STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE BIG FINISH AUDIO DRAMAS "CATCH-1782" AND "THE WISHING BEAST."
THE FLASHBACK SCENES IN THIS STORY DEPICT THE EVENTS THAT LED TO EVELYN ULTIMATELY PARTING COMPANY WITH THE DOCTOR.
PRODUCTION CODE 7C/U
WRITTEN BY PAUL SUTTON
DIRECTED BY EDWARD SALT
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE BIG FINISH CD#73 (ISBN 1-84435-159-9) RELEASED IN SEPTEMBER 2005.
BLURB THREE YEARS AFTER Világ was all but laid waste by the Killorans, the Doctor is back alongside a different companion. And a lot has changed.
Now elected Principle Triumvir, head of a tripartite government, Rossiter is working to secure a peaceful future for the planet by researching the technology the Killorans left behind. But he has to contend with opposition from his daughter, Sofia, who heads a public campaign demanding the destruction of all alien artefacts.
Politics has caused a rift between father and daughter, and as if that weren't enough, Sofia doesn't approve of her new step-mother either. Emotions soon boil over into violence, a violence that seems to have gripped the entire city.
Friendships bind people close, but they say that blood is... |
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Thicker Than Water September 2005 (4 EPISODES)
I am glad that Paul Sutton was given the opportunity not only to write a sequel to his wonderful play “Arrangements For War,” but also to give Maggie Stables’ popular companion Evelyn Smythe the send-off that she deserves. Her gentle romance with Rossiter in “Arrangements For War” felt at the very least unresolved, and I believe that marrying Evelyn off to him to live (for however long she may have left) happily ever after is a far more befitting fate than those posited by either “Real Time” or "Instruments of Darkness" (fates that I am sure Gary Russell will ‘fix’ when “Real Time II” is eventually produced!)
“Thicker Than Water” does its job perfectly. The Doctor and Evelyn’s “last dance” is every bit the emotional rollercoaster that one would imagine, but in the spirit of their adventurous friendship it is also a damn good science fiction story. Sutton weaves these two strands together perfectly, with the threat at first appearing to come from Rossiter’s own daughter, Sofia. Ultimately though, it is Sofia’s mentor, Szabo, who is revealed to be the real villain of the piece; Sofia guilty of nothing more than feeling resentment towards her new step-mother. Moreover, despite many of the original characters from “Arrangements For War” being either dead or incarcerated, Sutton strongly ties this story to its predecessor by once again involving the Killorans who invaded Világ during that story. This time, however, they are the victims – prisoners of war ruthlessly experimented upon by Szabo – as are many of Világ’s natives… including Evelyn who has been infected with Killoran blood. Sutton’s title “Thicker Than Water” ultimately proves to be truly inspired as Evelyn’s life is saved by a transfusion of the Doctor’s blood! Sheer poetry.
This parting of the ways is truly touching, especially after all the heartache the Doctor and Evelyn have been through together. Two years prior to this story, the Doctor would not even go to Evelyn’s wedding. Now, he talks freely about what a calming influence Evelyn was to him and how much he misses her. Over the course of this story all the secrets between the Doctor and Evelyn are finally laid bare; he learns of her fatal heart condition, and she, well…
“Evelyn never forgave you, right up to the end.” - The seventh Doctor to his clone in “Project: Lazarus”
For the second time the seventh Doctor makes an uncredited appearance in a sixth Doctor play. This time, however, it is far more profoundly effective, and serves to effectively heal the wounds of both characters and also to have ramifications much later on in the Doctor’s life. Cassie died horrifically in “Project: Lazarus” and the Doctor could do nothing to stop it. Evelyn never forgave him. In the final moments of “Thicker Than Water,” the seventh Doctor crosses his own time stream to fill in his former companion on something he feels that she simply must know. Something that will bring her comfort. Cassie (from “Project: Twilight” and “Project: Lazarus”) had a son who she always spoke of, little Tommy. Little Thomas Hector Schofield. Thomas ‘Hex’ Schofield… finally the Doctor’s understated epiphany in “The Harvest” is explored: Hex is little Tommy, all grown-up. The knowledge that out of the horrors of the Forge could come some good is enough for Evelyn to finally forgive her former travelling companion, to make amends with the sixth Doctor before he takes off into space and time forever.
“I love you.”
And so as one door closes, another opens. It cannot be long now, chronologically speaking, before the Doctor casts away the shell of “the Colourful Jester” in order to eventually become “Time’s Champion” and, thanks to Big Finish Productions, Colin Baker’s Doctor has become far more than a mere jester. His performances alongside Maggie Stables, Robert Jezek, and even Bonnie Langford have been amongst the best of the entire range and have cemented his place in history as the audio Doctor; the definite article.
And if “Thicker Than Water” does indeed mark the chronological end for the Doctor and Evelyn, it does not necessarily have to be the end for Colin Baker and Maggie Stables. Big Finish could easily pick up their story somewhere in between “Arrangements For War” and Evelyn’s return to Világ, or even after "Instruments of Darkness", if they are feeling really brave!
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Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006
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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It is difficult to reconcile these events with the novel Instruments of Darkness, published four years earlier, in which Evelyn and Mel first met.
We take the view that the Time Lords lifted Mel out of time (to give evidence at the Doctor’s trial) shortly after Instruments of Darkness, and that her resultant memory loss (precedent for which was set in The Trial of a Time Lord) is why she isn’t able to recall Evelyn in Thicker than Water. Evelyn’s memory is a little trickier to explain, but it could feasibly be ascribed to aging. Thanks to Jason Robbins
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