The Sleeping City

Ian has been detained by the authorities; the disappearance of two school teachers and a student in 1963 London attracted a lot of attention, and now that Ian and Barbara have returned two years later without Susan there are questions that the authorities want answered. When Ian tries to explain the Doctor he finds that his interrogators already know of him, but they want to know more and they want to know what happened to Ian and Barbara while they were with him. Ian begins to talk about the time the TARDIS brought them to the city of Hisk; a city where people's minds would come together when the dreamed, but shared dreams do not guarantee safety for the dreamers.

It's not exactly Nightmare on Elm Street but it does owe a bit to it, even in a vague way. Then again it could owe more to the Otherworld series of novels where people are bound together in their sleep on a virtual reality platform. In either one, though, the dreamtime boogeyman is a common notion. This is not to say that The Sleeping City has a particular stalker figure who bumps people off in their sleep, but if you dream of a certain avatar - a nasty black bird - then you typically don't last long. The purpose of the shared reaming in Hisk is to bring the minds of the citizens together in harmony and realize dreams they have that they cannot live in the real world, but it does turn out to be a handy means to murder. There's atmosphere to this story, that sense of dread that comes with nightmares and terror that can't be escaped even when you open your eyes.

Ian's calm under the heat of interrogation is now second nature to him after being with the Doctor; he keeps his cool while he speaks of things people would never believe, only getting angry when he believes that Barbara may be mistreated, or if he thinks the Doctor himself is in trouble and needs his help. The implied setting in Ian's own continuity would be in the few days following The Chase, but as William Russell is now 91 it's a bit harder to envision him as his young self again when you can hear his older voice. Makes it easier for him to do his bang-on impressions of the Doctor, though, when he needs to. He can't quite do the girl voices for Vicki, though, and it actually gets turned around into a bit of a joke as the tale carries on.

And dig that cover art - there's Toronto's CN Tower right there in the cityscape!

So here ends this run of the Companion Chronicles. There are heaps more, though, but Ian's turn at narration has for now come to and end. Ian himself does return in future a few times in a couple surprises, and there are still more Companion Chronicles and Early Adventures out there from Big Finish, so this story will still go on for quite some time. Life after the Doctor, at least as far as Susan and now Ian are concerned, does go on.

But now that Ian and Barbara have left, the TARDIS is feeling a little empty, and life with the Doctor is still a reality for Vicki...

NEXT EPISODE: THE TIME MEDDLER

The Library of Alexandria

The TARDIS has taken the crew further back in time to the mythical library of Alexandria, where Ian is in the employ of the library itself, searching for rare books that enter the city so they may be copied for the library. He attracts the attention of none other than Hypatia herself, much to Barbara's disapproval, but his mission is something from which he cannot be distracted. The Doctor insists that it is urgent they locate certain texts, and all the while Susan has a sense of foreboding, knowing that by all mythical accounts Alexandria was destroyed by sea monsters.

So out of the super-sized episode Flames of Cadiz the Companion Chronicles range goes back to what it does best, the short two parter as told by one series regular (William Russell back as Ian) and a guest star (Susan Franklin as Hypatia). I was expecting the story to be something of a sequel to Farewell Great Macedon! as the establishment of the library in Alexander's memory was mentioned as that tale closed, but this is completely unrelated, even without reference to Alexander himself. Whereas Macedon was a story steeped in history, Library has a completely different feel to it into episode two, going to a more heavy science fiction place as the plot develops, even with Hypatia as a historical figure. Ohyes, there is very little in the way of political intrigue this time around and there are actually monsters out there heading towards Alexandria, which may not be entirely in keeping with the storytelling fashion of the Hartnell years but still fun to listen to.

Oh Hypatia. Her interest in Ian is reminiscent of the women of Byzantium! chasing him about or catching him half in the buff from time to time. Ian is still always the gentleman, politely refusing their advances and suffering Barbara's mild jealousy issues even though they at this point are not any kind of item (confusing to be hopping back and forth along their timeline this way even if all these are told from Ian's perspective after leaving the TARDIS). I don't want to sound like that guy but I don't see what Ian's animal attraction is. Why are women always throwing themselves at him? I don't get it. The series was never about that sort of thing anyways, aside from the Doctor's accidental engagement to Cameca in The Aztecs, which was more about soulmates than it was about lust. I'd lay the blame at the feet of the new series if I could but alas, Byzantium was published before it started up, and there are other adventures in print to come where the companions have their moments with the supporting cast and they too were published before the series was back on TV in 2005.

At this point, though, there is only one more of the Companion Chronicles to go with Ian as the lead. There's a second volume of First Doctor era tales out there so we will undoubtedly have more from Ian in future, but just not in this blog.

But that's still to come.

NEXT EPISODE: THE SLEEPING CITY

The Flames of Cadiz

The TARDIS brings the crew back to Earth in 1587, to Cadiz, Spain, during the Inquisition and the bloody war with England. Although they know this is a cruel and brutal time the crew explores the city and inevitably end up caught up in the tide of events, with Ian arrested and the Doctor exposed as an impostor when he tries to rescue him. Susan and Barbara must attempt to save them if they are to get away together, and later Ian gets a chance to meet his childhood hero, Sir Francis Drake. And there's a saying about meeting your heroes...

