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“OTHER LIVES – A FESTIVE FRACAS FOR THE EIGHTH DOCTOR THAT NEVER QUITE FINDS ITSELF”

The 2005 Christmas entry in Big Finish’s Main Range, Other Lives, places the Eighth Doctor, Charley, and C’rizz in the heart of the 1851 Great Exhibition. Written by Gary Hopkins, the story opens with promise: a Dickensian romp through Victorian London infused with political intrigue, mistaken identity, and a sprinkle of seasonal atmosphere. But while the ingredients seem right for a rich and frothy festive tale, the result is an audio that never quite decides what it wants to be—historical romp, farcical comedy, or political drama.

The TARDIS team arrives intending only a brief visit, but fate, in true Dickensian fashion, has other plans. Charley is positively giddy, racing off to explore the Exhibition like a Victorian schoolchild on a field trip. However, their simple outing quickly snowballs: the Doctor is accused of attempted assassination, Charley and C’rizz thwart a plot against the monarchy, and the trio become embroiled in a chaotic sequence of events involving vanishing TARDISes, duplicitous dukes, and a host of characters straight out of a penny dreadful.

OF DUKES, DWARFS, AND DIMPELSQUEEZE

The first part sets things up with some flair. The Duke of Wellington, still alive and wandering the streets of London, befriends Charley. Meanwhile, the TARDIS dematerialises on its own—with a French couple accidentally inside—and the Doctor is promptly arrested, mistaken for an assassin by the very same Duke. Elsewhere, C’rizz finds himself in the company of Jacob Crackles, an enigmatic man who’s helpful to the point of suspiciousness. Crackles appears to be part conjuror, part Dickens character, and entirely peculiar.

As the story progresses into Part 2, things get even more convoluted. The Doctor shares a cell with the actual assassin, who doesn’t seem particularly dangerous. C’rizz ends up bonding with Maxi the Midget—one of the Exhibition’s human curiosities—while trying to help him escape his exploitative life. Charley, meanwhile, is taken in by the delightfully named Rufus Dimpelsqueeze, another oddball who seems lifted from an unpublished Pickwick Papers chapter.

Then comes the next twist: Mrs Marlowe, a woman we’ve previously met searching for her lost son, suddenly claims the Doctor is her long-missing husband. Paul McGann gamely plays along with a sort of weary bemusement, but the script doesn’t know what to do with the scenario beyond milking it for mild confusion.

THE PLOT WANDERS – AND SO DOES THE TARDIS

By Part 3, the narrative starts to unravel. Charley is still enjoying high society with the Duke, the Doctor is still trying to convince Mrs Marlowe of his true identity, and the stakes—whatever they were—begin to feel increasingly irrelevant. There's no real escalation of conflict or drive toward a resolution. The supposed republican conspiracy fizzles out, and what initially seemed like a promising period thriller slides into a gentle, largely plotless meander.

The final episode doesn’t quite know how to tie everything up. With the TARDIS still missing and the French couple never developed beyond their plot-device function, Charley and C’rizz don disguises and pretend to be them, complete with wobbly French accents (amusingly delivered by India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas). It’s a farcical twist that might have been more entertaining had the rest of the story embraced this tone from the beginning.

Oddly, the idea that the TARDIS crew physically resembles these 19th-century figures—the French couple and Mr Marlowe—is never really explored. It’s the kind of identity mix-up that might’ve fuelled a classic Who comedy-of-errors, but instead, it’s dropped in with little fanfare and even less consequence.

CHARACTER MOMENTS WITHOUT CLARITY

To its credit, Other Lives does make an effort to explore the characters’ roles in Victorian society. C’rizz’s interaction with Maxi is a rare moment of genuine warmth and social commentary, as he attempts to liberate someone trapped in a cruel exhibit. Similarly, the Doctor’s calm patience with Mrs Marlowe is touching in moments. Charley’s delight at rubbing shoulders with historical figures is in keeping with her plucky character.

But the script lacks cohesion. The political themes—potential revolution, monarchy vs. republic—are introduced early on but never meaningfully followed through. Similarly, the more comedic elements feel half-baked. It’s never clear whether the story wants to be taken seriously or not. The tone vacillates between absurdist comedy, sentimental melodrama, and missed thriller.

📝VERDICT: 51/100

OTHER LIVES has the hallmarks of a charming Christmas outing for the Eighth Doctor: a richly historical setting, colourful supporting characters, and the potential for light-hearted adventure. But it squanders much of that potential with an unfocused script that never commits to a tone or a central idea. The political subplot fizzles, the comedy feels strained, and the character dynamics—while pleasant—don’t evolve in meaningful ways. A few fun performances and quirky moments (not least the name Rufus Dimpelsqueeze) keep it from sinking entirely, but this is a rare Eighth Doctor story where the narrative momentum is completely lost by the halfway mark.

It’s not a bad listen, just an aimless one—and for a tale about other lives, it oddly forgets to give its central trio much of a life to live.

I was looking forward to Other Lives coming up in my marathon.  I remember enjoying the story but was also intrigued as I could also remember feeling the whole thing a little inconseqential and wanted to refresh my memory as to what issues, if any, I had with the story.  Thankfully, this turned out to be one minor niggle which is explained by the style of the piece and therefore I can forgive in what is a thoroughly enjoyable story.  There was one other aspect which I had a problem with this time around, but I will explain later what that was.

Other Lives sees the Doctor, Charley and (in his first History of the Universe marathon appearance) C’Rizz arrive at the Great Exhiibition at the Crystal Palace in 1851.  What ensues is, to all intents and purposes, a Doctor Who version of a Charles Dickens’ novel.

