This story sees the Doctor and Nyssa visiting Stockbridge in the late 19th century and watching a Mummers play which, surprisingly, features a large blue cart, bigger inside than out, and a character called the Doctor. When one of the actors becomes possessed, the Doctor and Nyssa head back to 1199 to discover the origins of the play.
It soon transpires that the Rutan are messing around at Stockbridge Castle, creating clones and generally causing bother. The Doctor and Nyssa meet a wide variety of serfs and knights and eventually manage to defeat the Rutan. Returning to the 19th century they discover a fully grown spaceship under the castle which explodes – with them still in it!
Castle of Fear is, as the cast constantly points out in the extras, all very Monty Python. This is particularly apt as this was released not too long after Peter Davison had been starring as King Arthur in the Python musical, Spamalot. The cast has a lot of fun with a very silly script and overall it is very entertaining. There are a couple of gags, however, that seem a little out of place – the Russell Brand one in particular. Another influence is clearly Blackadder and it also brought to mind, particularly in the portrayal of the peasants, Maid Marian and her Merry Men, the 90s children’s series written by and starring Tony Robinson.
Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton are having a whale of time, particularly when the Doctor is trying to explain to the peasants what is happening in real terms whereas Nyssa thinks it is easier to speak in their own ‘language’ and when Nyssa has convinced the Rutan that the Doctor is her underling. They are ably supported by Joe Thomas (from the Inbetweeners – a very funny actor in my opinion) as Sir Hubert and Susan Brown as Maud the Withered. John Sessions seems to have thought he was part of a new range of Allo, Allo audios – although to be fair his terrible French accent is revealed to be fake within the course of the story. That said I’ve never been able to stomach Session’s particular brand of arrogance which seems to seep through his performances and personality (evidenced in shows like Whose Line Is It Anyway? and QI).
The Rutan are utilised really well in the story and their modus operandi is expanded on from Horror of Fang Rock. The sound effects are lovingly recreated (Big Finish had already recreated them for the Bernice Summerfield story, The Bellotron Incident) but I was distracted by the fact that the effect applied to their dialogue basically made them sound like Daleks.
Castle of Fear plays like The Time Warrior 2. The setting and plot are incredibly similar to The Time Warrior, with smatterings of The Sontaran Experiment thrown in. The story even ends with the prospect of the castle exploding. The idea that the Rutan would have cloning technology at first seems too close to the Sontaran way of life, but thinking about it, it makes sense that they would match their enemies style of warfare, particularly if their spies were stealing the actual technology from the Sontarans and adapting to their own needs.
The links to The Time Warrior are made explicit when the Doctor assumes the Rutan are on the trail of Commander Jingo Linx (the name tying the Target novelisation into the TV continuity). This throws up some dating issues with Lance Parkin’s decision to place The Time Warrior in 1273 (based mainly on Sarah Jane’s dialogue in The Sontaran Experiment about Linx being destroyed in the 13th century). If the Rutan are on the trail of Linx, then The Time Warrior must be set earlier than this story (and there is, as discussed in my review of that story, dialogue in The Time Warrior, which implies a ‘Crusade-era’ setting). However, Alan Barnes includes a get out clause by having the Rutan unaware of the Sontaran’s presence on Earth with the Doctor then deducing that maybe Linx was on the trail of the Rutan. This means that the dating of The Time Warrior could still stand with Linx simply missing the Rutan by around 80 years. Whether this was intentional on Barnes’ part or not, it’s a good way of addressing the vagueness of The Time Warrior’s dating without setting anything in stone.
Interestingly, for a story that is basically a comedy set in the Middle Ages, it does contain one historically ‘real’ character. John Sessions plays, before his impersonation is revealed, Roland of Brittany. As the Doctor points out, Roland is a legendary character from medieval times and that the character may as well have presented himself as King Arthur. Roland was, apparently, a real military leader in the service of Charlemagne who probably died in 778. However many medieval legends sprang up around such a character in the 11th and 12th centuries, with him often featuring in the stories of travelling minstrels. Aside from this interesting inclusion, the rest of the story is, as I’ve said, the Python skewed view of the Middle Ages, but including plenty of historical detail – dirty serfs, burning at stakes, arrogant and inept lords, a castle, a keep, a moat, secret passages with entrances in gnarled old trees, wild boars, boar pits, swords, pikes, spears and quarter staffs, a water wheel, mercenaries, apothecaries, a cackling woman and the Crusades.
We also have Nyssa being mistaken for a boy because of her trousers, which is a fun nod to Vicki masquerading as a boy in The Crusade and Polly being mistaken for a boy in The Smugglers.
In the 19th century scenes, we also have some history surrounding the tradition of Mummers plays performed on Boxing Day and featuring characters such as George and the Dragon (which in this localised version are based on Hubert’s real name and the green Rutan throwing out fireballs).
The only issue I have with the story is that the comedic tone rather ruins any level of jeopardy particularly when the Doctor presumes Nyssa to be dead, a scene which doesn’t really convince. (That said, that type of scene never really works with the TV characters in any of the audio stories as we know the Doctor and companions have to survive to feature in their next canonical television story).
A fun, lively and amusing script, great performances and more medieval trapping than you could shake a quarterstaff at.
