Prison in Space is a ‘lost’ Second Doctor story that featured saw the Doctor travelling with Zoe and Jamie. After getting use to the style of the First Doctor stories I was more prepared for how this story was going to work. Written by the wonderfully named Dick Sharples, this story is set on Earth in a time when Women rule and men are seen as inferior beings. The Doctor and Jamie are sent to a prison…in space and its not long before the Doctor and Jamie work on a way of bringing down President Babs. The producers of Doctor Who at the time were unhappy with the story and asked Sharples to rewrite it which he refused and apparently got replaced with The Krotons. It’s been adapted for audio by Simon Guerrier who has a good track record with Big Finish stories.
Quite like the First Doctor stories, this story reeks of the Second Doctor era. I could easily believe that this story would have suited the style of the Doctor. It’s also very much a 1960’s story with feminism being the theme. However instead of it saying that women are superior and men inferior it soon turns out to be just one individual who has gone mad with power and treated brainwashed the other women into treating men in the way that they do. With the character of Babs we have someone who like Salamander in The End of the World who leads with an iron fist except the difference between the two is that Salamander didn’t fancy the Doctor. I thought that was quite funny that Babs at one point gets dolled up whilst looking at a photo of the Doctor.
Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury do a good job in this. The story seemed to flow better than in Farewell Great Macedon. I still love the impersonation of Patrick Troughton by Frazer Hines. It’s always great to hear and never gets boring. Susan Brown has almost become a regular having appeared in half a dozen Big Finish adventures in the last couple of years. I think that her performance as Babs was the highlight of this adventure. I think that she has a wonderful voice and it was put to great use in this.
Prison in Space is a good piece of drama but its not great. I do wonder what other second Doctor material that Big Finish could have used. If there was then I wonder what Big Finish saw in this that made it stand out. However at the end of the day Prison in Space is an enjoyable adventure. I think that the subject matter was different for Doctor Who but it wasn’t stupid and had just enough humour in it to be fun. Guerrier has done a good job turning a 1960’s TV script into a 2010/2011 audio release. Now onto the Dalek Pilot.
Quite like the First Doctor stories, this story reeks of the Second Doctor era. I could easily believe that this story would have suited the style of the Doctor. It’s also very much a 1960’s story with feminism being the theme. However instead of it saying that women are superior and men inferior it soon turns out to be just one individual who has gone mad with power and treated brainwashed the other women into treating men in the way that they do. With the character of Babs we have someone who like Salamander in The End of the World who leads with an iron fist except the difference between the two is that Salamander didn’t fancy the Doctor. I thought that was quite funny that Babs at one point gets dolled up whilst looking at a photo of the Doctor.
Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury do a good job in this. The story seemed to flow better than in Farewell Great Macedon. I still love the impersonation of Patrick Troughton by Frazer Hines. It’s always great to hear and never gets boring. Susan Brown has almost become a regular having appeared in half a dozen Big Finish adventures in the last couple of years. I think that her performance as Babs was the highlight of this adventure. I think that she has a wonderful voice and it was put to great use in this.
Prison in Space is a good piece of drama but its not great. I do wonder what other second Doctor material that Big Finish could have used. If there was then I wonder what Big Finish saw in this that made it stand out. However at the end of the day Prison in Space is an enjoyable adventure. I think that the subject matter was different for Doctor Who but it wasn’t stupid and had just enough humour in it to be fun. Guerrier has done a good job turning a 1960’s TV script into a 2010/2011 audio release. Now onto the Dalek Pilot.
No comments:
Post a Comment