The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'Soon you will witness the full beauty of the Rapture...'

For the second month in a row, a newcomer has penned Big Finish's regular Doctor Who release, and again they bring with them a new and distinct voice. Joseph Lidster's The Rapture is set on quite the most unlikely setting for a Doctor Who adventure in the hedonistic paradise of party island Ibiza, where DJ angels have arrived to save its sinners through the power of their music, at their club, the Rapture. This unusual setting opens up a window of intriguing dramatic possibilities which Lidster's script and the production team in realising it, exploit to the full, particularly in respect of the music which is very evocative and expresses the atmosphere of the Rapture club with a sense of realism without which would have rendered the drama very flat.

Episode one is very well structured. It features the Doctor giving in to Ace's desire to have some time off from their travels, which naturally leads her to the Rapture, but it is structured well because it reflects the relaxed side of Ibiza leading to the frenzied atmosphere of the club where its revellers are entranced by the music in a kind of crescendo which reaches breaking point at the excellent cliffhanger to the episode. Unfortunately the momentum gained during this opening episode isn't carried through into the second which rather than progressing the main plot in the normal way, almost sidesteps this to focus on exploring the characters introduced so far. While this is done well, particularly in the case of probing the relationship between Ace and Liam and also Caitriona's state of mind, the lack of substantive development to the overreaching main elements of the story is very telling and the sudden onrush of angst, which positively flows, blackens the mood instantly, giving it a very New Adventures style feel.

The final episodes both pick up the pace again as the Doctor's investigation into what's happening kicks in properly. Both of these are well timed with the revelations about the plot coming at the right moments to sustain interest, although Lidster's script does show some naivety in its final episode where the twist is obvious purely due to the fact that it would be unlikely that the story would resolve itself within only a few minutes of the episode opening, and it's a little disappointing that the Seventh Doctor falls so easily for this.

One of the most noticeable things about the script is the unusual approach to changing between scenes, which consists of cutting between them very quickly, often utilising the previous scenes dialogue to begin the next one. This helps to establish a certain ambience particularly apposite for this drama, but does come across as a little disorientating and disconcerting at times, as sometimes it isn't always obvious that the scene has moved on. Lidster introduces the premise of the story well, teasing the listener with a pre-theme music introduction by special guest star Tony Blackburn (who plays himself here) that explains the set-up without making it seem like clear exposition.

The greatest failing of the script though is in what the whole story of The Rapture is primarily about. The idea of angels arriving to save the sinners of Ibiza through the power of music is an intriguing one, but it comes as a disappointment when their true origin is revealed, as it's the sort of thing that has been done countless times before in Doctor Who and in a story which feels so unusual and fresh through its inventiveness, this jars quite badly.

One of the most significant recurring themes within The Rapture is the lengths individuals will go to for release from the mundane and how this should be confronted. The music featured is part of this as Lidster shows how revellers use the music as a release from themselves and their lives and ties it in nicely with the idea of someone manipulating this to their own ends. He shows how other people use different methods to achieve this as well. Ace uses her travels within the TARDIS as a way of escaping her humdrum life from before hand, and the idea that Kurtz's death in Colditz taking place within the TARDIS forced her to confront this adds credence and a degree of plausibility to her decision to mature herself.

In regard to the Doctor, Lidster chooses to deploy him sparingly, which has a two-fold effect. Firstly that Sylvester McCoy seems to disappear for long periods of the story, but it also reinforces the sense that The Rapture is tapping into the style of the New Adventures novels, which for many encapsulated the peak of the growth and development that this particular Doctor was capable of. By keeping him in the background, Lidster restores some of the mystery which has perhaps been lacking in some of the Seventh Doctor's other Big Finish outings.

The fact that Sylvester McCoy seems detached from the story is conspicuous through his long absences from the drama. By leaving the Seventh Doctor in the background, it allows the other characters to take centre stage, particularly Ace, but it is vaguely unsatisfying. In Doctor Who prose, the Seventh Doctor is proven to be more potent and compelling when working behind the scenes as the master manipulator, but it seems a shame when you have Sylvester McCoy in the flesh to enact him to take the same approach as it's much more noticeable. McCoy is on good form though as he seems to relish the task of making the Doctor slightly more mysterious than usual, and is particularly effective during the story's conclusion. His acting is quite restrained and relaxed and this gives the impression that McCoy enjoyed acting within the story.

