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The Hollows of Time

FEBRUARY 2010

(2 60-MINUTE EPISODES)

The Hollows of Time is a delightful title that’s been stuck in my head for more than a decade now. I first came across it (prefixed with an extra word: “In”) in the mid-1990s when reading about the aborted Colin Baker season, and more recently I was reminded of it when watching the Lost Season documentary on The Trial of a Time Lord DVD. However, on neither occasion was I able to glean anything about the story other than that it had been written by Christopher H Bidmead and would have seen the return of the Tractators from the Season 21 story Frontios. But now, a quarter of a century on from its conception, Big Finish have finally allowed me to discover what lies within The Hollows of Time…

As was the case with the preceding Lost Stories, here Big Finish have purposely sought to recreate the sound of a 1980s episode. And, thanks to an aromatic, woodwind score and some delightfully anachronistic sound effects from Nigel Fairs, they have again succeeded spectacularly. What sets this production apart from its forerunners, however, is its unusual structure. Bidmead’s narrative is framed by and punctuated with scenes set after the events in Hollowdean, in which the Doctor and Peri struggle to pool their mutually hazy memories about what just happened. The accompanying interviews make it explicit that this wasn’t a feature of the original television script, but a device employed by the writer to try and convey the more visual elements of the adventure which are, admittedly, anathema to the medium. Inevitably, this narration does feel quite forced at times, but on the whole I think that it lends the story a brooding, meditative quality that it would otherwise have lacked. At times, it even put me in mind of Seasons of Fear, which remains to this day one of my favourite Big Finish productions.

The Doctor and Peri’s memory problems also flow beautifully from the crux of the plot, which is built around the machinations of Hollwdean’s resident wheelchair-bound mastermind, the enigmatic (and, indeed, anagrammatic) Professor Stream. Throughout the story, the Doctor is convinced that he knows Stream, yet he can’t figure out how. And this is no ordinary case of not being able to sift through several centuries’ worth of memories; it is quite deliberately portrayed by both the script and Colin Baker as being something altogether more sinister.

As originally conceived, I understand that at some point in the story Stream would have risen from his chair and pulled off his rubber mask to be revealed as Anthony Ainley’s Master. But as Ainley is no longer with us and Big Finish couldn’t get the rights to use the Master in any event, we are left with no “definitive answer”, to quote the blurb, as to the character’s identity; something that left more of an impression on me than the original, hammed-up reveal would surely have done.

More importantly though, presenting Professor Stream as a character in his own right (albeit a tantalisingly indefinite one) allowed David Garfield (The War Games, The Face of Evil) to really seize the part and make it his own. Garfield’s hoarse, wizened tones imbue the twisted old scientist with an individuality that somehow makes him more than the sum of his parts. In turn, this seems to bring out the best in Trevor Littledale’s Reverend Foxwell, Stream’s equal and opposite number in just about every respect.

The plot itself is multifarious and

colossally confusing, though this

is par for the course, really, when

it comes to Bidmead’s scripts for

the series. This isn’t a criticism,

however; I’m a keen proponent

of the former Doctor Who script

editor’s thought-provoking and

even challenging storylines. One

Bidmead story that I’m resolutely

not a fan of though is Frontios, and with the Tractators on the bill I was a little worried as to how I’d get on with this story. I’m pleased to report though that The Hollows of Time is a far more thoughtful and interesting outing for them than Frontios was; not only does it see the Doctor and the Gravis become strange bedfellows, but it provides the “sand creatures” with an endearingly naïve ally in Simon. And, of course, on CD the Tractators aren’t let down by some woefully appalling costumes – even those that appear on the CD cover don’t appear quite as preposterous as their televised counterparts did, no doubt thanks to the flattering airbrushes of Alex Mallinson.

The production is also buoyed by some exuberant performances. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant both do an astonishingly good job with their oft-overburdened dialogue, and Susan Sheridan (The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) also impresses, not just as Mrs Streeter but as the small boy, Simon. It’s bizarre how an adult actress sounds more like a male child to me than the real children that Big Finish hired to star in December’s Mission to Magnus did. Perhaps I’ve just been watching too many cartoons....

Ultimately, The Hollows of Time’s only real weakness is its greatest strength: Bidmead’s story is so very action-packed and so very ambitious that for it to work in this medium in anything even remotely close to its original form, the dialogue had to be loaded with more descriptions than would normally be permitted, and the more challenging of the set pieces relayed through narration. It’s a small price to pay though, in my view. If offered the choice between having the Doctor narrate the TARDIS’ stunning confluence with a car or not being treated to such a spellbinding sequence at all, then I’d go for the former option every time.

And if you’d choose the same, then The Hollows of Time is most definitely going to be of great interest to you.

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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