MR 044: Creatures of Beauty

Excuse me, Nicholas Briggs wrote this one? What? That's wild. I don't associate him with good writing, but apparently he had it in him to be creative this once. Who knew? Good job Briggs.

This story is told out of order and feels rather experimental which is definitely the point. It's actually rather effective in this method of storytelling. The order in which events and details are revealed is very important here.

The story starts out with Nyssa being imprisoned after being roughed up by security, accussed of murder. To which, naturally, she insists she's innocent. We learn that a psychitrist has tried to examine her and thinks she might be telling the truth, to which the chief of police chews him out and later beats him up violently. It's an effective start because we're curious right away as to what is going on.

Then the second episode shifts to the Doctor having an encounter with a wealthy lady in a mansion. He has no idea what's going on, but neither does she know what's going on with him. So they're talking past each other while Nyssa gets arrested. This conversation is particularly interesting, especially when she ends it by saying "You saying you don't know what's going on is making me nervous." Which presumably and does indeed later lead to further interrogation.

We then learn that there was some sort of major ecological disaster here caused by an alien race called the Koteem. But we don't learn details about it until a little later. We do learn, however, that they're working with the lady in the manor, Lady Forleon. The security use this assumed murder as an excuse to investigate Lady Forleon's manor and what they find is shocking to them. Some sort of lab downstairs.

There's some scenes that are out of order here with the Doctor and Nyssa meeting the Koteem for the first time and then a scene with the Doctor and Lady Forleon's agents rescuing Nyssa from prison. The third episode ends on the actual ending where Nyssa asks if they made a difference. This was honestly a fantastic place to end the third episode because we get the full explanations in the last episode, naturally, so the musings are really interesting to us.

When Nyssa asks if the Doctor wanted to make a difference, The Doctor compares the universe to a painting that you don't want to look too closely at because all you'll see is brush strokes. Which is a rather sad way of seeing the world. He's getting older I guess. Too bad he has another two dozen incarnations to go, rip. When Nyssa asked him if that was why he originally left Gallifrey, to make a difference, he said "ah the folly of youth." Ok old man, get off my lawn.

The fourth episode actually begins with the beginning of the story, with the Doctor and Nyssa in the TARDIS. As it turns out, the real enemy was capitalism all along, as it always is. The Koteem had, a century ago, created energy out of a rather dangerous type of radiation, but it killed their world. So they eventually reversed course. The problem was they had all this radiation they had to get rid of, so they were allowed to dump it in uninhabited parts of space. They just weren't allowed to carry their dump trucks through inhabited areas. The people in charge didn't really mind, though, if they went through an inhabited system because it was cheaper on fuel. They would look the other way. Unfortunately there was an accident in orbit over this planet, leaving everyone hit with radiation sickness that killed them slowly and made them severely malformed. Which is why they hate the Koteem now and see everything happening as a potential Koteem agent. This paranoia makes sense after what they've been through.

The Koteem are working with Lady Forleon to create an entirely new species. They can't cure the disease, but they can put their essence into people. Which is rather bizare, but it works. The important thing is that it's the only way to save both species because they're both dying. It's kind of a wild solution, and both governments think so. These Koteem are rogue agents. It's an "everyone is right" situation. These rogue Koteem are right for trying to save everyone even if it means combining both species. And these security are right to be paranoid about Koteem incursions after the horror the Koteem inflicted on them in the name of cutting costs. That said, saving both species is certainly "more right" by my count.

That's what the "murder" was with Nyssa. She didn't murder anyone. Someone who was getting the Koteem insertion violently rejected the procedure. And then right in front of Nyssa she stabbed herself to death repeatedly trying to get the Koteem out. Which is, you know, horrifying to witness. Nyssa should be scared for life now. Not that we're going to mention this again, but hey we can hope for character development. Who am I kidding. We never mention her planet or father's death ever again after all.

The big reveal at the end is what recontexualizes everything. So at the beginning of the story the TARDIS was malfunctioning, the Doctor materialized it in space in an area where people weren't allowed to travel, over this planet. Just as the dump truck was coming through. They had made their hold weaker to travel faster, or some such, just in time for the TARDIS to hit them and then get pushed a century forward in time. So the Doctor and Nyssa were absolutely vitally important in what happened here, in causing this to happen. And it pretty expertly ends on the Doctor saying "I don't think we made any difference at all" when he partially caused it in the first place! It's kind of f**ked and feels careless as hell, but it makes for a chilling ending.

This Doctor is absolutely perfect for this script too. This is the Doctor that does nothing and is passive and observes the stories he is in. That's actually perfect for the ideas in this script. He's just dragged along for the ride because Nyssa got arrested and we get to see the devestation caused by that initial accident through him and Nyssa. It's also perfect because he's partially to blame for what happened by doing what he does. Not getting involved, just observing. More importantly, carelessness. It's a rare Fifth Doctor W. The audio I mean, not the actions. Obviously it's an L for his actions. But the audio itself is fantastic. I'm really surprised Nick Briggs had it in him.

This is an intriguing story from start to finish and pretty dark in its subject matter. It feels hopeless, like nothing could really change or get better because of the destruction of Lady Forleon's lab, and it's made all the more hopeless by the Doctor's own actions. What really makes it work, though, is the way it's out of order and the order in which those events are told. If that ending was at the beginning it would change the entire way we listened to the story, as would putting the scenes together in order in general. It's much stronger as it is, I think. Well done.