The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

"For the unity between the Church and the Crown to survive this night, the madness must stop!"

The dramatically titled The Church And The Crown sees the return of the writing team of Cavan Scott and Mark Wright to Big Finish's Doctor Who audio line with a very different story to their debut, the dark Project: Twilight. It also has the distinction of being the first story to follow up last year's The Eye Of The Scorpion which introduced the Fifth Doctor's newest companion, former Egyptian Pharaoh Erimem, played by Caroline Morris to the listening audience.

From the moment the first episode begins, as two of the King's Musketeers find themselves confronted by a mob of the Cardinal's Guards it's readily apparent that The Church And The Crown is intended as a rip-roaring, swashbuckling adventure. Given the brutality of the writers' previous story, it was difficult to conceive how they would tackle a much more unashamedly 'fun' story but after hearing it, the answer is with style and panache leading to a supremely confident and entertaining escapade.

Despite the early success of stories such as The Marian Conspiracy and The Fires Of Vulcan, Big Finish has tended to shy away from purely historical stories, preferring the much more familiar realm of the pseudo-historicals instead. With The Church And The Crown this is redressed with a trip to Seventeenth Century Paris where the peace is threatened by deep divisions between Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIII, demonstrated concisely by the underlying tension of their chess game in the first scene they appear in, and no alien invaders waiting to turn up either. The historical context really gives this drama a fresh feel which is helped by the fact that the production is steeped in atmosphere from its sound design to Russell Stone's music and the richness of its performances. Director Gary Russell wisely elects not to let the cast attempt French accents but encourages them into delivering spirited performances and the sense of fun that the script possesses in abundance pervades its way into their acting with the result a joy to hear.

The plot itself revolves around the breakdown of the relationship between Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis, and how the country has become divided between the two factions that they represent, namely the Church and the Crown, giving the story's title far more dramatic impact than its original title of The Swashbucklers. While there are echoes of 1973's Doctor Who story Frontier In Space in the crux of the plot, Scott and Wright take the basic premise of two sides manipulated into battle by an outside source and weave it into a twisting and exciting tale full of adventure, deceit and sword-fighting! History is all a matter of interpretation and here Scott and Wright give an interesting spin on the period in question with the historical figures not fitting exactly into their traditional roles within the story, which subverts expectations of how they will act. The best example of this is Richelieu, who is portrayed as a principled man determined to stand up for the France he believes in at any cost, rather than a devious plotter out to challenge and garner power for himself as he so often is depicted. This gives the play an extra layer of mystery as there are plenty of candidates who could be the play's overall villain and prolongs the suspense as our heroes race to discover the truth before it's too late.

The Church And The Crown is impeccably paced with the first episode in particular introducing the elements of the mystery at the centre of the plot incredibly shrewdly, and while the surprise at this episode's cliffhanger may be hinted at a little too much, it's still surprisingly effective even if it's expected. Little time is wasted and given the tightness of the plotting the story has almost no padding and most scenes advance the plot in someway. Scott and Wright admit their influence from The Three Musketeers in their 'Author's Notes' section of the CD's booklet, and some of the conventions of this type of swashbuckling story feature here - most notably the Doctor's first meeting with the story's hero Musketeers causing misunderstanding which leads, inevitably, to a challenge to a duel. The best thing about the script though is definitely the dialogue which is sparkling and drives the story forward. The authors' approach is to make the story very light-hearted, but with a serious edge underneath making this hugely entertaining and also allowing them to throw in a massive amount of witty one-liners which contribute to the sense of fun this story possesses in profuse amounts whilst still having enough weighty scenes for good drama to happen too.

Peter Davison continues the fine run of performances he's been delivering in his audios recently with an assured display that shows him on top form. His performance is very much energised by the humour in the script which gives him an opportunity to show both his comedic skills and his Doctor's harder side too. The fact that he seems to have really enjoyed himself during the recording of the play is evident as it shows through his display. While the fact that the Fifth Doctor now finds himself with two travelling companions gives this story a common element with his television stories, in that the vast majority of them saw him travelling with more than just one person, the difference is quite astounding because there is no trace of the bickering and petulance that tended to dominate these crowded TARDIS stories and for once there is a truly harmonious atmosphere aboard which Davison really seems to appreciate.

While the last Fifth Doctor and Peri story was notable for the fact that it deliberately gave Peri a larger role in the story than usual, The Church And The Crown similarly gives Nicola Bryant a more weighty role in that she gets to play an unannounced second part, and an important one at that, in the form of Queen Anne. The fact that Bryant uses an American accent to play Peri makes this plausible as she can use her regular voice for the Queen making both characters sound distinct and separate, which is emphasised clearly by the differences in the characters afforded by the script. While her performance as Peri is very good, it's as Queen Anne that she garners the most attention as she gets to show a wealth of emotions, mainly against King Louis. In particular one scene where he enters her chamber against her wishes, the anger that Bryant demonstrates is so powerful that it's something you could never imagine her achieving when playing Peri that this is a prime example of the versatility of her acting.

