WRITTEN BY

MARC PLATT

 

DIRECTED BY

NIGEL FAIRS

 

RECOMMENDED 

PURCHASE

BIG FINISH 'COMPANION CHRONICLES' CD 2.1 (ISBN 1-84435-183-1) RELEASED IN JANUARY 2008.

 

BLURB  

THE RUSSIAN SUMMER IS AN IDYLLIC TIME AND PLACE, OR SO STEVEN THOUGHT. SOMEWHERE THAT HE AND DODO AND THE DOCTOR COULD TAKE A WELL-EARNED HOLIDAY.

 

BUT IT'S 1812. WINTER IS COMING. NAPOLEON IS MARCHING ON MOSCOW. AND AN ALIEN SPACESHIP HAS CRASHED IN THE WOODS.

 

SUDDENLY STEVEN ISN'T SURE WHO HE CAN TRUST.

 

OR EVEN WHO HE REALLY IS.

 

CLICK FOR COLOUR IMAGE

Mother Russia

OCTOBER 2007

  (2 EPISODES)

 

 

                                                       

 

 

Mother Russia opens Big Finish’s second season of Companion Chronicles with the same sense of assurance that Frostfire had when it opened the first. Of course both stories were penned by acclaimed Doctor Who author Marc Platt, and both featured the character of Steven Taylor, though this time around the one-time space pilot is given centre stage.

 

Platt’s story is truly redolent of the dying days of the William Hartnell era; particularly so, in fact, given that it is told by Peter Purves, whose sturdy narration I inevitably associate with Season 3 (as many of that year’s stories can only be enjoyed today through the surviving soundtracks that he narrated). Perhaps because of this, I found listening to Mother Russia to be an altogether more authentic experience than listening to Frostfire was.

 

And it really has to be said that Purves does a splendid job of breathing life into Platt’s script. Though Tony Millan is on hand to inject a little bit of zing into a smattering of scenes, Mother Russia is essentially a one-man show with Purves not only reprising the role of Steven, but also voicing his fellow traveller Dodo; a collection of Russian serfs and gentry; infamous 19th century dictator, Napoleon Bonaparte; the Doctor; and a shifty alien impersonating most of the aforementioned. For a man who hasn’t acted in a long while, Purves certainly gets stuck in. His first Doctor impersonation is extremely impressive – it’s not so much that he sounds like Hartnell; more than he nails the rhythm and the pitch of his dialogue perfectly, even adding the punctuating “hmms” that seem to typify the incarnation.

 

”You’ve got to get the right shoes first...“

 

The story itself is good fun too. The first episode is, for the most part, an outright historical which sees the travellers materialise in 1812 with a view to spending a “relaxing” summer in a small Russian village. The spectre of a French invasion is looming large, but as the story progresses Platt’s unforeseen threat rears its mesomorphic head, initially in the guise of an (amusingly cliché) Russian bear before it moves on to masquerade as most of the cast of characters. By the end of the second episode, the story has become a fully-fledged romp, and an enchanting one at that.

 

That said, even its zaniest moments, Mother Russia maintains a bleak sense of austerity that I think is suitably apt, especially given this story’s propinquity to The Savages in the canon. In fact, Platt’s decision to have Steven recount the events of this story almost contemporaneously, as opposed to many years after he and the Doctor had parted ways in The Savages, really helps us to understand the character as he was, and this need of his to belong. Between them Purves and Platt do a marvellous job of showing us exactly where Steven is at this point in his life, and where he wants to be, flowing beautifully from earlier stories such as The Massacre and particularly Salvation.

 

On a final note, I very much enjoyed the interview with Purves included on the disc. Bonus material of any sort was noticeably absent from the first season of Companion Chronicles, and given that many of the actors used in the series – the likes of Maureen O’Brien, Wendy Padbury, Caroline John, and indeed Peter Purves – aren’t Big Finish ‘regulars’ as it were, it’s all the more gratifying to hear them being interviewed when the opportunity does arise. The excerpts from David Darlington’s magnificent score were a nice little gratuity too – there’s not a minute wasted on this disc.

 

All told then, if you enjoyed Frostfire, then you are more than likely to enjoy this one. It is an evocative and enlightening sojourn in one of Doctor Who’s least familiar seasons, and one that I dare say eclipses Platt’s earlier effort.

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2009

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Design

 and Patents Act 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

 

  

This story’s blurb places its events between the television serials The Gunfighters and The Savages. Within this gap, we have placed them prior to the novel Bunker Soldiers as here Steven mentions having holidayed in Tombstone recently, where he performed The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon.

 

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