December 05, 2010

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance (2010)

The second story from the first Doctor Lost Stories Box set is a lot shorter than Farewell Great Macedon. Also written by Maris Farhi, this story is a simple tale of love and how it can literally end your life. It was the first to be written by Maris as a sort of introductory story which is why it runs in at 35 minutes as opposed to the 2 and half hours of the previous story. The story sees Barbara become friends with a guy called Rythym except that Rythym has fallen in love with Barbara. The story also sees the Doctor waiting for a new component to be built.

It’s always interesting how people use Barbara as the one who has the love interests. That might have something to do that Jacqueline Hill was so good at developing relationship unintentionally. Even though she is not in this it’s easy to believe that Jacqueline would have done another great job. There is a wonderful scene when Barbara is about to leave the TARDIS to spend the rest of her life with Rythym. In a moment reminiscent of An Unearthly Child when the Doctor sets of controls of the TARDIS and dematerliases.

Like the previous story there are wonderful performances from William Russell and Carole Ann Ford. Though there was slightly more of the old Susan in this story than in the Farewell which was a slight worry but overall the pair did a great job. John Dorney has a smaller role in this than as Alexander. However it was still a nice performance. The new voice in this is Helen Goldwyn whose performance is quite good. It sounds weird and wonderful and helps create the impression that this is an alien world with weird seas and suns. All in all, the performances are what help make this story more than a bland story.

There is something quite lovely about The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance. It’s not the most action packed story however as its so well told by William Russell and Carole Ann Ford the whole thing is something that still makes it enjoyable. Both of these stories have been worth the money. Admittedly they are dangerously close to been called Companion Chronicles because they are stories that weren’t actually lost because it got cancelled due to lack of studio time or something else but just never got commissioned as a TV story. That said I Nigel Robinson has done a good job adapting these stories for audio and Lisa Bowerman directed these stories brilliantly. A good job all round.

No comments:

Post a Comment