The 8th Doctor Adventures #1.3 - “Horror of Glam Rock” by Paul Magrs

Paul Magrs is an enigma to me. One of Who’s “weird” writers, he’s known for his eccentric style and characters such as Iris Wildthyme or fully just himself but having now listened to a good handful of his stories, I find it really hard to pin him down. I think the reason he’s so good is he doesn’t rely on his style and can depart from it at will, with only this vague, marauding idiosyncrasy following him about. Whilst I’ve yet to experience what’s considered his best works, I think he is slowly rising in my estimations and Horror of Glam Rock goes to show that past the double decker busses and glitter, he can write a pretty damn good episode of Doctor Who.

Trapped in a besieged truck stop, the Doctor and Lucie find themselves contending with ravenous beasts from beyond the stars, a strange connection to one of their futures and glam rockers.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

There are some episodes that are great, some that are bad, some that are so-so, and then there’s the hidden fourth category: episodes that are just solid. Not blow you away incredible, but good, and something you’ll leave feeling fulfilled. Horror of Glam Rock is the poster child of this for me, taking from the classic base under siege genre and writing a good, decent episode of Doctor Who, complete with all the bells and whistles that made episodes like Under the Lake, or this story’s namesake, Horror of Fang Rock so enjoyable. 

I feel like a make or break element for such a self contained story is cast and by god, Horror of Glam Rock excels in this department. Each member of the diner, from up and coming glam rock duo The Tomorrow Twins to Lucie’s aunt Pat, here years before Lucie’s birth, is great with the selfish talent manager Arnold Korns, played delightfully by Bernard Cribbins a few years before his debut as the wonderful Wilf, at the top of my estimations. Every cast member, including our leads are brilliant here though I do feel the need to mention Schroedinger’s roadies; the diner is apparently populated by a good number of people but we’re only told this through dialogue, with little in the way of sound effects to denote their presence. It’s not story breaking but it's a weird detail that kept tripping me up.

The only characters I had any kind of problem with really were the Doctor and Lucie themselves, who seemed to have had some stories between this and Blood of the Daleks because they've gone from at each other's throats to good chums really quickly. It's a shame because I really dig McGann and Smith's chemistry but from this it feels like they're not really going to grow together and will just end up as best friends without really earning it.

If I had to pin down the best part of this episode though, I think it’s the simple fact that it works. It’s well paced, it’s tense, it’s got a good mystery and set up, there’s nothing here that particularly fails the episode and I think a script that can do its job and do it well is already a pretty stellar effort. On top of that, we have Magrs’ subtlest skills on full display. I think, as a writer, Magrs excels specifically in one category: tone. There’s such a lively, electric energy to this script, to the point where I think it would fit in well with the revival era. The characters are bright but ordinary and the story is delightful but not eccentric. Sometimes, this can come round to bite him, what with the surprisingly small reaction to multiple characters being brutally ripped apart, but on the whole it really elevates the whole episode.

My thoughts, however, might be tarnished by the subject matter. As it happens, glam rock is a favourite genre of mine, Bowie being my favourite musical artist to ever exist, and I think Horror of Glam Rock works tremendously as an homage to the genre, complete with a half decent original song and a glitzy remix of the classic theme for the end credits.

And despite the praise I’ve levelled at this story, I do have some issues, mostly stemming from the third act. Once we begin to edge towards the conclusion, the actual plot begins to slow down and a lot of its ideas fail to come to fruition. It also seems to keep changing direction, for instance, there’s a pretty dark moment where Arnold, selfishly trying to escape, gets one half of the Tomorrow Twins killed. This is a nice payoff to this character and neatly leads into the climax, being the turning point of the story. However, Magrs then decides to try and redeem Arnold, which just doesn’t work, especially minutes after he caused the brutal dismemberment of a young woman. Not only that, but he then goes off with her traumatised brother, who’s apparently forgiven him for the whole getting his sister killed thing. It’s just little moments like this that bring the climax down for me and it makes it feel like the story just ran out of momentum.

It also doesn’t help that our antagonists are pretty terrible. I like the use of the stylophone to communicate with them and the idea of an alien using Earth as a truck stop, pulling over to get a bite to eat and feasting on the population, is a fun parallel with the story’s setting. However, they’re mostly brought down by the pretty terrible voice acting, which is just the same person playing the Headhunter but pitch shifted into oblivion. Also, they’re defeated by pressing a button, so all in all, they just seem a little pathetic.

You can’t ask for much more than this with a base under siege. Whilst I think the climax is a let down, Horror of Glam Rock is a brilliantly fun episode written by one of Who’s most talented creative forces, armed with a triple threat of a great cast, tone and story. I have to say, this has sold me on the 8DAs; the throughlines involving Lucie’s lost memories, this headhunter character and I presume Lucie’s aunt are all brilliantly intriguing and whilst the first three (or two maybe) stories haven’t blown me away, they’ve been enough to get me excited. I am very much looking forward to what comes next.

7/10

Pros:

+ Great cast

+ Good, tense base under siege

+ Tonally fantastic

+ Nice homage to glam rock

Cons:

- Doesn’t execute a lot of its ideas well

- The Only Ones were annoyingly voiced

- Loses steam as it goes on

- The Doctor and Lucie's relationship jumps a stage