The Monthly Adventures #73 - "Thicker Than Water" by Paul Sutton

Arrangements for War has been a true highlight of this marathon so far: a beautifully sombre character piece with one of Who’s best cast and best endings that utterly blew me away when I last heard it. Since then, the name Paul Sutton has sparked my interest as I’ve always been hoping for something like his breakout story. Whilst nothing’s quite reached the highs of Arrangements for War just yet, there have been some gems nonetheless, not least his follow up to his debut - Thicker Than Water - though it suffers from being stuck under the shadow of its older sibling.

Many years and multiple companions later, the Doctor is returning to Világ, where he left behind his close friend Evelyn Smythe. Now married, Evelyn’s been facing opposition to a controversial research project, and things are beginning to boil over. Violently.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Paul Sutton, time and time again, has proven himself to be up there with Joseph Lidster for Doctor Who’s best character writer. His ability to effectively create interpersonal, often tragic, conflict is masterful and just about always sweeps me off my feet. Arrangements for War is obviously the number one example of this but Thicker Than Water certainly doesn’t disappoint. Whilst I’ll get into specifics later, this is still a slick, stylish, emotional action adventure with a great personality and some fantastic character arcs. The pace especially elevates the script, moving everything along in a really nice way that never slows down but still leaves room for the cast to develop.

And out of the cast there are two standouts: the Doctor and Evelyn. This is Evelyn’s last story… sort of. It depicts her leaving the TARDIS in a really interesting way - as a flashback in a story with a later companion - that I feel really works. Evelyn would keep appearing for a while after this but I personally think this should’ve been her last feature, it’s an excellent send off. And yes, that includes A Death in the Family (boy, that review will be fun when we get to it). It’s really great seeing her grapple with a tough personal life, leaving the Doctor and the mental issues brought forth by this story.

The Doctor too gets a really great end to a character arc, one that has been subtly building since The Marian Conspiracy. His final conversation with Evelyn is the pièce de résistance of this audio - an immaculately scripted final touch to ninety minutes of fantastic character work. It’s these two and their performances that ground Thicker Than Water and is the real reason people should seek it out.

But I will admit, it hasn’t got as strong a cast as Arrangements for War. In fact, it’s the side characters that bring Thicker Than Water down for me. When we get down to brass tacks, this is basically its predecessor but with a less compelling central conflict. Rather than the intricate political landscape and the Romeo and Juliet notions of Kristina and Marcus’ relationship, we have a much more action focused, less nuanced plot that instead revolves around Rossiter from Arrangements for War’s daughter - Sofia. This is where things really get muddled for me because I just do not like Sofia. The audio’s not really certain on exactly whether or not we’re meant to be on her side and it also doesn’t present it as particularly morally grey. Like, she’s introduced as antagonistic towards Evelyn but then is revealed to be a lot more complex and isn’t trying to smear Evelyn out of spite. But then you get things like that moment when Mel very calmly brings up that the incredibly shady Dr. Szabó, who’s been lurking in the background of the whole audio, could be connected in some way to what’s happening, and in response Sofia immediately f**king punches her. There are just a few moments like this that feel indicative of a completely different character, especially since they’re never explored. There are elements of a more interesting person here but I just find Sofia too unlikable.

Mel’s also pretty sidelined, which is fair considering this is a story about Evelyn but she still felt like dead weight for most of the audio, mostly there to exposit or move the plot along; she was definitely shallower as a character compared to the others. The final person I really had an issue with was our main villain: Doctor Szabó. Arrangements for War didn’t really have a singular antagonist, more consisting of a number of political factions that I praised for their depth, especially in moments like when the villainous Suskind put aside his differences to stop the Killoran invasion. Here, we have a mad scientist. Sure, his performance is sinister enough but he’s treated almost like a big reveal, when he’s so obviously involved and we’re just waiting for him to implicate himself. He’s relatively one note and instead of seeing all his villainous schemes in action, we’re just explained them in a lengthy monologue at the end, which is simply disappointing. Frankly, the weasley, lovetorn Sebastian made for a more compelling adversary as a twisted subversion of the central romance of Arrangements.

The story itself is definitely not what I’d call bad, but it is somewhat of a let down after what we got last time. On its own, it’s a very by the numbers action plot with crazy genetic experiments and mad scientists but then it’s also mixed with moments of very serious political conflict and the two really struggle to mix. The actual villain's plan of using Killoran DNA as a cure-all drug belongs in a completely different story. Also, it always annoys me when an alien species is inherently violent per their DNA because it’s both unrealistic and mirrors actual world eugenics arguments.

Thicker Than Water is a very worthy successor to Arrangements for War, but it’s not an equal one. A thinner story and a less engaging cast do detract from it but it doesn’t work to destroy the sublime character arc at the heart of the story, wonderfully capping off a storyline that’s been building since the sixth entry into the Main Range. Vital to the listening order and an ultimately rewarding listen, but perhaps not the magnum opus it follows up.

7/10

Pros:

+ Paul Sutton effectively and believably writes character drama once again

+ Moves with a slick pace and some nice action

+ A really fantastic send off for Evelyn

+ Neatly completes Six’s character arc

Cons:

- Sofia is not compelling as a central character

- Mel is mostly sidelined

- Szabó is a pretty underwhelming and one note villain

- The plot is undeserving of this audio