The Monthly Adventures #013 - "The Shadow of the Scourge" by Paul Cornell

The Shadow of the Scourge is a very interesting entry of The Monthly Adventures - the first of three “side steps” (stories featuring characters from the books and comics), this one written by Paul Cornell, my second favourite Who writer beaten only by Rob Shearman. Featuring one of my favourite TARDIS teams, with an interesting premise and a unique place in canon, it’s needless to say that I was very excited to listen to it. But did it land? And could it live up to the legacy of the VNAs?

In a luxury hotel in Kent, a group of fanatical religious types, investors of a time experiment and the annual cross-stitching convention converge at the invasion and feast of deadly alien menace The Scourge, who the Doctor is seemingly powerless to stop.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I think I’ve made it quite clear here before that I have a very big soft spot for the Virgin New Adventures. Adventurous, untethered, willing to do what the show couldn't before, a series unfortunately plagued by edgy writing and grimdark narratives spawned some of the most iconic and interesting Doctor Who stories and when it worked, it really worked. Chief amongst the visionaries bringing this series to life was Paul Cornell, a writer who has become Who legend for introducing fan favourite companion Bernice Summerfield and writing some all time great stories like Human Nature and Love and War. The main thing I was excited to see here was a fully voice acted Benny and “New Ace” (Ace after her personality was reworked in the VNAs) and I’m glad to say I did not go away disappointed. Aldred and Bowerman both nail their performances and since this is written by the author who pioneered these two characters, you just know the characterisation is superb. In the realm of dialogue, Cornell can sometimes struggle with making the characters speak naturally but very often you get some great one-liners and a very nice, wry humour that persists throughout the whole story, which helps alleviate the otherwise incredibly twisted tone. Creating this dire mood are our antagonists - The Scourge, unfeeling and ravenous aliens that possess and transform different members of the hotel in an incredibly horrifying manner. The sound design and voice acting makes these things absolutely sickening and incredibly threatening, especially when they succeed in partially taking over the Doctor. I also think The Shadow of the Scourge’s setting is rather unique: a bougie hotel in Kent that gets transported to another dimension, leaving behind a massive pit where it once stood, kind of like the hospital in Smith and Jones. The hotel setting is not only pretty evocative but being sent to and trapped in a universe made entirely of thought and void is a terrifying visual.

As for things that didn’t work for me quite so much, The Shadow of the Scourge is one of those weird stories where I find it hard to outline what exactly detracts from it except general vibes; I like so much of it and yet I feel it falls short of the mark. Mainly I think the story’s just lacking in… something. It feels too constrained and like it spends too much time not doing anything, a lot of the action takes place in the background. Plus, most of the time we do spend fighting our resident alien menace is spent with incredibly dull side characters who I just could not bring myself to like - not one of them felt that deep, despite the script’s attempts. Another thing I found myself rather disappointed in was the Doctor himself, especially since the VNA take on the Seventh Doctor is one of my favourite incarnations; the dark trickster and cosmic chess player is a really fascinating way to portray this character and when done right, I think it can be one of the absolute best takes on the Doctor. Unfortunately, whilst The Shadow of the Scourge makes an attempt to have the Doctor play massive, multistep games with the enemy and have him work against his own companions to win, it doesn’t follow through and only really uses this characterisation for one fake-out early on, the rest of the time he acts more like the regular Big Finish take on the incarnation, which just annoying to me personally.

The Shadow of the Scourge was a fun time, it’s really nice seeing what is essentially a VNA - if a pretty bog-standard one - made for audio with all the tone and general ideas in place. More than anything, The Shadow of the Scourge is a fascination for me, a sideshow more than a side step, where I can see some of my favourite characters together in a new medium. It’s a weird sort of in-betweeny story, but definitely a good listen.

7/10

Pros:

+ Great to hear Ace and Benny on audio, Aldred and Bowerman both nail the performance

+ The Scourge are a well realised and scary alien menace

+ The hotel transported to another dimension makes for a great setting

+ Boasts some fantastic and quotable dialogue

Cons:

- Indistinct and dull sidecast

- The Doctor’s characterisation feels half baked

- The story feels like it’s lacking in vitality