At the end of Ace's last appearance in the Big Finish range, Steve Lyons' Colditz, she witnessed the horrific death of a German guard and it shook her so much that she resolved that it was time to 'grow up' and from now on she would be called McShane, although as the Doctor shows throughout this story, thinking of her as anything but Ace is likely to prove difficult. At the time this development was needed, but felt out of place within the context of Colditz. In The Rapture, Ace's attempts to grow up are very much prominently linked to the central theme of confronting reality, and in this respect Lidster succeeds at adding plausibility to her reasons for making the change. The idea that Ace has a brother is an intriguing possibility that Lidster uses to achieve some very potent drama throughout the story, and it is worked in very plausibly, giving the story some of its most touching scenes and serves to prolong Ace's development at the same time through facing her own past.

I've been critical of Sophie Aldred in the past for her propensity to overact scenes by shouting her way through emotionally charged ones rather than demonstrating true depth within her performances. She has shown previously that she can act well, most notably in The Curse Of Fenric on television and The Fearmonger on audio, but those were definitely the exceptions. Happily she's in good form with this story and the development that Ace has been afforded here seems to suit Aldred as she delivers her most composed and enjoyable performance since The Fearmonger. In the emotional scenes with David John's character Liam, she conveys Ace's feelings convincingly and achieves a poignancy which more than justifies the decision by Big Finish to mature her character. In many respects this is Ace's story, and so it's appropriate that she steals most of the scenes she's in. While it's an undoubtedly good performance from her, there are some aspects of it which aren't particularly convincing - especially her enthusiasm for joining the revellers at the Rapture which seems forced and unnatural.

There is a nice balance to the rest of the cast with all of them performing well in their respective roles. Matthew Brenher, in his third Doctor Who audio appearance, portrays one of the angels, Gabriel, very subtly and as a result there is a quiet menace about his character that contrasts with Neil Henry's Jude, the other angel, who is more on the edge. This facet of his character allows Henry to be more eccentric in his performance, which occasionally goes over the top. Between them they really create a sense of mystery about who they really are and why they have set the Rapture into motion. Spanish actor Carlos Riera plays local bar-owner Gustavo, an old friend of the Doctor's, and his presence in the cast reflects the fact there is more to Ibiza than just the club scene, and he expresses the dangers of their hedonistic lifestyle providing a counterpoint.

David John plays Liam competently, demonstrating both the depth of his feeling for his friend Caitriona and his troubled quest to find his sister with aplomb, and he conducts himself well during the scenes where Ace discovers the truth about him, which makes for an emotional scene. Anne Bird is mostly excellent as Caitriona, the manic-depressive who finds release from her troubles in a combination of drugs and music. She is particularly adept at conveying the confusion in her mind during the build up to the conclusion of the second episode in a drug-fuelled stupor. Completing the young revellers is Daniel Wilson, a regular in Big Finish's Tomorrow People range, who plays holiday rep Brian with the right degree of sensibility for him to make an affable impression as the sensible one of the trio.

Tony Blackburn portrays himself as he would be broadcasting from Ibiza, and while he doesn't feature as prominently as perhaps might have been expected, he effectively serves as the narrator of the story without actually really narrating. He offers an outside perspective on the events of the climatic finale and the fact that he is an actual DJ lends a real air of authenticity and colour to the story which wouldn't have been present with the same acuteness as if it were an actor playing the role which he takes.

With the setting being predominantly a club on Ibiza, the importance of the music for this story cannot be underestimated, and the choice of Jim Mortimore and Jane Elphinstone to compose the score was inspired. It fits the tone of the story superbly and given how crucial music is to the story's flow, it is a testament to their work how effective it is. Of particular note is the music in the run up to the cliffhanger of the first episode where it takes on an almost hypnotic quality which entrances the listener along with the characters that ensures the scene is conveyed with a dramatic power. Mortimore is also responsible for the sound design of the story and he excels here again within the scenes set inside the Rapture where the scope of the building and that there are hundreds of people inside is put across incredibly well. The scenes outside of the Rapture are not quite as well communicated though, but still serve as a dramatic contrast.

That said, there is one aspect of the music that becomes irksome quite quickly and that's the use of the theme music, which is presented here as a remixed dance version. In the introduction for the story, where Tony Blackburn introduces it as a tune "that we haven't heard in round about a month" as part of his radio show, it's very effective at setting the mood for the story and this version is cleverly worked in, but the continued use of this version throughout the other episodes of The Rapture is overkill, and the regular arrangement would have been preferable.

The Rapture is an imaginatively experimental release which doesn't quite come off as well as it might due to the fact that Lidster's script, while utilising the unusual ideas well, has at its heart a familiar concept which jars with the radical approach taken to the other elements. But there is lots of promise shown here which bodes well for both his forthcoming second script, Master, and for future Seventh Doctor and Ace stories, which will hopefully be able to expand even further the considerable development of Ace's character shown here.