The Monthly Adventures #067 - “Dreamtime" by Simon A. Forward

There is nothing more disappointing than when a story fumbles a good idea. Simon A. Forward’s previous story - the dull as granite The Sandman - had a fantastic concept behind it but ended up not being able to stick the landing and is to this date the most disappointed I’ve been with the premise of a story. His second attempt at the audios also happens to have a pretty neat idea surrounding it involving aboriginal legend and a ghostly city on the back on an asteroid. But Forward has already proved that he can’t operate off a good idea alone, so how is the execution of Dreamtime?

With new companion Hex aboard, the Doctor lands in the ruins of a huge city atop an asteroid, inexplicably built around an orphaned Uluru. But what is the secret of the standing stones throughout the empty city? And what exactly is the Dreaming?

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Something I thought Forward succeeded at before was his worldbuilding. The Galyari world of the Clutch was a detailed (if poorly conveyed) setting and the details we got about the species’ mythology and culture were by far my highlight of The Sandman. Now, looking at Dreamtime, I can once again say I am impressed by Forward’s skill at building up a setting and history. The use of aboriginal legend and imagery was an interesting and unique approach, though I can’t say whether or not it was particularly accurate given neither I nor Forward are aboriginal. However, I felt the murky, mysterious tone built up from the use of obscure mythology served greatly in building the story’s atmosphere.

And what an atmosphere that is. The central Uluru City, where our story takes place, is a wonderfully alien and surreal setting that I find is a lot more well realised than the Clutch was in The Sandman. The eerie vista of ruined buildings floating through space, populated by petrified citizens is a wonderfully evocative image that instantly had me hooked as our characters explore the desolate wasteland in the excellent first part. The story opened extremely well, nicely cluing us into an interesting mystery and introducing us to a number of characters smoothly. However I feel about the story after this, I think it's safe to call this a brilliant opener that expertly built up an atmosphere.

On top of this, I found Dreamtime to have some incredibly detailed sound design that frequently got under my skin. Especially when designing the antagonistic Dreaming - mixing a droning score and surreal aboriginal chanting - I found sound designer Steve Foxon’s audio landscape to be incredibly enthralling and even contributing greatly to a parading sense of horror, peaking in the scene when the Dreaming pretends to be the Doctor.

However, I find Simon A. Forward has a distinct problem when it comes to his stories that I feel is even worse here than in The Sandman, even if contained in a less dull story. The problem is that for all his deep, expansive ideas, Forward really doesn’t do so well at getting them across to the audience. I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure what this story was about. It flicks back and forth between past and present constantly, with intersecting timelines and paradoxes frequently being thrown together into a convoluted mess that I struggle to wrap my head around. Chief among my issues is that this script acts like I should know what the Dreaming is. Looking it up, it turns out the Dreaming is an actual aboriginal myth, which would be a cool idea to play off but Forward really doesn’t make this clear to the audience, just having every character act like it was a commonly known concept the world over.

Past the convoluted nature of the story, I think a couple of repeat problems from The Sandman rear their ugly heads. For one, pretty much the entire side cast was incredibly dull. They mostly felt like generic grunts there to pad out our numbers and deliver some handy exposition. It also didn’t help that the cast is pretty stilted all around. However, we do get the surprise return of some Galyaris, who I do find a lot more compelling but aren’t the focus of the story and whose agency is somewhat washed over by the ending. Speaking of, I find Dreamtime to be underwhelming in its conclusion. It basically boils down to the Doctor pushing some buttons until the weird traditions-made-sentient deity let's all the people it kidnapped go. Also, as I said, a minor subplot about the main Galyari trying to kill the spiritual leader holding the Dreaming back is basically just abandoned with the conclusion that Galyaris can’t attack birds so the magic guru man summons a Kookaburra into existence. It’s forced and cheapens what little tension there was before.

I also would like to address one scene that’s a little strange to me and others have pointed out, where the Doctor explains that the Dreaming attacked because the aboriginal population started betraying their traditions. All well and good except that the example the Doctor gives is that women were allowed to work in traditionally male roles. I’m going to err on the side of caution and say this could be trying to say that you should respect traditions and deculturalization is bad and not that womens’ rights cause the end of the world but it's a slightly awkward scene to sit through nonetheless. However, it’s still only one scene and doesn’t greatly impact my enjoyment or unenjoyment of the rest of the story.

Dreamtime certainly wasn’t as painfully dull and wasted as The Sandman was, but it shared in having convoluted ideas and a derivative cast of characters. However, it surpasses its predecessor with a far improved atmosphere and setting, both of which are wonderfully explored throughout the course of a somewhat mundane plot. Do I wish Forward had another attempt at writing for the Main Range? Maybe. He’s a man with some great ideas and a real skill at atmospheric worldbuilding and I could see one of his scripts being truly great if he put some work into clearing up his complex ideas a little.

6/10

Pros:

+ Great world building

+ Fantastic setting

+ Excellent first part

+ Good at building atmosphere

+ Wonderful sound design

Cons:

- Struggles to get its ideas across

- I honestly don’t know what happened in this story

- The ending felt rushed

- Poor cast