Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#204. Criss-Cross ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

Radio communication was vital to both sides of the Second World War, but intercepting these transmissions was relatively easy. Armies across the planet began making extensive use of cryptography, with Nazi Germany favouring the Enigma machines to protect their top secret information.

It’s time to immerse ourselves in the world of radio waves, codes and ciphers. The Doctor has taken up residence among the boffins at Bletchley Park, and for one Constance Clarke, nothing will ever be the same again!

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Bletchley Park. Britain's most secret weapon in the Second World War.

Inside draughty huts, the earliest computers clatter day and night, decoding enemy transmissions and revealing intelligence crucial to the country's defence. Leading WREN Mrs Constance Clarke directs her charges to provide vital assistance to the boffins stationed in the Manor House. But a recent arrival among the code-breakers, the mysterious Dr Smith, has attracted the attention of MI5's spycatchers…

Over in mainland Europe, Nazi agents are briefed, covert operations planned, and a German submarine embarks on a very secret mission.

As encrypted radio waves criss-cross the planet, unearthly forces stir. And when certain ciphers are cracked, something will emerge to threaten all humanity, regardless of allegiance…

◆ The Sixth Doctor

Ditching his usual coat of many colours for a more subdued tweed look, it appears the Doctor has been stranded during wartime, and his TARDIS has been temporarily disabled. I like stories which put our favourite time traveller on the back foot, because it really makes saving the day all the more impressive. Being one of the most prolific writers for the audio adventures, I’m not actually sure if I’ve had the opportunity to discuss how Fitton writes for this incarnation yet, so allow me to briefly sum up my feelings: this material is excellent!

You might find me repeating myself during these reviews, because saying that Colin Baker delivered a magnificent performance is stating the bleeding obvious at this point: he’s always been the BigFinish Golden Boy, after all! Though I’ll make a point of saying that he’s got instant chemistry with his new companion.

He’s not with the military, he sees people as more than their rank. Believe it or not, it was not the Doctor’s intention to stay at Bletchley for so long, he never does normally, and he usually avoids displaying too prominent a profile: they say his evening wear was somewhat “colourful” when he arrived. He believes it pays, sometimes, to blend in – that would explain why he ditched his usual technicolour nightmare coat. He’s simply looking for an escape from history. Sometimes he makes the most undignified exits… he says whilst climbing out of his office window! The Doctor prefers to think he’s on the side of humanity, in every sense. He’s signed the Official Secrets Act several times. The Doctor promises Major Harris that he’s been as discreet as he possibly could: all he ever wanted was to depart with the minimum fuss.

◆ Mrs. Constance Clarke

Considering it’s been three years since I listened to any stories featuring this TARDIS team, I’m essentially going in blind. Received pronunciation and a stiff upper lip could easily describe our Mrs Clarke, but she proves herself to be so much more than that. She’s awfully protective of her charges: discovering that one of them has been forced to work three shifts in a row by the Doctor, she marches over to his office and tells him what for! Strong-willed and formidable, I have a feeling that Mrs Clarke will rapidly become one of my favourite companions.

Has anyone else noticed that Colin Baker always receives the cream of the crop when it comes to his co-stars? He certainly struck gold being buddied up with the charming Miranda Raison, who puts on an excellent performance in her debut adventure, might I add.

Constance wont have any of the boffins taking advantage of her girls. Dr Smith might be new here, but he’s got the learn the rules: no double shifts, no more than two overnights a week. She assures Wimpole that she’s let no one down. These gentlemen are not all men of the world, sometimes they need lessons in how to deal with people. Constance claims that they put up with the boffins’ eccentricities because they are geniuses, but there’s no excuse for thoughtlessness, none at all! Curiosity, that’s something noted on her file, capability too, according to Major Harris. Constance has seen some things in her time at Station X, but the TARDIS? She’ll never ceased to be amazed at what Britain can achieve with an ounce of gumption and a modicum of application! She took modern languages at Somerville College.

◆ Quicksilver Soldiers

The antagonist of this adventure is really rather interesting: a creature composed entirely of electromagnetic waves. It claimed to be escaping from a war by fleeing to a longer wavelength, but this was an elaborate lie.

It could summon the Chuadri – physical interfaces which resembled soldiers made of quicksilver – to fight its battles. They demonstrated how powerful they were when they eliminated the entire crew of a German U-Boat: agitated to their component molecules, the electron bonds of their atoms were simply shaken apart!

