4 episodes: An Ordinary Life, The Unalike, The Sleeping Army, The Enemy Without. Running Time: Approx. 123 minutes. Written by: Matt Fitton. Directed by: Ken Bentley. Produced by: David Richardson.
THE PLOT:
The TARDIS makes an emergency landing, materializing in 1950s London during a fierce winter storm. Steven and Sara bundle a semi-conscious Doctor out of the damaged ship, and they find refuge from the storm with the Newmans, a family of Jamaican immigrants. With the Newmans' help, they arrange to rent an upstairs apartment while the Doctor recovers from whatever mysterious force attacked him... but when they wake the next morning, they find that both the Doctor and the TARDIS have gone!
With no prospect of the Doctor returning, Steven and Sara settle into an ordinary life. Steven takes a job at the docks with Michael Newman (Damian Lynch), while Sara stays at the apartment and helps Michael's wife Audrey (Sara Powell) look after their infant daughter.
All is not well, however. There are racial tensions stoked and escalated by bigoted dock worker Billy Flint (Stephen Critchlow). Even more disturbing, Michael is not behaving like the man Audrey and Michael's uncle, Joseph (Ram John Holder) remember. He is distant and unemotional, and every so often he talks about waiting for his family. He isn't the only one, with their landlord changing from greedy to placid overnight.
Something is happening to the people, something centered around the docks. Steven takes it on himself to investigate - but finding the answers that he seeks may just lead to him becoming the next victim!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He's mostly offscreen: a small role in the first episode, absent for the middle, and then returning for the end. This works better here than in previous Early Adventures, both because of the nature of the story and because the Doctor doesn't take charge in the final episode. His biggest scene amounts to exposition... though, amusingly, he keeps finding himself sidetracked by the infant in Sara's care, waggling his fingers at the child or singing a lullaby until Sara pulls him back on track.
Steven: He's grateful to the Newmans for rescuing them from the storm, and he is incensed when Billy Flint and his ruffians harass them. When Flint snarls that Steven should stick to his "own kind," Steven responds that he's doing just that, associating with "decent human beings." He initially can't believe that the Doctor would have left him and Sara in 1952, but he adjusts fairly quickly to his new life. Writer Matt Fitton caries over Steven's unrequited attraction to Sara from Simon Guerrier's The Anachronauts, which adds a melancholy extra layer to an already strong characterization.
Sara Kingdom: Does not fit into 1950s society. She attempts to get a job at the nearby police station, her "interview" consisting of demonstrating her skills by beating up half of the constabulary! They end up letting her go, mainly because none of them wants to admit to the incident. Her cooking is disastrous, and she and Steven end up laughing about the inedible goop that results from her attempt to boil vegetables. She is highly protective of Audrey's infant, and I enjoyed late story mental images of her fending off enemies with her blaster while cradling the baby in one arm.
The Newmans: The immigrant family that helps Steven and Sara are likable, and they feel like real people. Sara Powell's Audrey is frustrated at her husband, Michael's, odd passivity, which she puts down to his physically strenuous job and culture shock. Ram John Holder's Joseph is both likable and humorous, but he loses his temper at the harassment by Flint's gang, which Sara fears will just make the harassment worse. The nature of the story gives Damian Lynch less opportunity to characterize Michael, but he does well with what he's given, notably during an exposition heavy scene in Episode Three. The portrayal of the Newmans helps this story to feel reasonably authentic, which is key to its success.
THOUGHTS:
I've griped before about The Early Adventures' tendency to sideline the Doctor. Given that this range existed in large part because of the success of the Companion Chronicles and Lost Stories, and that it is essentially using the format of the 1st and 2nd Doctor Lost Stories, I've been bewildered as to why Big Finish suddenly decided it was suddenly a problem that Peter Purves/William Russell don't sound exactly like William Hartnell when it really wasn't a problem for previous ranges.
That said, An Ordinary Life actually feels like something that should be "Doctor-lite." The focus is on Steven and Sara facing living out their lives in 1950s London, which is a better prospect for him than for her. Where previous Early Adventures felt as if they were just avoiding the Doctor, this one feels properly built around his absence.
I most enjoyed the "real world" material, with Steven and Sara interacting with the Newmans while adjusting to their new surroundings. The invasion plot is well-done, though. It builds slowly in the background, allowing the focus to remain on the historical setting for the first half, before it finally takes center stage in the second half. Episode Three features some particularly creepy scenes, memorably when Steven finally gets to directly see the nature of the threat.
Matt Fitton's script ties the invasion to the story's themes. Steven and Sara are outsiders, understanding nothing of the customs of this time and place. The Newmans are also outsiders; they understand the social mores, but as dark-skinned immigrants they are largely denied acceptance. The aliens are also outsiders, unable to comprehend social customs even as they attempt to fit in.
A nice touch is that one clue is that those controlled by the aliens are racially integrated. The differences that matter so much to Billy Flint are irrelevant to a being that isn't human at all. As is often the case with well-scripted stories, the thematic unity bridges the gap between the two strands, the one grounded in reality and the one that's pure fantasy.
OVERALL:
An Ordinary Life starts slowly, with the first episode so heavily set in the Newmans' apartment that it almost feels like a stage play. But sometimes "slow" is the right choice. This is a story where the characters and settings are critical to the overall success. Because it takes its time, the Newmans and their life in early 1950s London feel authentic and lived-in, which makes the rest of the story that much more absorbing.
Good performances, an effective realization of a particular time and place, and an excellent music score by Toby Hrycek-Robinson all combine to make this the best of the first season of Big Finish's Early Adventures.
Overall Rating: 9/10.
Set Between: Episodes 7 and 8 of The Daleks' Master Plan
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Doctor Who: The Early Adventures Review Index
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