September 30, 2009

Scherzo (2003)

Scherzo is a strange story. Its strange because there are only two characters in the entire thing. Now this wouldn’t be such a strange thing in a play on the West End or on Broadway about some sensitive issue however for a Science Fiction radio play its different. Its been a weird couple of stories for the 8th Doctor and Charley. The dramatic events of Zagreus has left us with a strained relationship that could go anywhere and in this story it does.

This story is different from other stories in that there are no guest stars and also has next to no incidental music, what we get in this story are two actors some tinny music and some other weird music. Another thing that I liked about this story was how different the Doctor seems. At points he is cruel to Charley and that is unsettling but then he switches back to good old Doctor No. 8 which is a relief. As the TARDIS has been broken up it means that the Doctor and Charley are cut off from time and as a result the Doctor loses all his senses.

The sound monster was perhaps the most ingenious creation to come into Doctor Who for quite some time. It’s interesting how it grew as the story went on. Using words that have been spoken by someone else is creepy and did the job that was intended.

I loved the piece that Paul McGann did at the beginning of each episode. Its so different from what we normally get but as this is a bizarre story it sits quite well in proceedings. At the end of the day this is a story about love and how the Doctor and Charley feel for each other. It’s the ultimate test for any friendship and at the end of the story they are both in a strange environment cut off from the TARDIS.

Scherzo is a simply superb story that benefits from having two truly superb actors starring in it. Paul McGann and India Fisher did a great job of playing two roles that were taking from one extreme to the other but still stayed together. Robert Shearman has written a brilliant story and managed to make everything work.

No comments:

Post a Comment