As the first story for Erimem as a companion proper, Scott and Wright have the task of both reminding the listener who she is, particularly given that it's well over a year since her debut story, and to begin to expand and develop her character. In both these aspects the writers succeed but it's the development where Erimem really begins to shine as combined with Caroline Morris' bright and vigorous performance, which infuses her scenes with an infectious energy, there is a great sense of the depth of her character and given her natural likeability she quickly endears herself not only to the Doctor and Peri, but also to the listener. There's a wonderful scene towards the end of part one where the Doctor is telling Erimem how envious he is that she's sampling all the new experiences of time travel for the first time, but she turns it around to say that she envies his and Peri's ability to take the change in their stride. Her sense of amazement at something as simple as a glass windowpane is beautifully conveyed by Morris who also gets to show the more devious side of a former Egyptian Pharaoh whether it's in battle or in using her deeply instilled supreme confidence in herself to fool the King of France into believing he's met her before. In the Doctor Who television series, there was a tendency for companions with a historical background to have these brushed over and thus their viewpoint becomes closer to what the contemporary companions had anyway. With this story, Scott and Wright make sure they keep Erimem's Egyptian background firmly in mind while writing for her character which helps to cement the impact she makes with this appearance as it shows she continues to hold the views of her civilisation which haven't been watered down to make her attitude in certain matters more palatable. Erimem's arrival also significantly alters the dynamic of the TARDIS team, in a good way. There is a warmth to the banter between her, Peri and the Doctor, which was often missing from the frequently crowded TARDIS of Peter Davison's time on television, that shows they enjoy travelling with each other and want it to continue. If Caroline Morris can continue to perform as well as she does here in her future stories, and if there is a greater frequency to the release of stories featuring her character, I have no doubt she will eventually become as popular as Big Finish's other original companions, Evelyn Smythe and Charley Pollard.

At the centre of the story are the differing characters of Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis, both of whom are brilliantly realised by Michael Shallard and Andrew MacKay respectively. Shallard develops Richelieu into an individual the listener can almost empathise with as he shows real passion as he strives to achieve what's best for France, irrespective of whether his King approves or not. The sense of frustration he feels at Louis' indifference to the plight of their people as events of the story unfold is palpably played by Shallard, who also gets to show Richelieu's steel and ruthlessness as his conflict with Louis reaches its most serious point. MacKay is superb as King Louis giving him both a regal bearing yet demonstrating his petulance and arrogance with perfect clarity, typified by the one-upmanship that dominates his relationship with Richelieu and the manner which he treats Queen Anne. MacKay's performance begins subtly but as events escalate significantly, he becomes almost a force of nature with Louis' instability really showing through well.

In a play where there are so many good performances, the ones that perhaps standout the most are those of Peter John and Andy Coleman as the two Musketeers, Delmarre and Rouffet. Doctor Who has often had successful double-act guest characters throughout its history and these two provide The Church And The Crown with some of its finest moments. John's deep tones give him the edge of experience that the script requires from Delmarre and he is very convincing as the confident Musketeer who's seen it all before while Coleman's Rouffet is obviously a more youthful one but still skilled in the art of combat. Both actors strike up an immediate rapport with each other which makes their scenes together all the more effective and while there is a kind of arrogant swagger about them, these King's Musketeers come across very favourably.

Marcus Hutton depicts the Duke Of Buckingham as a very malicious and cunning individual, but it's also balanced against a sense that he's a character on the edge too, ably shown by the paranoia his suspicion of the Doctor incites. He has confidence in his own abilities to achieve his goals at any cost, but Hutton conveys Buckingham's overconfidence perfectly. Robert Curbishely's Captain Morand of the Cardinal's Guards provides a good counterpoint to the jollity of the story's Musketeers by representing their opposing force and showing why there is the antagonism between the two groups. Wendy Albiston is perhaps the only slightly disappointing member of the cast. While her character, Madame De Chevreuse, is set up as a seductive manipulator and spy, Albiston doesn't really inject the sensuality needed to convey this successfully and despite a good scene where she tries to tempt the Queen with the possibilities if the King was to be disposed of, her performance here is slightly forgettable.

It's a credit to Gareth Jenkins' sound design that the sword fights sound as convincing as they do here. While the script ensures that in the best tradition of the genre the fighters are insulting each other as they duel for the most part, the fact that there are battles of a grander scale later in the audio are really effectively conveyed. The Church And The Crown also has an unusual atmosphere throughout which Jenkins' sound work creates and Russell Stone's score emphasises. Stone chooses to underplay the French influences making the score evocative without being overblown and the finished piece effectively matches the tone of the drama on the whole. In particular the music for the story's final battle during episode four is very fitting as it's both dramatic and awe inspiring.

There is much to enjoy in The Church And The Crown, whether it's the delightful performances of the cast or the marvellously memorable dialogue. What's more, it proves once again just how versatile the concept of Doctor Who can be by showing that while it can be serious, dramatic, horrifying it can also be incredibly fun and that's the overriding impression The Church And The Crown makes - wonderful entertainment.