Following on from the superb The Condemned, what we have in The Doomwood Curse is a story that is not as dark or serious as The Condemned but is bizarre. This story is written by Jacqueline Rayner who has written in the past one of the episodes in 100 (2007), Doctor Who and the Pirates (2003) and The Marian Conspiracy (2000). The big thing about this story is the inclusion of Dick Turpin. When I heard that they were going to use this character I thought ‘Oh Dear!’. You could tell that the tense atmosphere and drama that had been developed in the previous Sixth Doctor/Charley story was not going to be present in this story. Also included in this story were the Grel’s. Now I couldn’t quite place where I had heard of them but they had been use in the Bernice Summerfield story The Grel Escape (written by Jacqueline Rayner). I liked the idea that due to the Grel’s actions in the library that all the events in the Eighteenth Century were not what would be expected. I also quite liked the idea that the Grels are obsessed with changing bad facts to good facts. My issue with this story is that it just isn’t as good as The Condemned and whilst it would be difficult to replicate that enjoyment for two stories running the dip was quite surprising which isn’t really Jacqueline Rayner’s fault but in terms of the producers. The unusual story is intriguing to begin with but by part 3 it was just getting tiresome and perhaps should have been saved for a different combination or later in the Doctor/Charley storyline. This Charley issue is something that should take priority in the storytelling and they should find stories that are more suitable to this plot.
Colin Baker is good in this story. He is playing the not really figuring out Charley role quite well. Despite knowing that there is something not quite right with Charley he still strives to try and rescue her after she departs with Turpin. Baker is arguably the strongest Doctor out of the four and that is because despite what he is given, he is able to get something out of it. India Fisher puts in another good performance as Charley. She seems to revel in her new un-Charley like role with Turpin. It’s not very often that she gets to play anything other than a posh 1930’s adventuress.
Nicky Henson was very good as Turpin. Despite my reservations at the inclusion of the character, Henson put a lot of performance into the role and made it bearable. Nicky Henson can always be relied upon to put in a good performance and he managed to make me like Turpin which wasn’t easy. Hayley Atwell plays Eleanor very well. Atwell previously appeared in the BBC7 play Blood of the Daleks and she puts in another great performance. I now I am using the term great performance a lot but there’s nothing wrong with any of them. Trevor Cooper plays Sir Ralph which is an enjoyable and reliable performance. It certainly is below Nicky Henson in terms of hamming it up but still what Cooper gave wasn’t a poor performance and the character of Sir Ralph played its part in the course of the story. Geraldine Newman is a name that sounds familiar but doesn’t ring any bells. Anyway in this story she plays Lady Sybil in the sort of way that one would expect to hear a lady don’t you know! Daisy Douglas plays Susan and Suzie Chard plays Molly. Both I believe are making their first appearance in the Doctor Who world but hopefully it wont be their last because they contributed to the story and helped add some nice slant to the whole story.
Jacqueline Rayner has become one of the most interesting writers for the range. Whilst this story was certainly better than I thought it didn’t grab me in the way that I would have liked. There were some interesting elements in this story that made it a good story, not great but good. Barnaby Edwards did very well as the Director, he directs this with the sort of carefully crafted form of directing that I have come to enjoy and appreciate. I think that this quirky type of story would have probably being a massive failure if it had fallen into any other directors lap but with Edwards what we have is a well directed and well paced story.
Fact: Whilst this isn’t the best story of year neither is it the worst. There are some nice elements and I think that in this case its not the writers fault but the listeners fault for this one not quite hitting the back of the net. Hopefully with the next Sixth Doctor/Charley story we will go back to more serious stories. As a one off, this isn’t that bad.
Colin Baker is good in this story. He is playing the not really figuring out Charley role quite well. Despite knowing that there is something not quite right with Charley he still strives to try and rescue her after she departs with Turpin. Baker is arguably the strongest Doctor out of the four and that is because despite what he is given, he is able to get something out of it. India Fisher puts in another good performance as Charley. She seems to revel in her new un-Charley like role with Turpin. It’s not very often that she gets to play anything other than a posh 1930’s adventuress.
Nicky Henson was very good as Turpin. Despite my reservations at the inclusion of the character, Henson put a lot of performance into the role and made it bearable. Nicky Henson can always be relied upon to put in a good performance and he managed to make me like Turpin which wasn’t easy. Hayley Atwell plays Eleanor very well. Atwell previously appeared in the BBC7 play Blood of the Daleks and she puts in another great performance. I now I am using the term great performance a lot but there’s nothing wrong with any of them. Trevor Cooper plays Sir Ralph which is an enjoyable and reliable performance. It certainly is below Nicky Henson in terms of hamming it up but still what Cooper gave wasn’t a poor performance and the character of Sir Ralph played its part in the course of the story. Geraldine Newman is a name that sounds familiar but doesn’t ring any bells. Anyway in this story she plays Lady Sybil in the sort of way that one would expect to hear a lady don’t you know! Daisy Douglas plays Susan and Suzie Chard plays Molly. Both I believe are making their first appearance in the Doctor Who world but hopefully it wont be their last because they contributed to the story and helped add some nice slant to the whole story.
Jacqueline Rayner has become one of the most interesting writers for the range. Whilst this story was certainly better than I thought it didn’t grab me in the way that I would have liked. There were some interesting elements in this story that made it a good story, not great but good. Barnaby Edwards did very well as the Director, he directs this with the sort of carefully crafted form of directing that I have come to enjoy and appreciate. I think that this quirky type of story would have probably being a massive failure if it had fallen into any other directors lap but with Edwards what we have is a well directed and well paced story.
Fact: Whilst this isn’t the best story of year neither is it the worst. There are some nice elements and I think that in this case its not the writers fault but the listeners fault for this one not quite hitting the back of the net. Hopefully with the next Sixth Doctor/Charley story we will go back to more serious stories. As a one off, this isn’t that bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment