Review: The SettlingI've been falling behind on Doctor Who audios. I used to save them up for long car trips back to Belleville. Three hours of drive time both ways meant I could get through three serials over the return trip. Going home about every two months meant I roughly kept pace with Big Finish's release schedule. I just haven't been going home as much lately. And, to be honest, I'm pretty sated for new Doctor Who these days... Still, I love these things. I mean, they're not all super-fantastic, but dramatized audio seems somehow more intimate and involving than TV. And the Doctor Who audios get to be more indulgent to fans. Like really good fan fiction dramatized by the actors who always played the characters. Anyway, The Settling... Brief plot synopsis: the Seventh Doctor, Ace and new companion Hex get pulled into Oliver Cromwell's Irish campaign, seeing the fighting from both sides and angsting about whether it is possible to change history. I wasn't too keen on this one at first. In some ways, there's not a lot here that wasn't done better in The Aztecs, way back in 1964. I think he falls into the trap of playing up historical events out of proportion to the usual goings on in the series. Not that I want them to trivialize historical tragedies, but (and maybe Hex can be forgiven since he's new) going about how they'd never seen slaughter on that scale is just not true. The Seventh Doctor routinely blows up planets. And Ace has been through far worse. Oh, Hex. Poor, dear, stupid Hex. Hasn't anybody told you yet that telling 17th century puritans your silly nickname is only going to get you in trouble? Hex, sadly, is mostly an Ace clone, but with none of her pyromaniac charm. Since Ace has mostly grown up now, I guess they felt they needed a replacement. It's only in the final episode that my attitude toward The Settling changes. The Doctor steps in and, with a few words and quiet action, sets everything right again, saving those he can save while preserving history. It's deftly done, and Sylvester McCoy shines, however briefly. "Well, some things are worth fighting for!" proclaimed Dr. Jonathan Goddard And then I get chills. This is the Seventh Doctor I love, infinitely old and infinitely sad. This is where Russel T Davies gets The Lonely God from. And I love it. I'll forgive them three episodes of pointless run-around just for that. Somewhat unrelated: Speaking of the Seventh Doctor, word has it that Paul Cornell's two-parter in the upcoming season 3 is going to be an adaptation of his novel Human Nature, which is pretty awesome. Paul Cornell, if you recall, wrote the first season episode, Father's Day. You can read Human Nature online :D Tangentially related: I just noticed from today's UW Daily Bulletin... 358 years ago today, Oliver Cromwell's parliament had King Charles I executed. comments:This post is archived. Comments are disabled. Feel free to send me email if you have something to say. | |
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