The Nowhere Place
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Big Finish Productions The Nowhere Place |
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| Written by | Nicholas Briggs |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2006 |
| Starring Colin Baker and Maggie Stables |
| Synopsis: 2197. The fighter-carrier Valiant has just crossed Pluto's orbital path. Its captain is expecting trouble from alien raiders. She is not expecting the Doctor and Evelyn. 1952. The Turret Class locomotive Ivy Lee is hurtling through the night. On board, there should only be two passengers: both of them carrying documents from the War Office. But now, there are also two unexpected visitors on the train. One is the guard with ill-fitting trousers, the other is an excessively dotty old lady. The Doctor and Evelyn have arrived and 'Time's End' is approaching. |
Jealous victims... by Joe Ford 10/5/07
Thank goodness.
Colin Baker has been given something of a bum deal with Big Finish of late. After building him up as their star attraction, realising much of the potential his character so obviously left hanging when he was unexpectedly sacked from the show, they have left his character in something of a "nowhere place" (witty guy, huh?). Given the shuffling of four Doctors, it is always a couple of months before Colin gets a look in and if his stories are underwhelming (and let's face it Pier Pressure, Cryptobiosis and Medicinal Purposes were all pretty dull) you have a huge gap between this and the last time Colin has a chance to shine.
The Nowhere Place is the best Colin Baker story since Arrangements for War. It's not absolutely perfect, but as a piece of storytelling and for giving Colin Baker and Maggie Stables a chance to prove they are still the best Big Finish have to offer, it deserves much plaudits.
There is more than a touch of Sapphire and Steel about this story but that only works to its advantage, the mysterious (and hugely ominous) door that is sucking people through into the nowhere place proving to be far more terrifying than any alien threat. Not only that but the mixture of science-fiction and the past (highlighted by juxtaposition of the settings, on a spaceship one moment and on a steam train the next) is perfectly intoxicating. The Doctor and Evelyn land like elements out of time ready to sort out the problem. If Big Finish was not already dealing with Sapphire and Steel I would think P J Hammond would be calling his lawyers.
The most important thing though are the ideas and, as usual with Doctor Who, it is imagination that sees the story triumph rather than glossy production values (although The Nowhere Place does exhibit these too!). When I heard that Nicholas Briggs was taking over from Gary Russell at Big Finish I punched the air with delight. This is not meant as Russell-bashing, because he did a fabulous job setting up the audio range and produced a fair number of absolute classics but there is something about Briggsy's work which screams of effort, as though sweat and blood has gone into making it. He has a marvellous ear for writing dialogue, understands how to milk drama from his fertile ideas and (as if that wasn't enough) is a superb director, musician and actor to boot. No, a change of creative direction is what Big Finish has been desperate for for several years and if The Nowhere Place is an example of what they will produce then sign me up. Tellingly, Briggs writes, directs, scored and acts in this production and its quality speaks for itself.
There are so many things to admire about the script, the dramatic tension between the Doctor and Captain Oswin, the possession of Evelyn (which could have been as dire as it was in Pier Pressure but is pulled with remarkable drama here), the hilarious scenes on the steam train where the Doctor pretends to be the ticket man, the massive red herring as the Doctor is tricked into going back in time, the Doctor's fear... but most importantly the revelation that the human race was not the first race to evolve on the Earth. It is a shock twist like this that can decide a story's fate but this pulled off with real elegance, suddenly making sense of the all the bizarre happenings earlier on. The last episode is pretty amazing all told, especially the Doctor's reaction to all the species he has never met that were wiped out and facing his nightmares head on.
