The Monthly Adventures #87 - "The Gathering" by Joseph Lidster

As The Monthly Adventures moved past the number fifty mark, it began to lose some of the experimentation that so defined its original run. But as we near our next milestone, we begin to see a different kind of trail blazing. The Main Range really began to play around with format from this point on; some changes stuck - like the anthology releases - and some didn’t. And then there’s this two part adventure from Joe Lidster, who begins his story with the heart wrenching The Reaping and then continues to absolutely destroy my feelings with his follow up, The Gathering. But does this experiment work?

Tracing a strange pattern through time, the Doctor finds himself in mid-2000s Brisbane, where he runs into his old companion, Tegan Jovanka. Tegan’s moved on with her life, but it hasn’t moved on with her. The Doctor’s up against a familiar face, only he hasn’t met her yet.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Joe, my guy, could you do me a favour and write a story that doesn’t absolutely destroy me for once? Our themes of life and death are carried on from The Reaping, and Lidster does not give you a single second to recover. The central dynamic of this story revolves around Five and Tegan and like with Peri in the previous story, Lidster works his magic on them. A question I often see raised about the companions is what happens after they leave? How do you carry on with your life, how do you settle down after such an experience? It’s been explored dozens of times, some better, some worse, but I can’t think of anybody more capable of doing it than Lidster. And of course, the interpretation he gives us is tragic as anything. His use of down to earth characters really excels here as he explores the nature of a simple but content life and settling down, Tegan’s humdrum existence is a very relatable image. I like the unglamourised portrayal, I like that it’s not 100% good or bad; this is what real life is like, without the childlike whimsy of Doctor Who, this is the real world, for better or for worse. And then Tegan gets cancer. On paper, this shouldn’t work, it sounds too forced or too sad for this show, but it’s executed really well. I love Tegan’s acceptance of it, I like how it symbolises the hard truths of life Lidster is trying to portray. Sometimes, tragic things happen, and we are unable to stop it. I’m not fully on board with the reveal that the tumor was caused by her time aboard the TARDIS because it kind of takes away from the message about moving on and living in the real world, but it was minor.

If The Reaping was about grief and the suddenness of death, The Gathering is about acceptance and moving on, and I think it’s done brilliantly. Tying into this is our villain - the returning Katherine Chambers, utilising cyber technology to try and save her dying brother. The idea of having a side character turn into the main villain is pretty good on its own but tie in the parallels to Mondas and the connection to themes about letting go of the past and she becomes an incredibly tragic villain. We still have a crazy psychopath with her accomplice - James - but it’s nice to have a morally grey antagonist with some real nuance and realism to them. I don’t particularly love the rest of the sidecast - Jodi feels like a plot device and Michael is sympathetic but kind of bland - but I should shout out Tegan and Five, who both get fantastic performances that really complete the story.

And the story itself, whilst not fantastic, has some nice bells and whistles to it. It’s not quite as grim as some other Lidster stories but like all of his scripts, I loved every scene of character development, which is good because that makes up the entire first half of our story. In fact, the first part has a pretty neat structure to it, told non-linearly and framed by a conversation between Kathy and a particularly chatty waiter. It’s really fun seeing everything slot into place and erupt at the end of Part One. However, this structure does have a few issues to it. For one, I think the pacing is off. Basically, this is a two part story, the first part is set up and the second part is action. Both are fine on their own but it feels like going from 0 to 100. Also doesn’t help that I didn’t feel that invested in the story. I loved the themes, I loved the development, but what was actually happening didn’t exactly leave me on the edge of my seat. And what’s more, there wasn’t much tension. Jodi going into the building to disable the cameras was a little nail-biting but it’s blindingly obvious where it’s going.

And finally, we should talk about that gimmick; does the two part story work? Not really. Whilst the thematic link is super strong, the actual stories really don’t. You could very easily remove all the links to The Reaping and have this be entirely stand alone, which I feel means this doesn’t really deliver on its previous episode. Also, the conclusion to the whole pattern thing is super dumb and feels entirely arbitrary.

The Gathering wasn’t quite as good as The Reaping for me, purely because of a less engaging story, but it was still an emotionally devastating rollercoaster. There are bits and pieces that could be tightened, sure, but the themes and subject matter are all on point. This is an incredible moral allegory that is expertly tied into the characters, absolutely expected of Joseph Lidster. Whilst its existence as a duology could’ve been better utilised, I really like these two stories, even with their imperfections.

8/10

Pros:

+ Builds excellently on Tegan

+ Really great analysis on companions

+ Interesting non-linear structure

+ Katherine makes for a tragic villain

Cons:

- Poorly paced

- Lacking in a lot of tension

- The links to The Reaping are poorly handled