Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#089. No Man’s Land ~ 10/10

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◆ An Introduction

It genuinely surprises me how little focus the First World War seems to get in fiction. Speaking as someone who spent a lot of their childhood staying up far too late playing first-person shooters, the games industry has only very recently stepped further back in time to showcase the conflict with Kaiser Wilhelm II.

There had never been a conflict quite like the Great War, with many soldiers suffering from what was once known as Shell Shock, and hoping to be injured enough to go back home. But things are a lot more sinister at Charnage Hospital, as the TARDIS team are about to find out…

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◆ Publisher’s Summary

It is 1917 and the Doctor, Hex and Ace find themselves in a military hospital in northern France. But the terrifying, relentless brutality of the Great War that wages only a few miles away is the least of their concerns.

The travellers become metaphysical detectives when the Doctor receives orders to investigate a murder. A murder that has yet to be committed...

Who will be the victim? Who will be the murderer? What is the real purpose of the Hate Room? Can the Doctor solve the mystery before the simmering hate and anger at Charnage hospital erupts into a frenzy of violence?

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◆ The Seventh Doctor

This is the last review I’m writing for this TARDIS team for quite a while, and what a way to end my Seventh Doctor marathon. ‘No Man’s Land’ sees Sylvester McCoy slipping into investigative territory, as he grills the other characters on the murder yet to happen. It’s a marvellous performance.

The Doctor doesn’t appear to have a pulse, because of some sort of emergency shutdown system Time Lords have. He tells Private Taylor that a soldier without a moral compass to guide him is one of the most frightening things in the world. He’s faced more firing squads than Brook has had lukewarm dinners. The Doctor found a letter in Brook’s office that confirmed his worst suspicions… that the Forge was behind everything that happened at Charnage Hospital!

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◆ Ace

‘No Man’s Land’ is yet another opportunity for Sophie Aldred to deliver a brilliant performance, despite getting the least amount to do out of our three protagonists.

Ace isn’t sure if it was a shell or a mine that got them, but she didn’t hang around to check… she was to busy flying through the air! She did First World War poetry at school; Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.

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◆ Hex

Following on from his masterful performance in ‘The Settling’, Philip Olivier continues to flourish as a performer. He gets some of the strongest material in ‘No Man’s Land’ and really does it justice.

Hex didn’t just do the poetry at school, he learnt the facts of World War One; four years, eight million people killed. It’s clear that the atrocities he saw at Drogheda are still weighing heavily on his mind. There are guys younger than him out there in the trenches, thousands of them will never get home. He couldn’t do what they’re doing. Hex isn’t on anyone’s side, which merits him being called a coward by Sergeant Wood… who proceeds to leave him in the Hate Room overnight! He has no idea what happened to his mother, because his dad never talked about it (he’s gonna have quite the shock come ‘Project: Destiny’).

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◆ Story Recap

After nearly being blown to kingdom come by artillery fire, the TARDIS team regain consciousness inside a military hospital in northern France, where they receive orders to investigate a murder that hasn’t happened yet. Unfortunately, this is the least of their worries.

Charnage Hospital is filled with battle-scared troops, suffering from both physical and mental afflictions, but someone is attempting to turn them into the ultimate killers. The Hate Room is specially designed to heighten the soldiers emotional response, to make them single-minded and obsessed with eliminating the Boche.

The Doctor’s day is about to get a whole lot worse though, when he discovers who the true masterminds of this immoral experiment are.

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◆ The Daily Hate

‘No Man’s Land’ appears to have a really mixed reputation amongst the fandom, which genuinely shocked me. I understand that slow-burning adventures aren’t for everyone, but anyone who has read my reviews will know that they hold a special place in my heart.

This whole story revolves around an event carried out at the hospital known as “the Daily Hate” - the Lieutenant-Colonel likes to remind the troops of who the enemy are to keep them focused, listening to recordings of racist propaganda whilst they are forced to fire blank rounds at dummies dressed up like German soldiers. The idea being that he can turn them into killers fuelled on nothing but hatred; a battalion of well-trained berserker troops to clear out the enemy. It’s brainwashing in a nut-shell.