There are many people who have adored the sixth Doctor's gentler transition to audio but, as ever with these things, there are those who feel as though he has lost his bite. The Nowhere Place presents us with the sixth Doctor at his absolute finest, when you wouldn't even think of him as a Doctor but the Doctor. Here we see his warm relationship with Evelyn, easily matching that of the fourth Doctor's with Sarah and the seventh Doctor's with Ace. They are clearly made for each other and the chemistry between Colin and Maggie is effortless and marvellously entertaining. So when the pair of them start acting edgy and terrified it is very frightening and both actors take on a nervous, uncomfortable tone that really gets under your skin. Seeing the brash, verbose sixth Doctor genuinely terrified is really unnerving and his desperation to find answers results in some dramatic scenes with Oswin. It is in the final episode where we see what the Doctor (and Colin) are made of where the Doctor lands the TARDIS in front of the door and confronts his fear with all the bravery and determination as the third Doctor did before he died. The emotions that he displays during these scenes is extraordinary; anger at the genocide of so many species, guilt at never discovering their passing, sympathy for the race which has been condemned to Time's End, contempt for their jealousy at other species who were given the chance to reach the stars and keep going, regret at the severity of his actions to stop them. The quiet scene between the Doctor and Evelyn after he has destroyed the Nowhere Place is fantastic, Evelyn wanting to know what the hell the whole adventure was about and after the Doctor asks her what it felt like she decides she would rather not know. Colin attacks this script with real gusto, unafraid to strip down layers of his character to give the audience an uncomfortable ride and Maggie Stables is always great value, her frightened performance one of Evelyn's top appearances to date. I was unsure about listening to more Evelyn stories after her departure but now I am convinced that there is much for this duo still to show us.
The other performances are variable but the best of them are smashing, especially Martha Cope, who after first hearing her in episode one I though I would really hate but from nowhere her character's strength of conviction really pleased me. The scene where the Doctor manages to convince her he is on her side with just words is phenomenal. I wasn't that thrilled with John Killoran as Palmer who is playing something of a bored character so his bored-sounding performance is probably quite good, but it still didn't convince me that much.
Basically, what you have here are three episode of spooky weirdness (but riveting spooky weirdness) and then a final episode that brings the house down. Loaded with great concepts, a chance for the regulars to shine and a production as polished as anything Nicholas Briggs directs, The Nowhere Place is easily the best this year. Let's have some more of this quality please.
A Review by Brian May 26/3/13
The Nowhere Place has filler written all over it. I can't be certain, of course, and apologies to Nicholas Briggs if I'm wrong, but there's the overall feel this was put together quickly, perhaps to plug a gap in the Big Finish schedule. It's very derivative, featuring the usual assortment of Doctor Who staples: the spaceship setting, the disbelieving authority figure who eventually comes round, the manipulation of human race memory and a confrontation with an ancient entity. Of course, calling the story filler is by no means an intention to denigrate it, for there are certainly enjoyable moments.
My favourite aspect is the allure of two juxtaposed settings: a spaceship near Pluto in 2197 and a steam train in 1950s England. I'm a sucker for this sort of thing, just to see how the two disparate elements will be brought together. (I'm also a sucker for any story with a substantial train setting!) What doesn't help, though, is that the first two episodes are, respectively, slow and padded. The first takes quite a while to get going, while during the second (especially listened to in retrospect) it's as if the writer wants terribly to get to the train, but realises he can't do so until the next episode, i.e. the logical point for such a transition. Thus he has to stall proceedings with the obligatory escape and recapture.
The acting is all good, with Colin Baker and Maggie Stables excellent as always. Of the non-regulars, those portraying the Valiant crew do well with rather thankless, cliched roles; basically, your usual spaceship assortment. The dialogue they utter is bog standard, as is most of the script, with a definite exception: Ridgely's lines. Of course, he's portrayed by Nicholas Briggs himself, who just happens to be the writer and director. The insults Ridgely hurls at his taciturn minder are quite amusing, and Briggs gives a gregarious performance to match. He's more restrained in the final episode as the voice and embodiment of the above-mentioned entity, but he's still given himself the best material. This said, however, just listen to Baker at the beginning of part three, when he defends Evelyn against Oswin. What he says isn't that spectacular, but the way he says it is. He's incredibly passionate, with a gusto that may as well be one of his marvellous Big Finish soliloquies we've been treated to in recent times.
