Prison in Space
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Big Finish Productions Prison in Space |
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| Written by | Dick Sharples and Simon Guerrier |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2010 |
| Starring Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury |
| Synopsis: A relaxing break for the Doctor and his companions Jamie and Zoe becomes something decidedly more sinister when they are arrested for trespass. But what has happened to the planet Earth? And how has the malevolent Chairman Babs gained control? As the Doctor and Jamie are incarcerated in a prison that they can never escape from, Zoe is forced to change sides... |
Who Runs the World? Girls by Jacob Licklider 9/1/23
Doing a Box Set for the Second Doctor is a bit of an oddity, as there weren't many stories that were never made that could be done in a four disc box set with the fourth disc being bonus features. Big Finish pulled something weird by doing a four-part story that wasn't made and an unmade spin-off from the time of the Second Doctor. The four-part story was the story that was originally going to be in the spot of the first four episodes of The War Games, Prison in Space. Prison in Space was never made for two reasons: Dick Sharples, the writer, couldn't finish the script on time, as he was never sure if he could include Jamie; second, the budget was running out and the ratings were falling. Luckily the scripts survived and were in the hands of Frazer Hines so Big Finish could of course adapt it into its own little audio drama. Simon Guerrier was brought in to write the adaptation, and he had his job really easy as the script was a complete script and only had to have the more visual elements toned down.
The plot of Prison in Space has the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe land on Earth in the far future where women have taken over and are ruled under the fascist Chairman Babs played by Susan Brown. It paints a picture of society where all men are suppressed as basic sex slaves and plain regular slaves. If a man has any desire to revolt from their suppression they are sent to the OCSE, a prison in space. There they will live in cells and fed only nutrition pills. Of course the Doctor, who cannot stand any injustice, and Jamie, who has the mindset of a highlander, get themselves locked up in the prison while Zoe is reconditioned to be a man-hater. As a plot Sharples is making a statement about what happens when there isn't a gender balance in society. It's a piece of absurdist satire about the feminist movement and what could happen if it went too far towards one gender in a highly unrealistic way. Several scenes of the story are very much products of their time, which is especially obvious in the final scenes of Jamie giving Zoe a spanking to break her out of her conditioning and a lot of the awkward scenes with Chairman Babs and her cronies. Many of these scenes come across as humorous even if they feel really awkward in context and show really why this story couldn't have been made on television other than the extensive budget it would have required. It really doesn't know how to pace its satire, which is honestly good satire and a good thing to note, but gets muddled in execution.
Frazer Hines is of course great at playing Jamie McCrimmon in the story, even if Jamie is there for comic relief. He really shines when he's playing the Doctor. If Big Finish had credited Patrick Troughton performing in the story, you really couldn't tell the difference between their voices. This is partially down to Lisa Bowerman being a great director, but mainly due to the fact that Hines and Troughton were best friends when they were making the show and kept up a healthy relationship after they left. Hines spent so much time with Troughton and observing his mannerisms, he has mastered an impression of Troughton as the Doctor which can be translated into the audio medium so well. Wendy Padbury is almost pushed into the background in this story, which is odd considering the conditioning should be put into the forefront in the story, but it doesn't happen until over halfway into the story and even when it happens not much is done with it except the spanking scene. Padbury does a good job as one of Babs's minions and is really entertaining. Susan Brown is over the top as Chairman Babs, as she is a leader who is still hard as nails but is subconsciously longs for a relationship with a man, which shouldn't be surprising as she has really had nobody to share her empire with. Her assault on the Doctor at the end is hilarious in every way, as you imagine Troughton who is very childlike in his mannerisms, accosted by a women who wants to have her way with him.
To summarize, Prison in Space is a highly underrated story that actually has a lot of interesting ideas present but a story that really doesn't do well at pacing itself to tell a good story. Sharples makes a lot of writing choices inherent in a first-time writer for science fiction in general, while being great at the absurdist satire. The acting is good, even if Wendy Padbury is criminally underused in the story and some of the scenes do come off as awkward, but I think it would be good if you gave this one a second listen and reappraise your opinion of the story. 72/100