Mrs. Kingdom, We're Needed

This week, I finished listening to the second half of the BBC Audiobook of The Daleks' Master Plan. The first half was one of the first audios I listened to when I moved up here- I bought it with the book token I was given when I finished up at Eastwood last summer. The original story was one of those largely wiped in the 70s by the Beeb to make space for new tapes; only three episodes exist in their entirety and one of those was only discovered in 2004!
Russell T. Davies, writing in the persona of Queen Victoria, describes Dr. Who as a series "steeped in terror...and  death" and nowhere is it more the case than in this 1965/66 serial. Virtually all of the guest characters are killed off.
The novelization by John Peel (no relation) was published at the tail-end of the 80s; I'd given up the kiddie fare of Target Books some years earlier but  eventually bought both "Mission to the Unknown" and "The Mutation of Time" by mail order during the Noughties.The soundtrack was released for Xmas 2001, so I'd heard it all before I read the books.

Curiously, it was a story that had been glossed over in those 70s Who touchstones, the RT 10th Anniversary Special and the Doctor Who Monster Book.

Peel was a friend of Terry Nation's and adapts the teleplay very faithfully- perhaps too faithfully; along with his sometimes clumsy, Americanised prose, that might be the reason why the second half drags quite so much. Rumour has it that Huw Wheldon's mum had told her son-the controller of BBC1-how much she liked Daleks and wanted to see more of them, which is why the story takes twelve episodes to tell. Nation and fellow prolific tv writer Dennis Spooner wrote alternate episodes of the serial as it progressed, but script editor Donald Tosh also credits himself with expanding Nation's storyline.  The story bears a strong similarity to 1965's The Chase as Daleks pursue the Tardis to a variety of locations in space and time. But in this story, the Outer Space Robot People are far more scheming and ruthless than we'd seen before- long gone is the stammering, comedy Dalek of The Chase. The theme of the adventure is betrayal and the series gains its first super-villain in the form of Kevin Stoney's megalomaniac arch-traitor, Mavic Chen (above).

One of the best features of the audiobook is the spirited and pacy readings by Peter Purves and Jean Marsh. Purves particularly excels at giving an impression of his co-stars: the crochety Doctor, the unctuous Chen and the blustering Monk (of whom, more later..) Chen's blend of arrogance and purring malice offers a human element as contrast to the staccato rant of the Daleks- here portrayed throughout by Big Finish supremo, BBC Wales' very own Nick Briggs.

In Mutation, the Daleks make a delayed appearance as Peel adapts the two-part holiday interlude episodes, which were broadcast over the Christmas period in '65. Originally, a light-hearted crossover with BBC's Z-Cars had been proposed, then abandoned; whereas Liverpool coppers do appear in The Feast of Steven, Peel actually names them after Z-Cars actors. This sequence and the Volcano episode slow down the pace hugely and there is an abrupt change of tone from suspense and danger to one of whimsy. I still don't know what Reg Pritchard's lines about rebels and greenhouses mean, nearly a decade on from the audio release.

The Xmas episodes also feature a Keystone Kops silent movie spoof- which doesn't really work on audio- and the return of Peter Butterworth's Meddling Monk (the same villain currently confounding Paul McGann's Doctor for Big Finish), a comedy relief character with a fully-functioning Tardis. They are followed by a fairly lengthy detour to Ancient Egypt. At least there's a fun, sci-fi origin for the Sphinx ( Turns out it isn't Rama-Tut's time machine from the FF, after all!)

    The switching of narration from Purves to Marsh and back keeps this sequence from becoming too tiresome (but unfortunately, there's no reference to the terrific televised moment where Chen swats a Dalek eyestick aside with one hand). The reading ends with the final confrontation between the Tardis crew and the Daleks on the planet Kembel and the ultimate fates of Mavic Chen (insanity and execution by his "allies") and Sara Kingdom (aged to death by the terrible Time Destructor).
Kingdom's story is one of the darkest and bleakest in Sixties Who. A lethal, Cathy Gale-inspired martial artist  who shoots down her own brother and then is haunted by guilt and a thirst for revenge, she is the final victim of Mavic Chen's conspiracy. The character (nee Vyon?) made enough of an impression to star in Dalek annuals in the Sixties and further Big Finish plays, including a new production of Terry Nation's  unmade US Dalek tv pilot, The Destroyers.

The Daleks' Master Plan, with its 1940s movie serial structure of capture and escape, is repetitive and overlong but some of the desperation and terror of the storyline survives in this tremendous reading by  its stars. The only complaint I would have is that, given that Purves takes the time to reproduce actors' inflections very precisely, the discs don't use the 60s theme music or even the familiar Console Room hum. However, the sound design is realised very well and the incidental music is ominous and exciting.

I picked up the TPB on the left in the library yesterday; attracted by the cartoony artwork and a big, bona fide Marvel star on the cover (the cool exec with the heart of steel); I was disappointed to see it was the same old scene- mutant teens being massacred by Terminator -types. Real young people will probably love that kind of gratuitous melodrama. But 1980s New Mutants at least made attempts to make them sound like kids. Business, unfortunately, as usual from the House of Recycled Ideas.

Speaking of which, I rejoined Tesco DVD (Thanks, Cheryl) and watched Quantum of Solace last night. It wasn't quite as dull as I'd been led to believe. While I was never a fan of Brosnan, Daniel Craig just seems like a dour model rather than a spy and brings no charsima to the role. I found the film's humourlessness rather dreary after a while.I'm not looking for a Moonraker pigeon doubletake by any means but given that the villlains were portrayed as monsters, there was no levity and it was all very stifling. Oh and a septuagenerian M wouldn't say "shit" or "bastard" in front of an agent. Poor show and puerile.
It did look pretty good however - and no ridiculous invisible cars-but it lacked any sense of playfulness or naughtiness. Anyway, I'd prefer Bond films to be set in the Cold War if we have to make them at all.

Next  time: Babylon and on.
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