Ian Potter
Teoksen The Alchemists tekijä
Tekijän teokset
Doctor Who: The Unwinding World 1 kappale
Associated Works
Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who (2007) — Avustaja — 44 kappaletta
The New Counter-Measures: Series 1 — Avustaja — 5 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Syntymäaika
- 1968
- Sukupuoli
- male
- Syntymäpaikka
- Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
William Russell returns as Ian Chesterton, telling the story of how he and Barbara were apparently abandoned by the First Doctor in Orkney in 1956, just after Susan's departure in Tardis time. The plot is fairly standard (creatures in the bog which may or may not be a Threat To Us All) but there are some lovely character moments for all three of the Tardis crew, and Sharon Small puts in an appearance as several different local Orcadian women.
For the third time in a row, the bonus Big Finish release with Doctor Who Magazine (included as a free download) is a Companion Chronicle-style audio. The Revenants, written by Ian Potter, features William Russell playing Ian Chesterton in a story set between The Dalek Invasion of Earth and The Rescue, a tantalising but seemingly little-used period where the Doctor travelled with only Ian and Barbara. (The only full-length story set in this gap is a Missing Adventure, Venusian Lullaby.)
With Susan gone, the Doctor’s decided to get Ian and Barbara home as well, doing some calculations that get the TARDIS closer to 1963 London than it’s ever gotten before. But the TARDIS takes off before the Doctor can step out, meaning that Ian and Barbara are left alone in a strange marsh. This sequence, about a third of the way through the story, is without a doubt its best part. The combination of Potter’s writing, Russell’s narration, and Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s sound design makes this part completely absorbing, utterly chilling, and even a little frightening. Never thought I’d say that for a swamp!
Read the rest of this review at Unreality SF.… (lisätietoja)
With Susan gone, the Doctor’s decided to get Ian and Barbara home as well, doing some calculations that get the TARDIS closer to 1963 London than it’s ever gotten before. But the TARDIS takes off before the Doctor can step out, meaning that Ian and Barbara are left alone in a strange marsh. This sequence, about a third of the way through the story, is without a doubt its best part. The combination of Potter’s writing, Russell’s narration, and Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s sound design makes this part completely absorbing, utterly chilling, and even a little frightening. Never thought I’d say that for a swamp!
Read the rest of this review at Unreality SF.… (lisätietoja)
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Associated Authors
Tilastot
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- Jäseniä
- 126
- Suosituimmuussija
- #159,216
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- 3.6
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- 3
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- 18
I’ve greatly enjoyed Ian Potter’s Who-related fiction – several audio plays and a couple of short stories – and was curious as to how he would approach the task of writing up this story. He’s done a great job. I will quote the body of the first chapter in full, because it’s a good statement of how writing about Who can work at its best.
[start]
One of the great things about Doctor Who is that it is constructed by many hands for many audiences. It was built to entertain viewers of different ages and consequently has to work on several levels at once to engage them all. That gives us a lot to latch on to.
Carnival of Monsters (1973) is a story all about levels, but it’s not the vision of an auteur with a single story or underlying message to relay. It’s a show full of episodic set pieces having fun with us and with itself that also happens to be a story full of messages.
Once we get into critical analysis of any work of art, we inevitably open ourselves up to the accusation that we’re seeing things in the work that ‘aren’t there’. Our own expectations, prejudices, historical perspectives and personal contexts will always colour our responses and interpretations. I happen to think that’s fine. That’s viewing for you – you bring yourself to the show. I also make no apology for the fact that the discussion of the programme you’re now reading will end up longer than either the programme’s script or its novelisation, and will probably take longer to read than the programme takes to view. There’s always more in a script than is on the page, more in a production than ends up on screen, and more than one way to reinterpret it in print.
Some of the things I hope to explore in this brief look at Carnival of Monsters will be ideas that were quite deliberately placed there by one or more of the show’s many creators. Some will be things that may have slipped in without the creators’ knowledge. Some will have arisen simply through the circumstances of the production, or the climate of the time. Others are perhaps more visible now than they were then. I hope you’ll forgive me missing out or under-emphasising any aspects that interest you.
[end]
The second chapter records the extensive source material available about how the show was made. Part of the script was used for Malcolm Hulke’s book on TV writing, including the classic stage direction “‘A STREAM OF INCOMPREHENSIBLE BUT OBVIOUSLY REVOLUTIONARY GOBBLEDEYGOOK.”
The third chapter looks briefly at the soundtrack.
The fourth chapter looks at the logistical considerations that led to the S.S. Bernice sections being on film and the Inter Minor scenes on video.
The fifth chapter looks in depth at the theatricality point I made earlier, for good and ill (mostly good), and how the editing process contributed to the final effect (more than usually so).
The sixth chapter looks at how the editing process affected the plot, with a few loose ends left dangling (most of which I must admit I did not notice on any of the four times I watched it).
The seventh chapter looks at Robert Holmes’ potential inspiration for the story. The one taproot text that is (plausibly) identifies is Frederik Pohl’s “The Tunnel Under the World”. Potter also makes the interesting observation that Holmes saw military service in Burma in the second world war, and therefore would have had first-hand experience both of the Raj and of the bubbling marshes that feature in so many of his stories – a really interesting point that I had not thought of before.
The eighth chapter looks at the extent to which the story is commentary on TV, on Doctor Who and on itself.
"The populations of Inter Minor and the SS Bernice are not massively dissimilar: both locations feature a pair of male and female travellers, a handful of authority figures, and about six non-speaking characters who do all the work for them and mostly end up as disposable foot soldiers for the elite. The extent to which this is the writer drawing a deliberate parallel or devising drama for each recording block with similar available resources is up for debate, but Holmes definitely seems to repeatedly invite us to draw connections between the worlds."
The ninth chapter looks briefly at the political satire in the script, with reference to Britain’s relations with the EU and to pandemics.
The tenth chapter looks at the story’s approach to racism, both on Inter Minor and the Raj, and packs a lot of things to think about into a few pages.
The eleventh chapter looks at the story’s unusual use of vertical perspectives in filming. (Actually this did not completely convince me.)
The twelfth chapter looks at language, specifically the language of the chickens, and Polari.
The thirteenth chapter looks at the extent to which the story resets the narrative of Doctor Who as a whole.
The fourteenth chapter looks at the story’s longevity and popularity, especially the Drashigs.
The fifteenth chapter tries to establish the dates on which the story is set, at length.
An appendix, as long as the main text, compares the early and final versions of the script. Unfortunately in the electronic version of the book we can’t see the struck through text which indicates deletions.
This is generally very good, breezy and enlightening.… (lisätietoja)