As I said in the opening paragraph, The Nowhere Place feels like a filler, but at least everyone makes the effort. It's not without its high points and throws in a few scares along the way: the nondescript sound of a bell ringing quickly becomes a thing of dread, while the anachronism of the ancient door in the futuristic setting is indeed an arresting "image". The final showdown is also quite good. It's an unspectacular story, but one that's hard to dislike. 7/10
Open the Door if You Wish to Die by Jacob Licklider 9/7/21
In the Series Four episode The Doctor's Daughter, writer Stephen Greenhorn posits that the Doctor is the man who would never would harm another being. Two years earlier, Big Finish released The Nowhere Place, a story where by the end the Doctor is responsible for the genocide of countless races when he could easily have saved them if he only killed one race. So of course as the man who never would, he kills trillions of sentient life forms whose only crime was existing, and it was the Web of Time's fault that they cannot be allowed to exist. This story is of course going to be a completely uncontroversial one, I write sarcastically. Nicholas Briggs gets to flex his mystery-writing muscles this time around, as the first three episodes of The Nowhere Place unravel a mysterious door on a spaceship near the edge of the solar system where the only doors should be airlocks that apparently lead to nowhere. The door is a captivating idea, as it draws people to it with little clues as to the mystery of its existence. It's almost a character in itself, as it doesn't want to give anything up too soon before it causes some terror to the inhabitants of the spacecraft. The story sees the Doctor try to rescue Evelyn from the door's influence and unravel the mystery that leads them from the far future to a train on the 1950s where the door also appears to be. I won't give too much away, but I will say that the ideas are extremely frightening in that brilliant way that Nicholas Briggs can pull off.
As always, Colin Baker is on top form as the Doctor, who in this story acts out for the protection of the human race and even wants to avoid genocide of the other races involved in the titular nowhere place, as they have a right to exist. He knows, however, that no matter what he does they are going to die by the end of the story, and that's the final say. The Doctor is also extremely caring towards Evelyn, who is possessed by the door in the story for a period of time, which continues to show just how suited the pair of Six and Evelyn are. Maggie Stables of course shines as Evelyn Smythe, as she has to play possessed on top of the already large amount of character baggage. Of course, that doesn't come without comedy, as Stables and Baker have this double act that just comes with the two of them playing their parts. They get this great moment in Part Three where the Doctor gets into period costume and Evelyn calls him out on how it really isn't going to fool anyone and proceeds of course to fool the passengers into thinking he's a guard and she's a passenger, which just shows how their relationship is solid and what a real team they make.
The supporting cast is rather limited to three roles. First is Martha Cope as Captain Oswin, who is the captain of the spaceship where the door first is. Oswin is the complete military mind and is obviously looking out for her crew even if they are a bunch of red shirts for the slaughter. The Doctor leaves her in front of the door for two months, which is a terrifying concept, as the door is hypnotic to anyone who comes in contact with it. The other character of importance is Palmer, who is a mainly silent bodyguard used for a little bit of comedy in Part Three, which is honestly all right, but nothing special.
I think a word should be made about Nicholas Briggs' involvement in this story as not only writing and directing the story, he is responsible for the music, sound design and playing one of the major characters. I wouldn't be surprised if Briggs provided the lunches for the actors while recording, as he basically took this entire audio on himself, and, unlike Embrace the Darkness, he does it extremely well. The music is extremely haunting, as Briggs creates a darker 1950s-style score even for the portions of the story in the far future, which works really well for the dark atmosphere created by the ideas. Briggs' character, while he gives it his all and is a good actor, is a bit of a cookie-cutter stereotype of a mad scientist that really goes nowhere.
To summarize, The Nowhere Place sports some great atmosphere and ideas, as Nicholas Briggs really gives it his all to make a good story and it shows. The acting is great all around with Baker and Stables doing their best, but a lot of the characters aren't very interesting. 85/100