The true intentions of the Waveform were incredibly sinister, wanting to harness the world’s population as energy. They even managed to ally themselves with an opportunistic rogue, speaking of which…

◆ Cockney Stooge

Robbie Flint used to be the best safe-cracker in Bermondsey, back in the thirties, but found himself accused of robbery and imprisoned in the Paris penitentiary. Schwartzmann, a high ranking Nazi cryptographer, had him extracted from prison due to his expertise with explosives. Flint soon found himself working for the enemy – under the alias of Agent Spark – carrying out covert operations… but there’s far more to this Cockney stooge than meets the eye.

Flint was a double agent, acting under the codename Criss-Cross, but was eventually revealed to be working directly with the Waveform. He intended on taking over what was left of humanity once the electromagnetic creature had used most of the human race as resources in their own war!

An incredibly slippery character, Flint proves himself to be nothing more than an opportunist trying to climb the food chain. That being said, I cannot deny how entertaining he was: it was a bit like imagining Danny Dyer pretending to be the lead in a James Bond film!

◆ The Turing Test

An incredible biopic was released almost a decade ago, titled The Imitation Game, which followed Alan Turing and the team stationed at Bletchley Park in their efforts to decipher Enigma messages.

I can still remember watching it at the cinema: not knowing much of Turing’s background at the time, it sickened me learning that he was persecuted for his sexuality. He committed suicide in the summer of 1954, following a year of government-mandated hormonal therapy. It wasn’t until 2013 that he was granted a posthumous Royal Pardon, for something that shouldn’t have been considered a crime to begin with.

Historians estimate that breaking Enigma shortened the war by over two years, saving over 14 million lives. Often considered the father of modern computer science, Alan Turing deserved to be hailed as a hero from the very beginning!

◆ Sound Design

‘Criss-Cross’ transports us to the principle centre of Allied codebreaking during the Second World War, where boffins work tirelessly to crack Axis cipher machines that would yield Ultra intelligence. Bletchley Park is a hive of activity, which is incredibly well-realised by Steve Foxon. There are also some incredible scenes of the Chuadri invading the park during the second half of the adventure.

The mechanical keyboard of an Enigma machine, as Flint creates a message to be transmitted via bleeping Morse code. Several clicking keyboards can be heard from within huts at Bletchley Park, where keen WRENs intercept the coded messages. An aeroplane coming in to land, carrying the latest dispatches from the Y Stations. Constance rings the morning bell before informing her charges of where they’ll be stationed today. Heavy rain starts pouring down while agents Spark and Tulip break into a factory, cutting through barbed wire as they go. The Doctor’s scanner picking up radio interference, his feet squelching through sodden ground. The Waveform makes its presence known: radio static becomes more intense as it attacks Wimpole and Agent Tulip. The Doctor and Constance uncover a ticking time-bomb, it starts ringing once the countdown is up. A bleeping sonar within Schwartzmann’s personal U-Boat. Alarms start sounding throughout the submarine as its weight dramatically increases… thanks to a certain blue box materialising in the aft hold! The voice of the Waveform is sharp and synthesised, like someone trying to communicate through radio interference. Chuadri march against the submarine crew, sending sparks of lightning through their bodies and shaking their atoms apart! A torrent of water starts flooding into the U-Boat. Dozens of Chuadri appear in the grounds of Bletchley Park and begin attacking the armed forces: an attempt at retaliation is made, but the bullets have no effect. Constance makes use of a signal jammer, the piercing noise incapacitating both Flint and the Waveform.

◆ Music

Steve Foxon has remained one of my favourite composers over the years, partly because he worked on some of my earliest BigFinish purchases, and because most of his isolated scores have been uploaded to SoundCloud.

https://soundcloud.com/stevefoxon/28-criss-cross-music-suite-2015

‘Criss-Cross’ takes place during the dying days of the Second World War, where tensions are rising: both sides are relying heavily on espionage and double agents to turn the tide of battle, and that’s something Foxon really manages to convey with his score.

◆ Conclusion

“Hände hoch, Doc.”

A creature composed entirely from electromagnetic waves has crash-landed off the Brittany coast, hoping to harness the human race as energy for its war across the wavelengths.

Matt Fitton is someone I’ve long considered to be a meat and potatoes writer – someone who creates a high volume of relatively inoffensive scripts – which is probably why this adventure left me picking my jaw off the floor.

