significant plot twists: the revelation of Osiran involvement was truly shocking, and added an extra layer of complication to a story that already resurrected Peladon and saw a companion departure. However, “Bride’s” weakness was in the lack of thematic consistency – yes, the Osiran was surprising, but something that totally unpredictable might as well be random. “The Wreck of the Titan,” however, is very obviously the middle part of a trilogy. It addresses many of the unanswered questions from “City of Spires” while posing more of its own, ends on a cliffhanger, and leaves the listener hanging – but the revelations and new questions progress logically from what we’ve already seen. It seems obvious in hindsight – of course we’re in the Land of Fiction, look at all the legendary character around! – but there’s nothing to be lost by guessing the twist early, the mark of a superior stylistic device.
I most appreciated the epic nature of the script. The pre-credits sequence seems to be setting up a very obvious Doctor Who story: the Doctor and Jamie have mistakenly landed on the Titanic, they can’t get back to the TARDIS, and the ship is about to strike the iceberg. Can they escape in time? But Edwards never dwells in cliché: by the end of the first part, we’re on a different ship entirely; from there, there’s a chase by polar bears atop a massive iceberg, a rescue by the Nautilus, undersea intrigue with Captain Nemo (Alexander Siddig), and a final journey into the Maelstrom and the Land of Fiction. Doctor Who has always been able to tell this sort of story, but rarely attempted it in the classic series – something that allows us to appreciate Colin Baker and Frazer Hines in a new setting. It also allows Howard Carter to explore the full range of sound design opportunities and provide a suitably epic score, something he accomplishes with great success.
But there’s other writing here that appeals as well. Edwards plays around with the traditional cliffhanger format to excellent effect: rather than the standard reprise, we see the cliffhanger itself from another character’s perspective, which adds detail without seeming repetitive. There’s also a haunting moment where the Doctor laments the apparent death of Jamie, reciting Sir Walter Scott – and it’s beautiful, and perfectly in character for this Doctor. If I have one complaint about the script, it’s that it relies too often on cliché, especially in Jamie’s characterization – but it’s quite possible that Jamie is a fictional creation as well, which would succinctly explain his behavior.
Speaking of Jamie, Frazer Hines really gets to shine in this story. He’s paired off with Miranda Raison for most of it, and it’s so much like watching his old performance it hurts. When he’s together with Colin Baker, they spark off each other like old friends – and this is also a tour de force for Baker, who carries the story as the emotional center and absolutely pulls it off in his wonderfully melodramatic style. Raison’s great, too, though she naturally sounds too much like Tallulah from “Daleks in Manhattan.” Alexander Siddig, though, deserves high praise for his turn as Captain Nemo – it’s no secret that he’s a fantastic actor, but this performance is layered, subtle, and compellingly ambiguous.
Edwards has always shown a taste for the epic as a director, so it’s no surprise that he succeeds so well directing his own script. There’s a bit of padding in the middle, like in almost every Doctor Who story, but the setting changes so often it’s difficult to notice. “The Wreck of the Titan” is difficult to evaluate on its own, being so strongly tied to the adjacent stories, but I’m struggling to find much fault with it. Perhaps a bit too superficial to be an all-time classic? I don’t know, but even this rating might be too low:
Fantastic.
9/10