With the participation of Carole Ann Ford as Susan this time, Flames of Cadiz feels more like one of the early adventures as opposed to a Companion Chronicles adventure in tone, and in length. All the previous Companion Chronicles were told by one regular with a guest star, and they were told over two approximately 25 minute episodes, but this time the cast is fuller and therefor richer, and they are given four episodes to tell this tale. As a result it's a bit more of an epic adventure again, by comparison, and maybe should be dropped back into continuity further back and enjoyed between some televised episodes. Ian references having been on The Endeavour recently in Transit of Venus, which would mean this tale comes somewhere between the first two seasons, possibly before the Lost Stories range episode Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance. And again as it was commonplace back in that early era, there is not some alien plot behind events taking place in Cadiz - the only science fiction is the time travel which brought the travellers to the city in the first place. The rest, as they say, is history.

The question of changing history comes up again here, and it also brings an interesting notion of what would happen if the Doctor got his dates wrong. It's a bit of a plot point so as not to make a spoiler I'll leave it alone for now, but imagine if the Doctor was convinced something was going to happen but he was off by a year or two and either caused it early or prevented it, entirely out of ignorance. Handy to have a history teacher along for the ride. Bust history lessons did not prepare Ian for his meeting with Drake, who is not the hero he had imagined him to be from films and school lessons. But travelling in the TARDIS has given Ian a taste for adventure and he plunges on, deliberately going where the Doctor tells him not to.

Having Susan show up again now after not hearing from her since The Sleeping Blood is a bit interesting, but undermines her own continuity after having left the Doctor now her own life on Earth in the future has been established. Another argument for placing the story earlier in the series instead of after; either have Ian or Susan establish that they are recounting this tale for someone else or place it in proper chronological order. Sorry, I like order; it's just a bit hard to maintain with so many ideas and so many historical perspectives jostling around as the classic series of Doctor Who expands on all its fronts...

NEXT EPISODE: THE LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA

The Time Museum

Ian is awoken in the night by a stranger in his bedroom. But he's not even home anymore - he has been taken in the night and is in a museum where his life is on exhibit. The stranger, a man named Pendolin, insists that they are in danger from beings who consume memories, and as Ian's are so rich and full from his travels with the Doctor they are drawing the entities to him. They have to run. And run. And run. Ian's memories become a jumble as he struggles to hold onto what he knows.

This one's a real fan-wank if you're the kind of fan who loves hearing the sly references to the old episodes, and now that there's a considerable amount of material from Big Finish it all gets a mention here and there as Ian muddles up events, historical figures and companions. His babbles are like that of an old man slipping into senility, and he realizes as his certainty fades that there is something wrong with his memories. This is one of the times when William Russell doesn't have to try and sound younger, nor is it something that requires him to provide the voice for the Doctor as this isn't an actual flashback kind of tale, it's Ian's own future adventure. As far as Ian's own personal future is concerned he is now a very old man, and he may well have survived Barbara as she isn't mentioned as being part of his current life. His moment of clarity does come eventually and when he gets his faculties back he delivers some pretty stunning insight into the Doctor and the effect he had on him while they travelled together.

There's more to Pendolin than just being the curator of the Museum, though; he just sounds a bit too... slippery. He's quick to get Ian on the run and recruit him to help solve whatever is going wrong in the Museum, but it feels like he is deliberately keeping Ian confused and off balance; just as things start to even out he sets them off again, fleeing from the "ghosts" in the Museum.

What I liked best about this is it's a proper adventure for Ian on his own. The ones where he tells someone a story from the past are fun enough but when we get to see the life of a companion once they have left the Doctor and to see that there is still danger in their lives; they may have changed the Doctor a bit by being with him but he has also changed them, and there's going to be a target on their backs depending on how their time with him goes. Not every companion is going to warrant a full set of adventures like future companion Sarah Jane Smith, but it's good to know not everyone's stories just end when they walk out the TARDIS doors.

NEXT EPISODE: THE FLAMES OF CADIZ

The Revenants

On his way to the Orkney Islands, Ian talks with a fellow traveller on a ferry boat, and remembers when he and Barbara came here before with the Doctor. Something went wrong upon landing and the TARDIS left them behind, taking the Doctor with it, leaving them stranded in the night. The ordeal that followed was a journey into fear, terror and the supernatural, and their only hope that night was a local witch and a mysterious medicine man...

This one was released as a special download exclusive off the Big Finish regular range, and even though it was effectively a freebie there was no sign of any corners being cut in script of production values. As continuity goes we are looking at the time following The Dalek Invasion of Earth after Susan's departure from the crew. Ian remarks how the Doctor deciding to force Susan to settle and stop travelling was the bravest thing he had ever seen him do, but when the TARDIS vanishes from the misty bog he wonders if that is just what he has now done to himself and Barbara. On the better side of things, it is 1958 so he and Barbara are not too far off from their own time and if they needed to they could sit out the next few years and resume their lives once that fateful night in 1963 has passed. But Barbara has seen too much and knows they could not just sit by and wait, knowing things about the future ahead and being unable to do anything about them.

So the word revenant is described in Wikipedia as visible ghost or animated corpse returning from the dead. So, zombies. But these ones are made of mud and rise from the bog with a flicker of incandescent light and even if they are "just mud" they're still not to be messed with. They are to be run from.

And what do you do when the medicine man you seek is actually the very person you thought had left you behind?

Atmosphere wise The Revenants is pretty creepy. There's something innately terrifying about the marsh at night with all the half-glimpsed things in the fog and the sounds of ... things you can't see. And the quicksand. Always the quicksand.

NEXT EPISODE: THE TIME MUSEUM