The Queen of Time
|
|
Big Finish Productions The Queen of Time |
|
| Written by | Brian Hayles, adapted by Catherine Harvey |  |
| Format | Compact Disc | |
| Released | 2013 |
| Starring Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury |
| Synopsis: Somewhere outside our universe, she is waiting. A god-like immortal, living in a realm of clocks. The hours tick slowly by as she plots and plans. She is readying her trap. A trap for a very special man in a very special police box. Hecuba has all the time in the world. But for the Doctor, time is running out. |
A Review by Thomas Tiley 22/8/17
This audio release from Big Finish is the reproduction of a unmade Patrick Troughton story, originally conceived by creator of The Celestial Toymaker and Ice Warriors, Brian Hayles, and brilliantly expanded and adapted by Catherine Harvey. I must also mention Lisa Bowerman, whose direction really brings this fantastic tale to life.
The story starts in a similar fashion to Hayles' first story for the series, The Celestial Toymaker, with the TARDIS crew landing in a clock-strewn, deserted palace, where the second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are drawn into the twisted games of the villainous Hecuba, a glamorous, devious, vamp-like villain of the piece performed by Caroline Faber.
Faber really brings this character to life, with her flirty tones when she is dining with the second Doctor, her sudden rages and angers and her twisted laughter. This game-obsessed villain sets the TARDIS crew a series of tests while she dines and flirts with the Doctor (these scenes are especially funny; you can really imagine Troughton saying the lines as Hines performs them). I wouldn't mind if she turned up in the TV series, hopefully playing a villain, if only to hear her evil laugh. It really is worth hearing this play for her laugh alone, in my opinion.
Frazer Hines pulls double duty both as Jamie, who sounds just like he did in the 60s, and as the Doctor. His impression of the Doctor is really uncanny; if you didn't know better, you would swear that they had brought Troughton forward through time to make these recordings. Hines really is spot on, with all Troughton's tics and his manner of speech.
Wendy Padbury reprises her role as Zoe and does a fair effort at trying to recapture her youthful character's voice.
I really enjoyed this story's narration/descriptions as they aided me in picturing the locations and scenes; I've noticed many of the more recent audios aren't as good at setting a scene compared to this story. I could really picture the halls of clocks, the various tests and traps, the dining room with its revolting feast and Hecuba's drooling, monstrous manservants. I enjoyed how the story didn't have any gunfights or much in the way of action, instead giving the Doctor and Zoe a chance to use their minds to try to logically beat the games and puzzles set by the villain.
I could really see how the action took place in my head, picturing the scenes. I could really see this as being made in the 60s. In fact, I had to rein in some of my imaginings: when the two companions were trapped in a giant sandglass, I imagined it as described, a vast, enormous timepiece; when they cautiously walked down vast hallways filled with timepieces or when they were confronted by Hecuba's clockwork dragon humanoid henchmen... but then I realised they'd be short of studio space and imagined it smaller, scaled down, the sand hourglass as a small sandpit, the corridors restricted in space with only a few clocks, the minions in rubbish costumes.
The commentary at the end was also interesting, revealing the changes Harvey made to the story and how it was based off a two-page draft. Hines is especially funny in the commentary; it turns out he's the practical joker of the bunch.
I would recommend this story to any fan of this particular TARDIS crew. 10 out of 10.
All in all, I would say that this is a near-perfect audio.
The Celestial Toymaker Done Right by Jacob Licklider 18/10/25
The Celestial Toymaker is a visual story that had its original ideas rewritten by the production staff and the story was altered beyond recognition. It changed from a surreal piece to four episodes of children's party games with Michael Gough, but as it would turn out writer Brian Hayles didn't give up the concept of extra-dimensional beings capturing the Doctor. He would turn in his script for The Queen of Time to the production office, only for it to get rejected and the surviving materials sent to the exile of Frazer Hines's garage. Big Finish, however, was able to get ahold of the information and adapt the materials into a four episode Lost Story in 2013.
The plot has a similar premise to The Celestial Toymaker opening with a very tense TARDIS scene where everything is normal until a record starts playing and an invitation appears on the scanner inviting the Doctor to dinner. A pretty face appears, and the TARDIS is captured in the domain of Hecuba, the titular queen of time, who makes the Doctor sit through dinner with her while Jamie and Zoe have to escape her domain of clocks. While the story never really reaches the levels of The Mind Robber in terms of surreal atmosphere, it still feels a lot like the atmosphere of time screwing around is a really good one, as we get to at least have vivid imagery. It takes a style similar to a thriller story with some gross-out imagery with the actual dinner for the story to work. The biggest problem in the story is that it does go over the ground of The Celestial Toymaker, because on audio you can't really go with the idea of surreal atmosphere that the script really wants. A lot of the imagery that happens is the disgusting food and a scene where Zoe just ages both ways over and over again, which really sort of goes on way too long. The actual challenges are just dealing with these parodies of historical figures, and the theme is just time goes on and on. You aren't really expecting a lot of the weirdness the story features.
Caroline Faber as Hecuba is Doctor Who does femme fatale. Hecuba obviously wants the Doctor in more ways than one, and she's ready to go to any lengths to get him under her power. Faber has this silky quality to her voice that lures you in but also makes you a little wary. She gets Jamie under her power, causing a lot of the mess the story goes into. The listener cannot really tell what she's thinking before everything is about to fall apart. She plays the part like a temptress, enjoying herself as she plays with the Doctor and his companions. It helps that Lisa Bowerman only had three people for the entire story, Faber and the two regulars reprising their roles. It makes the story feel very tight, and Bowerman's direction focused on getting the actors to give good performances, which overall works for the story. Frazer Hines again is brilliant as the Doctor, so much so that his performance as Jamie actually suffers in this one as a result. The Doctor toys just as much with Hecuba as she does with him, which is something extremely interesting for the story, as it goes into just how manipulative in general the Doctor becomes. He is trying to find a way out of the game as he simply has to watch as Jamie and Zoe are the ones doing the playing. It's also Wendy Padbury being able to recapture the magic as Zoe that helps with a lot of the danger coming through in the story.
The writing style from Brian Hayles also touches upon what could have made The Celestial Toymaker a great story and improves The Queen of Time , which is lacking without any real visuals. The Doctor is allowed to have fun in this story, as he has to play the game and keep Hecuba entertained throughout a revolting dinner. He is cracking jokes throughout the entire thing and trying to get little hints to Jamie and Zoe as to how they can get out of this situation. The music by Toby Hrycek-Robinson should also be noted for how much it sounds like it was meant for a period piece. It has this gramophone type quality that just sort of works for this type of story, as it takes place outside of time as a way to signal how this situation works.
To summarize, The Queen of Time is an interesting look at exactly how a story could have worked with an extradimensional being as the villain of the piece. The concepts of the story are honestly great, even if it treads a lot of the same ground as The Celestial Toymaker. The direction and music score add to the atmosphere the story is evoking, and the acting performances from the three performers are great, but Jamie McCrimmon suffers extremely as a result of the Doctor being in the foregrounds for the story's duration. Hecuba is a great villain, and Caroline Faber is a great actress. 85/100