Farewell, Great Macedon
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Big Finish Productions Farewell, Great Macedon |
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| Written by | Ingrid Pitt and Tony Rudlin |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2010 |
| Starring William Russell and Carole Ann Ford |
| Synopsis: The TARDIS materialises in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, in the year 323 BC. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan meet Alexander the Great -- but their excitement is tempered by the realisation that these are the final days of Alexander's life. As the travellers become embroiled in the tragic events, the inevitability of history unfolds around them. But can they -- and should they -- change it? |
Nearly Four Hours of Political Intrigue and the King of the World by Jacob Licklider 18/10/22
Season 23 was always going to be the original idea for the Lost Stories, and it was originally just meant to be the one season before preorders were off the scales, so Big Finish commissioned a second season for the Lost Stories. The question became what exactly to adapt, and early on they got Sylvester McCoy to come in to record the missing Season 27, but the problem there is that it's only four stories to adapt to actually do that season, and Big Finish really didn't know what they could do to make the length match the first season. So in their wisdom looked to other eras of the show to have stories to adapt and came up with three box sets, two released before the Season 27 releases and one released after as a special treat as a hint of things to come. The first two box sets were adaptations of stories from the eras of the first two Doctors, starting of course with two stories that were in consideration for the very first season before being dropped. The first story is Farewell, Great Macedon, a six-part pure historical adventure surrounding the final days of Alexander the Great. There are two reasons this story was rejected: first, the sets would have been impossible to create without going over the allotted budget, especially if it was put in the airing position of The Reign of Terror, as it would most likely have been; second, the cast is extremely large, especially with a story made in the 1960s, which could usually have a cast of about fifteen to twenty. If it had been made, it would have been interesting to see just how they realized the sets and characters.
The story is really the ideal historical adventure, as it does the initial intention of having the Doctor and companions not interfering but observing, and it does this very well. Really, the Doctor and company really don't do much. Yes, Ian has a fight in the arena, and the Doctor gets a brilliant scene where he walks over burning coals while Barbara goes doughy-eyed over Alexander the Great, but other than that there isn't much there. This presents the problem that Farhi has to make the history that is being told be an interesting one, which is really where An Unearthly Child failed as a story. Fahri does this brilliantly, building suspense as we know that Alexander's generals are planning their leader's death and falsifying a successor, which as Barbara knows is why the empire falls apart.
Nigel Robinson is responsible for adapting the story into the audio medium and does a fantastic job at doing it. Fahri's original script is very much relying on the visuals of the sets as parts one and five, "The Hanging Gardens of Babylon" and "In the Arena" respectively, are reliant on the beauty of the gardens, the spectacle of the arena and the fights. The rest of the story can easily be done on audio, but those two episodes in particular were Robinson's hardest work, and he did an extremely good job. Robinson's adaptation of the story, however, does have one flaw in that Robinson's added narration increases the original length of the story from two and a half hours to nearly four hours long. It is a beautiful story and the added narration is brilliantly done, but it still drags just a little in the middle.
The main players in this story are William Russell and Carole Ann Ford playing all the different characters, as this story is done in the style of the Companion Chronicles. Russell and Ford really are good actors here, and they each come with slightly different voices for each of the characters by giving a slightly different inflection. They both have to imitate the sadly departed Jacqueline Hill and William Hartnell, and they both do great at getting those characters right. Ford's Barbara is a voice that isn't so much an imitation of the actual voice of Jacqueline Hill, but more of the inflection and mannerisms of Barbara Wright. It really works well for Ford, as Ford's voice is a very distinct one. Russell is on the other end of the spectrum with his impression of William Hartnell, as the Doctor sounds very close to what Hartnell sounded like on television. There are moments where you forget that it is Russell doing the voice. John Dorney, who would later pen some of the best Big Finish stories, actually debuts as an actor here playing Alexander the Great, which is a really good performance. Dorney plays the king with a wide range of emotions especially in episodes two, four and six, "O Son, My Son", "The World Lies Dead at Your Feet" and "Farewell, Great Macedon" respectively. "Farewell, Great Macedon" is especially good as it is where Dorney has to act out the death of Alexander the Great as he is poisoned and has to die.
The story was directed by Lisa Bowerman, who is great at directing the actors, and I partially put the success of her ability to get performances out of William Russell and Carole Ann Ford, especially Russell who was in his late eighties when this was recorded. It isn't an easy feat, and she also has to make this story feel like it is from the 1960s, which is a hard feat. Toby Hrycek-Robinson, maker of the Big Finish lunches, was responsible for the sound design and music for this story and was great at getting the sort of empty feel of the era down really well. It works as, let's be honest, the 1960s stories rarely relied on music, and Toby was great at getting it done quickly.
To summarize, Farewell, Great Macedon is a great opener for the second season of the Lost Stories with the ability to transport you back to those black and white days of Doctor Who. It's a story that really works with just about everything. Its only flaw is that it is nearly four hours long, which really drags down the story with a lot of narration, which I just cannot forgive, so it gets 95/100.