Sent down south to assist the Metropolitan Police in their efforts to investigate the gangland kingpin known only as ‘the Doctor’, Detective-Inspector Patricia Menzies finds herself up to her neck in laser-armed robot mosquitoes, gun-running criminal overlords, vanishing Tube trains… and not one, but two Doctors.
Meanwhile the real Doctor, and his academic assistant Professor Evelyn Smythe, have become ensnared in the machinations of an old acquaintance – time-travelling Victorian guttersnipe Thomas Brewster. But what’s Brewster’s connection to the rapacious robot Terravores? And can anyone contain the gathering swarm?
THE CRIMES OF THOMAS BREWSTER
The 2011 release year kicks off with the start of a new trilogy, reuniting the sixth Doctor and Evelyn for the first time since “Assassin in the Limelight” back in 2008. Jonathan Morris’s “The Crimes of Thomas Brewster” is very much in the vein of a season opener: little continuity, enjoyable, lighthearted tone, and a relatively unchallenging outcome. It drags somewhat in the second half, but it’s still a fun, successful start to the year.
I’ll be honest, my reaction to “Thomas Brewster returns!” was “Who cares?” That’s somewhat unfair, since I loved “The Haunting of Thomas Brewster” by the same author, but the character was hardly one crying out to return. And while John Pickard easily recreates his morally ambiguous, desperate character, and Morris recreates the “pretending to be the Doctor” scenario, Brewster himself just isn’t very compelling. He’s inconsistent to the point of confusion – just why, exactly, does he think it necessary to hold the Doctor and Evelyn at gunpoint at the conclusion? – and Morris doesn’t bring out his sympathetic side to any great extent despite the good intentions of his plan on Symbios.
Fortunately, there’s another recurring character in this story in the person of DI Patricia Menzies (Anna Hope), and she’s even more fun in this story than she was in her previous appearances. This is the Doctor’s first meeting with the character, but it’s Menzies’ third with the Doctor – so she has the upper hand, pretending she doesn’t know him, and practically taunting him with the knowledge throughout. Hope lends surprising warmth to the character, cementing herself as a fine addition to the sixth Doctor repertory – if she can serve as a Brigadier-like character for him going forward, so much the better. The guest cast is also bolstered by the presence of the great David Troughton, who disappears into the gangster Raymond Gallagher and practically steals every scene. Just the way he slimes out Evelyn’s last name is enough to make his character repulsive and yet it’s only one little affectation in a whole litany.
And though we heard the final end of Evelyn’s story in “A Death in the Family,” it’s still nice to hear further adventures of her with the sixth Doctor. The presence of Brewster interferes slightly with the dynamic, and I think it’s a mistake on Morris’s part to have her possessed for practically half the story, but it’s delightful to hear Maggie Stables and Colin Baker together again. She punctures his pomposity better than any other companion, after all. Her scenes with Troughton are intimidating as well, and she imparts genuine fear into her scenes as she creeps through the dark, abandoned factory in search of the impostor Doctor.
The script is at its best in the first two episodes, which take place largely in and around London. The opening chase scene, in which a giant robot mosquito besieges the Doctor and Evelyn, is fantastic, and their subsequent encounters with Menzies and Gallagher are thoroughly entertaining. Unfortunately, as Brewster begins to command more of the narrative, and the action shifts to Symbios, the pace slows to a crawl. There’s nothing to Symbios, really – it’s a living planet that controls people to use as avatars – and apart from some striking imagery, Morris doesn’t do much of anything with the concept. It’s hard to understand why Brewster agrees to help them so readily, given his strong instinct for self-preservation, and the Doctor deals both with the Terravores and the Symbios treachery without expending much effort. I don’t have a problem with a lightweight story, but after such a promising start it sputters to the finish and ultimately feels unrewarding.
The production, of course, is first-rate: Howard Carter’s sound design manages to accurately capture what laser-firing robot mosquitoes must naturally sound like, and Nicholas Briggs’ direction keeps the tone and pace entertaining. Overall, there isn’t a great deal to say about “The Crimes of Thomas Brewster” – it’s a fun story with a number of returning characters that doesn’t have much to say about anything. It’s a pleasant diversion, and one of those is welcome every once in a while.
Not bad.
7/10