Fright Motif

17.09.2021

Something's there, but it's ruined by a completely incohesive story that doesn't know what or when it's trying to do. 2/5

The second Ninth Doctor box set, Respond to All Calls, includes, as it’s second story, Fright Motif – a story set in 1946, post-occupation, Paris. The Doctor crashes into the lives of Artie Berger, Zazie Vincent and Maurice Le Bon on the trail of something which has escaped through a rift from a universe of discord.

With The Devil’s Chord fresh in my mind, it was interesting to have another story based around music being lost. Here, Artie has lost his musicality. Once possessing the rare skill of perfect pitch, he now can’t even bring himself to perform his beloved jazz on stage even with the encouragement of Zazie, a fellow musician.

The Doctor eventually realises a sound creature, of sorts, is at large and enlists the help of the three humans to help capture and nullify it.

In the same way that after a stretch of World War One stories, we had a few stories which explored the shadow of that conflict being cast over people’s lives, here we have an adventure which looks a little at how WW2 affected the lives of a few people, with a particular focus on Maurice, the owner of the hotel where Artie is living.

Artie is an American, in Paris for the jazz scene. Zazie is a double-bass player working hard to counter the still-repressive opinions on a woman’s place in society and even within the music scene. Maurice works to maintain a facade of respectability but ultimately allows the Doctor’s madcap world to collide with his own and ends up sacrificing himself to save the others. Maurice also reflects on his lost love, a member of the French Resistance who clearly died at some point during the war – although no details are given. For all the dashing round Paris, this is still quite a sombre affair with Artie also dealing with the loss of his mother and being unable to return home for her funeral.

I’ll be honest and say I lost a little of the reasoning behind how the Doctor defeats the sound monster and something about this story felt quite small despite the expansive setting of Paris. I’m still struggling to tune into Eccleston’s portrayal – a Doctor who I wasn’t hugely enamoured of on TV – and I do think the lack of regular companion is limiting his character. Each story of these box sets so far has had a new character or characters filling in the companion role with the usual round of story beats and this one definitely suffers from the short run time needing not only to introduce the menace but also the three guest characters, their relationships and make sure the Doctor has introduced himself and gained their trust.

I didn’t really get a huge feel or time and place for this story and consequently the whole thing felt a little difficult to get into. The story and characters were enjoyable but there was a depth that I felt was missing and I hope the Ninth Doctor box sets manage to find eventually.

I have mixed feelings on Fright Motif. On the one hand, I really like the idea behind the story and some of the atmosphere. The characters feel quite well written and I really enjoy Artie and Maurice. They both feel like characters rejected by society who have formed their own little underground community in post-war Paris, finding a sense of belonging they sorely lacked elsewhere. I love the musicality of the audio too, but really wish it was played up a little more or we had a little more time for the big number at the end.

It has all these traits really working for it, but I do feel some of it doesn't work, either. The supporting cast don't really live up to the writing, in my opinion. Artie's American accent is hilariously unconvincing and constantly proved a distraction. For a story taking place in France, the lack of french accents and even Parisian set pieces made the setting feel artificial, in a sense. I just had trouble buying the setting as it was presented. It's a real shame, too, because on paper, there's a good story here about love, loss, and fear. The villains being this sort of psychic presence that only exists on sound waves were a neat idea and I like how they were defeated by an emotionally honest performance by Artie and Zazie. I just wished they played up that big finale, as it feels like we kind of skipped past it.