The Monthly Adventures #82 - "The Settling" by Simon Guerrier

When it comes to the pure historical, I’m really on the fence. On one hand, the focus on actual events and character work forced by lack of sci-fi shenanigans can really strengthen a story and lead to some of the most mature and intelligent material in Doctor Who but on the other hand I find they very often can be boring as sin. Already, fan favourites such as The Council of Nicaea have disappointed me and I was ready to call it quits when it came to untampered history. But along came Simon Guerrier, who has a real knack for this sort of story. And whilst it suffers from the same issues a lot of its peers do, I think Guerrier made a pretty damn good effort.

Arriving in one of the worst atrocities in Irish history, the Doctor, Ace and Hex are separated by the warfare, the latter getting taken in by none other than Oliver Cromwell. Faced with the opportunity, can Hex change a tyrant?

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

This is a story we’ve seen done before. Put back in time, faced with a moral dilemma, can we stop it, can we change it? It’s the usual and very often, I would groan at this but luckily, this is being written by one Simon Guerrier, who I consider a master at both story and character. One tactic he uses to set this morality tale apart from others of its kind is the structure; he begins the story after it’s already concluded, showing Hex and Ace talking over the events in the TARDIS. I really like this approach and it helps to strengthen the central aspect of this story: Hex. Hex is a companion who will go on to be one of my favourite characters in the mythos and The Settling is really the first time he gets to shine. Placed as a nurse in the middle of a battlefield, he’s shacked up with Cromwell and desperately tries to minimize casualties, only for it to backfire on him. Olivier is an absolute sensation in this one, he manages to go from charming to scared to angry to heartbreaking in a half second and he’s really the driving force behind this whole thing. What’s more, the relationship between him and Ace gets some fantastic development and the scenes with them in the TARDIS are written perfectly. Plus, this story interprets Seven in a way we honestly need more of, focusing less on the dark trickster aspect of his character but the clownish and caring personality that often took centre stage on the air. He isn’t plotting here or making grand schemes, he’s delivering a woman’s baby and making casual conversation with a medic. It’s an approach to the character sadly amiss in the EU.

Guerrier’s talents shine through in every aspect of this story. It’s a really intelligently written bit of fiction with a very understated style to it. It moves with a mature, thought provoking stoicism that really makes everything go down a bit easier. It’s a really good depiction of history, the sound effects and storytelling bring the 1600s to life and it doesn’t skirt around or simplify issues. People can die, people can be good and they can be bad and most can be in between. People can make mistakes and people can save the day, not everybody is one thing or the other.

The biggest contribution to this depth is our historical figure of the week: Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell is a very lambasted figure in history; he killed a lot of people and he is hated for that, quite rightly, but the truth of the matter is that he was a human being and was not purely an evil tyrant. I love when a historical takes this approach to history, when there isn’t a true antagonist, nobody’s truly evil or truly good. It was my favourite part of The Marian Conspiracy and it’s my favourite part of this, a great performance and a number of shades of grey really help Cromwell feel like an incredibly deep character.

However, I do consider The Settling to be one of Guerrier’s weaker stories for one specific reason: the plot isn’t particularly strong. I find this is a problem with a lot of stories, a loose plot is a real achilles heel for me. Guerrier is capable of some truly great narrative but The Settling feels very haphazard to me and a lot of things could be improved. For one, the actual scene to scene progression could be tightened a lot, there’s a pretty clumsy time jump in the middle and there’s not much cohesion between subplots. Like, you have Hex getting cozy with Cromwell right beside the Doctor having to care for a pregnant woman looking for her brother-in-law. On their own, these are two perfectly fine stories but they don’t really work together and the flow of the script is very jumpy; the pace is fast but the story takes place over weeks, it doesn’t gel.

And, due to the focus on our central cast, there is quite a large amount of dull soldiers filling out our roster of characters, most of whom I couldn’t tell apart. It made it increasingly confusing as more and more people with identical Irish or Old English accents popped up and I ended up losing track. I appreciate how good our central circle of characters is but it does mean everything else feels like cast fillers.

The Settling was a decent historical with some fantastic character work - in other words, Simon Guerrier’s modus operandi. Whilst I found the focus on character to be to the detriment of a lot of the other aspects, this was still a strong outing for this cast and a good time.

7/10

Pros:

+ 1600s Ireland is incredibly well realised

+ Hex gets some world class character development

+ An intelligent and well structured script

+ Cromwell is a wonderfully layered character

Cons:

- The cast is filled out by generic soldiers

- Very little actually happens in this story