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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Written by

Paul Magrs

Runtime

49 minutes

Time Travel

Past

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

First TARDIS trip, Original Song, Time Eddy

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Nadir Motorway Service Station, Bramlington, Earth, England

Synopsis

The Doctor and Lucie go glam when the TARDIS makes an unexpected landing in 1974. Slade, The Sweet and Suzi Quatro are Top of the Pops - and brother-and-sister duo The Tomorrow Twins will soon be joining them, if the starmaking Svengali Arnold Korns has his way.

But will their dreams turn to dust at a service station somewhere on the M62, besieged by a pack of alien monsters?

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9 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

The 8th Doctor Adventures #1.3 - “Horror of Glam Rock” by Paul Magrs

Paul Magrs is an enigma to me. One of Who’s “weird” writers, he’s known for his eccentric style and characters such as Iris Wildthyme or fully just himself but having now listened to a good handful of his stories, I find it really hard to pin him down. I think the reason he’s so good is he doesn’t rely on his style and can depart from it at will, with only this vague, marauding idiosyncrasy following him about. Whilst I’ve yet to experience what’s considered his best works, I think he is slowly rising in my estimations and Horror of Glam Rock goes to show that past the double decker busses and glitter, he can write a pretty damn good episode of Doctor Who.

Trapped in a besieged truck stop, the Doctor and Lucie find themselves contending with ravenous beasts from beyond the stars, a strange connection to one of their futures and glam rockers.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

There are some episodes that are great, some that are bad, some that are so-so, and then there’s the hidden fourth category: episodes that are just solid. Not blow you away incredible, but good, and something you’ll leave feeling fulfilled. Horror of Glam Rock is the poster child of this for me, taking from the classic base under siege genre and writing a good, decent episode of Doctor Who, complete with all the bells and whistles that made episodes like Under the Lake, or this story’s namesake, Horror of Fang Rock so enjoyable. 

I feel like a make or break element for such a self contained story is cast and by god, Horror of Glam Rock excels in this department. Each member of the diner, from up and coming glam rock duo The Tomorrow Twins to Lucie’s aunt Pat, here years before Lucie’s birth, is great with the selfish talent manager Arnold Korns, played delightfully by Bernard Cribbins a few years before his debut as the wonderful Wilf, at the top of my estimations. Every cast member, including our leads are brilliant here though I do feel the need to mention Schroedinger’s roadies; the diner is apparently populated by a good number of people but we’re only told this through dialogue, with little in the way of sound effects to denote their presence. It’s not story breaking but it's a weird detail that kept tripping me up.

If I had to pin down the best part of this episode though, I think it’s the simple fact that it works. It’s well paced, it’s tense, it’s got a good mystery and set up, there’s nothing here that particularly fails the episode and I think a script that can do its job and do it well is already a pretty stellar effort. On top of that, we have Magrs’ subtlest skills on full display. I think, as a writer, Magrs excels specifically in one category: tone. There’s such a lively, electric energy to this script, to the point where I think it would fit in well with the revival era. The characters are bright but ordinary and the story is delightful but not eccentric. Sometimes, this can come round to bite him, what with the surprisingly small reaction to multiple characters being brutally ripped apart, but on the whole it really elevates the whole episode.

My thoughts, however, might be tarnished by the subject matter. As it happens, glam rock is a favourite genre of mine, Bowie being my favourite musical artist to ever exist, and I think Horror of Glam Rock works tremendously as an homage to the genre, complete with a half decent original song and a glitzy remix of the classic theme for the end credits.

And despite the praise I’ve levelled at this story, I do have some issues, mostly stemming from the third act. Once we begin to edge towards the conclusion, the actual plot begins to slow down and a lot of its ideas fail to come to fruition. It also seems to keep changing direction, for instance, there’s a pretty dark moment where Arnold, selfishly trying to escape, gets one half of the Tomorrow Twins killed. This is a nice payoff to this character and neatly leads into the climax, being the turning point of the story. However, Magrs then decides to try and redeem Arnold, which just doesn’t work, especially minutes after he caused the brutal dismemberment of a young woman. Not only that, but he then goes off with her traumatised brother, who’s apparently forgiven him for the whole getting his sister killed thing. It’s just little moments like this that bring the climax down for me and it makes it feel like the story just ran out of momentum.

It also doesn’t help that our antagonists are pretty terrible. I like the use of the stylophone to communicate with them and the idea of an alien using Earth as a truck stop, pulling over to get a bite to eat and feasting on the population, is a fun parallel with the story’s setting. However, they’re mostly brought down by the pretty terrible voice acting, which is just the same person playing the Headhunter but pitch shifted into oblivion. Also, they’re defeated by pressing a button, so all in all, they just seem a little pathetic.

You can’t ask for much more than this with a base under siege. Whilst I think the climax is a let down, Horror of Glam Rock is a brilliantly fun episode written by one of Who’s most talented creative forces, armed with a triple threat of a great cast, tone and story. I have to say, this has sold me on the 8DAs; the throughlines involving Lucie’s lost memories, this headhunter character and I presume Lucie’s aunt are all brilliantly intriguing and whilst the first three (or two maybe) stories haven’t blown me away, they’ve been enough to get me excited. I am very much looking forward to what comes next.

7/10


Pros:

+ Great cast

+ Good, tense base under siege

+ Tonally fantastic

+ Nice homage to glam rock

 

Cons:

- Doesn’t execute a lot of its ideas well

- The Only Ones were annoyingly voiced

- Loses steam as it goes on


Speechless

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Why did lucie miller say that


Qw0

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Another really fun vibe with this one, but I got a bit lost with what the themes were supposed to be. Hopefully there will be some consequences to the storyline with Pat because it felt very unsatisfying here.
B.

Azurillkirby

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For the most part, I enjoyed this audio... however, listeners be warned that the "T slur" is used once... despite this distasteful choice, the plot holds up... I enjoy the glam rock theme...

-- XShadowTheHedgehogX


XShadowTheHedgehogX

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This review contains spoilers!

A big step down from the premier episodes, generic aliens, and no explanation for them. Not my favorite episode.

I did find the part with Lucie and her Aunt interesting though. I wonder if that'll come back in the future.


whitestar1993

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Quotes

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LUCIE: Danger, like this. It's one thing after another with you, isn't it?

THE DOCTOR: I don't go looking for trouble.

LUCIE: But it finds you, somehow, every time.

THE DOCTOR: That's true enough.

LUCIE: And me. What a pair we make, eh? Still, I'm glad I met you.

THE DOCTOR: I'm glad too. Now, give us a bite of that doughnut.

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Transcript Needs checking

NOTE: The original transcript contains a transphobic slur. The author has apologised for this on his blog. I will not be reproducing the word here.

(The opening bars of the song "Children Of Tomorrow", played on the Stylophone with piano backing. TOMMY TOMORROW is a young Irishman.)

TOMMY TOMORROW: Will you come to us? I'm tuned in. Will it be tonight? Here?

(TARDIS control room, vibrations.)

LUCIE MILLER: Ooh ... Doctor ... I don't feel at all well.
THE DOCTOR: Hang on. Nearly through.
LUCIE MILLER: Ooh... I think I'm gonna be sick.
THE DOCTOR: What?
LUCIE MILLER: I said, I think I'm gonna ... throw up!


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