Hex claims that the soldiers who have went through the Hate Room end up no better than the Cybermen, but I think that it would be more accurate to compare them to Daleks – all emotions suppressed or eradicated, all barn pure hatred! It’s a really interesting idea, and Martin Day executes it really well.

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◆ Unhinged Experiments

This entire operation is being supervised by the hospital’s commanding officer, and he is a brilliant bad guy. Lieutenant-Colonel Brook is an incredibly driven soldier and clearly quite patriotic. He’s incredibly manipulative too, taking full advantage of the death of Private Taylor’s friend to rile him up, to make him even more angry at what the Germans are doing to their side in the war.

Towards the end of the story, Brook even admits that he’s making it up as he goes along; testing the psyches of his soldiers to see which ones crack under pressure and which hold up. Ladies and gentlemen, what a total head-case!

It is worth mentioning that Brook’s entire operation at this military field hospital was set up by the Forge. Hardcore BigFinish fans will be aware that Hex is in fact the son of Cassie Schofield. She was a friend to the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn, who sadly got infected with the Twilight virus whilst working at the Dusk Casino. Before she could be cured, she was shot dead by the Forge’s enigmatic leader; Nimrod. The choice to have the Forge be responsible for the events of this story makes it feel like we’re on the edge of a story arc. Pretty soon, Hex is going to find out the truth of what happened to his mother… and how the Doctor was there to witness it!

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◆ Sound Design

A field hospital only a few miles away from the front lines, where psychological experiments are being carried out by a member of the Forge. Simon Robinson does an astoundingly good job with the sound design for this release, with the Hate Room being a particular highlight.

We open the adventure with soldiers chanting “Die! Die! Die!” as they take part in the Morning Hate, before opening fire on the dummy soldiers. Crackling music from the turn of the century plays on Brook’s phonograph. We get a proper glimpse of the Hate Room when it’s being shown to Captain Dudgeon; soldiers all angrily declaring how they’ll kill the Bosch, whilst a recording of Hindenburg plays in the background. Private Taylor clicks away at his military grade typewriter, writing a letter to his girl back home. Buzzing electrodes, as Hex is subjected to torture inside the Hate Room. Rain pours down, as Ace and Hex squelch through the muddy wastes of no man’s land. A biplane flies over no man’s land, whilst soldiers take pot shots at both it and the Doctor’s companions. A shattering window, as the Doctor and Private Taylor leap out of Brook’s first floor office. The rumbling engine of a Triumph motorbike, as the Doctor and Taylor flee Charnage Hospital.

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◆ Music

Simon Robinson is also handling the score for ‘No Man’s Land’, which is wildly different to any of his previous compositions. Harsh and industrial, this really shouldn’t work as well as it does.

I’m reminded of ‘The Haunting of Thomas Brewster’, another adventure with an incredibly odd score that actually works really well.

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◆ Conclusion

“Each German death brings us one step closer to finishing this business off!”

‘No Man’s Land’ is going to be my last Seventh Doctor review for a while, because I’ve been marathoning his adventures for over a month now and don’t want to get burnt out, but what a tremendous story to end my marathon on.

The idea of mental conditioning has already been explored in my absolute favourite Seventh Doctor story, ‘Red’ by Stewart Sheargold, but this adventure offers a really fun take on the topic. You literally have the main villain subjecting injured soldiers to recordings of British civilians being murdered whilst German officials chant orders, all to increase their hatred for the enemy and turn them into single-minded homicidal nut-cases.

Speaking of our main villain, Michael Cochrane is absolutely the highlight of ‘No Man’s Land’. Lieutenant-Colonel Brook can seem quite sane and patriotic one moment, and become a ranting and raving lunatic the next… but he has you hanging on his every word.

I’d also like to do something I rarely-if-ever do in these reviews, and draw your attention to the covert artwork for this story. This burnt orange image is absolutely gorgeous, and McCoy looks royally miffed too.

‘No Man’s Land’ certainly seems a lot more divisive than I first thought it would be, but I highly recommend giving it a listen.