David Bradley did a sterling job bringing the emotional struggles of William Hartnell, the First Doctor, to the screen in the BBC docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.  The accuracies of the docudrama to one side for a moment, one can’t help to have been caught up in the emotional turmoil of the character and the era thanks to Bradley’s captivating performance.

AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME

Later, Bradley was chosen to reprise his “First Doctor” role in the televised Doctor Who adventure Twice Upon A Time.  Personally, I didn’t feel this worked as well now that he was required to play the First Doctor, and not William Hartnell portraying a character.  For me, he didn’t capture the character as Hartnell had portrayed it.  Worse still, the character was depicted through the writing as far more sexist and lacking in humour than the character ever was (as indicated by the DVDs of the 60s adventures).  However, as a unique moment of the very first Doctor meeting the very latest Doctor, it was as acceptable as any “multi-Doctor” story in that we, the viewer, silently agree to giving extra latitude to it in order to make it work.

TWICE UPON A TIME

In 2017, Big Finish Productions began producing new First Doctor audio adventures, with David Bradley reprising the role of the Doctor.  He’s joined by Jamie Glover, Jemma Powell, and Claudia Grant as Ian Chesteron, Barbara Wright, and Susan, having originally been cast as lookalikes for William Russell, Jacqueline Hill, and Carole Ann Ford respectively for brief scenes in the aforementioned docudrama.

I’ve been sceptical of the benefits of bringing these actors to the audio medium since I first read of it.  Actors who were originally cast because they, with correct makeup, hairstyling, and clothes, bear a passing visual resemblance to the original characters, and who originally played the actors playing the characters, are now being asked to portray the characters themselves, despite having no connection to or experience with those characters.  It seemed a stretch, at the very least.  None of them particularly sounded like the original characters, so what does this bring to the table that Big Finish‘s previous productions haven’t?

AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME

In previous “early Doctor” adventures, Big Finish have presented us with the original actors playing the original companions, very convincingly transporting us back to the original era, with the actors providing “soundalike” voices for the actors no longer being with us to reprise the original Doctors.  This has worked surprisingly well, particularly the adventures performed by Peter Purves, William Russell, and Frazer Hines.

As a result, I’ve been extremely hesitant, nay reluctant, to invest any funds into the new David Bradley range of First Doctor Adventures.  A recent Big Finish newsletter, however, offered the very first episode (approximately 30 minutes) as a free download and it seemed only right to give it my full attention.

THE DESTINATION WARS, PART 1

In The Destination Wars, part 1 the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan arrive on Earth in 2003, or so they think.  They’re in Ian and Barbara’s future, but will Earth really have hovering cars in 2003?

It turns out that they have actually landed on a distant colony in the far future, a colony that usurped the indigenous population before creating a marvellous technological society courtesy of their benefactor, known only as ‘The Inventor’.

The Doctor and co learn this after meeting with a family of scientists, ones whose other duties have steered them away from their calling of scientific endeavour.

The mysterious Inventor, who has only appeared sporadically over the last several generations, is served by drones who act as intermediaries between the people and the Inventor’s wishes.

Now the Inventor has returned, just as the indigenous inhabitants launch an attack on the city.  Hearing about the new arrivals of the Doctor, Susan, Ian, and Barbara, the Inventor has Susan and Ian brought to him.  They discover that the Inventor is not so mysterious after all.

This first episode of The Destination Wars, which ends on a cliffhanger without actually revealing who “The Inventor” really is (a quick glimpse at the cast list would give it away, however), provokes an odd set of emotions.

The story does have a bit of a 60s “feel” about it, and it could very probably have fit right in with the Hartnell-era stories.

TWICE UPON A TIME

However, the main problem is one that I alluded to early.  None of the cast sound like the characters they’re supposed to be.  We know who Bradley is trying to be because he has a distinctive voice, and we’ve at least had a lengthy on-screen episode with which to become familiar with his version of the First Doctor.  Glover sounds nothing like Ian Chesterton, but he has a very captivating voice that you could listen to all night.  I suspect he’d be very good as an original character in his own series of stories.  Although we know who Grant and Powell are supposed to be, they sound nothing like their characters either and so they feel like they’re just tagged onto the story because the original cast had those characters there.

It feels oddly like a cheap fan production where you get your mates around a table pretending to be the original characters, yet supported by the fantastic audio production values that Big Finish is known for.  I am far from being convinced that this is the correct way of producing First Doctor adventures, and don’t think I’ll be investing any hard-earned money into this range for some considerable time to come.

AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME

A secondary problem is that we have here a story in which the first Doctor meets (or will meet later, I presume) a recurring enemy that we didn’t see him encounter in the TV series until well into the Doctor’s third incarnation.  It doesn’t feel right for him to be around with this “version” of the First Doctor.

I think these adventures would stand more of a chance if they were part of Big Finish‘s “what if” range of Doctor Who Unbound adventures.  There the different voices, characters acting out of character, and the Doctor meeting an enemy out of canon, and more, would all have been acceptable parts of the “what if” scenario.

If you can move beyond the voices sounding nothing like the characters, and the characters behaving nothing like the original characters, then you will probably derived some pleasure from the 60s-style adventure but, for me, it doesn’t work.