Centring an entire story around Bletchley Park was a stroke of genius, because it becomes the ideal place to fend off a creature that communicates through signals and ciphers. The Waveform was certainly a unique antagonist, and it conjured up some gorgeous imagery in my head: these soldiers which resemble liquid mercury invading the heart of the Allied code-breaking effort!

‘Criss-Cross’ is an exceptionally fun adventure, which also serves as the debut for a brand new companion. Constance is superbly well written: behind the received pronunciation and that stiff upper lip, she really proves herself to be a formidable woman. I cannot wait to discuss more of her wanderings through the fourth dimension.

Most people disregard the latter days of the old ‘Monthly Range’, but this one is a real hidden gem that I highly recommend checking out.

After meeting a pseudo-Alan Turing and almost-Enigma Machine in Doctor Judson and the Ultima machine in The Curse of Fenric, it was only a matter of time before Doctor Who ended up at Bletchley Park, the home of the actual Enigma Machine and, although Turing himself doesn’t appear, Criss-Cross is a story steeped in the world of codes and espionage.

Criss-Cross is a great title for this story. It is the code name of a British/German double agent but also reflects the codebreaking, the radio signals and the way the plot criss-crosses back and forth from location to location. It’s an absolute roller-coaster of a story which builds and builds to a thrilling conclusion.

Central to the story’s success is the brand new companion introduced here, Leading Wren, Mrs Constance Clarke. Played with aplomb and distinctly stiff upper lip, by Miranda Raison, she is immediately likeable and the kind of companion who, like Dr Evelyn Smythe, is perfect for this story’s Doctor – Old Sixie. Insisting on being called Mrs Clarke rather than Constance, she brooks no nonsense from the 6th Doctor and yet quickly recognises his brilliance and accepts his disarming charm as the genuine aspect of his persona is. With Maggie Stables having sadly passed on, it’s marvellous to have a new companion for the 6th Doctor who returns to a similar dynamic.

And this is a great story for the 6th Doctor. The story begins with Doctor John Smith already ensconced in an office at Bletchley with his strange blue box in the corner (which had to be carted upstairs by some strapping young men). He is co-opting the machines and Wrens of Bletchley to help him work out why the TARDIS has died.

It’s traced back to radio waves and mysterious golden eggs and effectively, the TARDIS has been scuppered by sand in the engine or leaves on the line – advanced technology being fouled up by something simple and basic.

The golden eggs are at the heart of the mission being carried out by the double-crossing, double agent – Criss-Cross. The Germans, of course, have discovered a selection of the eggs and want to unlock their mysteries to further their war effort. Soon, the Doctor and Mrs Clarke are aboard a German submarine in the company of Agent Criss-Cross and confronting Hugh Fraser’s Nazi scientist, Dr Schwartzman.

The claustrophobia of the submarine (especially when the hull is breached) is effectively conveyed and contrasts well with the grounds, huts and offices of Bletchley Park. There are some properly tense scenes aboard the submarine as this is where the aliens – Vardan-like radio-wave creatures who exist on an entirely different plain – first manifest. The Waveform work well on audio and yet I felt I had a really clear visual image of them. The mark of a good audio is one where the visuals come readily to the imagination and Criss-Cross is a story where everything simply popped into my mind – characters and locations all effectively conveyed to the listener.

There are a number of stand out scenes throughout the story. Mrs Clarke’s first confrontation with the Doctor due to his treatment of her ‘girls’; the first appearance of the Waveform; the death of a lovestruck couple (with heavy echoes of the camper scene from The Stones of Blood; and most striking of all, the resolutions of Doctor Schwartzman’s and Agent Criss-Cross’s story.

Schwartzman ends up at Bletchley and the commanding officer there, Harris, reluctantly allows him to aid the Doctor, Mrs Clarke and another Wren, Sylvia, in constructing code which will disrupt the Waveform. Knowing that he cannot return to Germany with the knowledge of Bletchley’s work, Harris is left with only one option – the choice he makes is shocking and affecting and really packs a punch at the end of the story.

Agent Criss-Cross’s fate, even if it is highly reminiscent of Jafar’s at the end of Disney’s Aladdin, is also terrifying.

I had actually listened to this audio before but remembered little about it. This second listen saw it rapidly shoot up the rankings to become one of my favourite BF releases. It’s a striking setting; a rattling rollercoaster of a plot; strong characters; a superb new companion and a hugely fun performance from Colin as the 6th Doctor. Highly, highly recommended.