Dickens wrote novels which were full of coincidences and Other Lives’ plot hinges on many of these.  It is also chock full of Dickens-style character names – Fazackerly, Dimplesqueeze, Crackles; which help add to the tone of the story.

Other Lives sees the Doctor ‘mistaken’ for a long-lost husband; Charley mistaken for a prostitute and a French diplomat and C’Rizz treated as a freak in a travelling show.  The catalyst for this is the Great Exhibition and two of its visitors, French diplomats – Monsieur and Madame de Roche.  When the TARDIS arrives, the Doctor and Charley set off to explore the Exhibition whilst poor Eutermesan C’Rizz is forced to remain in the TARDIS lest his alien, reptilian looks upset the sensitive Victorians.  An assassination attempt on the French diplomats leads to C’Rizz being forced into a freak show, Charley ending up on the streets of London and the Doctor losing the TARDIS when it dematerialises with the de Roche’s aboard!

Other Lives rattles along at breakneck speed, but it is difficult to shake the feeling that little of actual consequence occurs throughout the story.  The blurb on the CD exclaims “What begins as an attempt to prevent murder quickly becomes a desperate race to avert revolution.” which oversells the ‘Charley and C’Rizz pretend to be French – badly’ storyline somewhat.  It’s all very quick, but it’s also very gentle.  C’Rizz probably gets the rawest deal in the freak show, but even his treatment at the hands of Crackles never feels as dramatic as it could.  This makes the darkest scene of the whole story – C’Rizz’s blinding of Crackles in revenge – seem out of place.  Of course, this scene is more a product of the ongoing character arc for C’Rizz – where he hears voices; is a murderer several times over; and ultimately will descend into psychopathic madness.  Whether that arc ever worked is a discussion for a different review as it is such a minor part of this storyline as to be negligible (although it was brave of Big Finish to at least attempt something a bit different with a companion).  C’Rizz’s anger isn’t helped by Conrad Westmaas’ performance either.  I love Conrad and think when he’s being ‘nice’ C’Rizz he is wonderful and has a great rapport with other characters, particularly India Fisher’s Charley.  When he is required to do psychopathic insane killer stuff, though, he just doesn’t convince.

And that is the one other slightly odd aspect of the story.  It is blatantly obvious from the start that Westmaas and Fisher are playing the Monsier and Madame de Roche and although, in a story hinging on coincidences, you expect some comment to be made that they bear a passing resemblance (as much as a French diplomat can look like an alien from another dimension).  Nothing is made of it until C’Rizz and Charley have to pose as the diplomats and even then it is under copious makeup wigs and costume.  It just feels odd – as if something it going to be made of the fact they are playing both roles and then nothing actually is.

The other performances are brilliant.  Paul McGann and India Fisher are great as the Doctor and Charley and their respective interplays with Francesca Hunt (as Georgina Marlow) and Ron Moody (as Wellington) are immense fun.  Ron Moody is absolutely superb as the Duke of Wellington and every scene featuring him is a joy.  His aide, Fazackerly, is played with oily, jobsworthy petulance by Michael Hobbs and the hilarious scenes where his hidden desire to be some sort of costumier is let loose on C’Rizz add another dimension.  Francesca Hunt embues Georgina with the right balance of desperation, sadness and manipulation as she uses the Doctor to prevent herself and her sons from becoming homeless.  I was under the impression that she was related to India Fisher and thought her voice was incredibly close to India’s in some scenes, but it turns out they are merely stepsisters rather than blood relations so it’s a little odd that occasionally her speech patterns sound so reminiscent of India.  Mike Holloway (of The Tomorrow People fame) plays Crackles well, although for much of the first couple of episodes his role doesn’t amount to much more than touting business for his freak show.

The sound design is very good and the interior of the Crystal Palace hustles and bustles with the energy of all those Victorian visitors.

Historically we have the Duke of Wellington and the Great Exhibition.  References are made to Wellington’s time as Prime Minister, his military career and his nickname, the Iron Duke.

Other Lives is a brilliant audio.  It stands out due to its purely historical nature and they way it borrows from the work of Dickens.  I love the way C’Rizz, Charley and the Doctor just fall into the other lives that , with the disappearance of the TARDIS, seem like they may become their only lives.  I particularly love anything involving Charley and Wellington and it’s a good use of C’Rizz who is a character that some writers seem to struggle to incorporate successfully.

This is what I’m expecting to see a lot more of from Victorian set stories – it’s a period of ‘big names’ (Victoria, Dickens, Brunel); major innovations; cultural impact on the way Britain is now (moral values; Christmas traditions); and mythical legacies which continue to linger (Spring Heeled Jack; Jack the Ripper; Sweeney Todd).  Other Lives gives us a gentler side to Victorian life without the more horrific or seedy aspects we often associate with it (the freak show excepted), but it is by no means less effective and an audio I will happily revisit one day.

The Monthly Adventures #77 - "Other Lives" by Gary Hopkins

For whatever reason, I’ve been dreading the next two audios. Before I decided to work my way through the Main Range, I had already listened through the whole Charley Arc - all the way up to The Girl Who Never Was - and there was just something about Other Lives that really did not gel with me. It’s not bad, it’s not even mediocre, it’s just so unbelievably not my thing;  a comedy that’s light on jokes and heavy on aimless, boring meandering. It’s not particularly badly made or anything and on a second listen, there are some bits I genuinely liked, but it still remains one of my least favourite Eight stories from the Monthly Adventures.

Landing in the Crystal Palace in 1851, the Doctor, Charley and C’rizz are separated by a series of misadventures and must face the perils of dukedom, freakshows and long lost husbands.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Gary Hopkins previously wrote The Last - a vastly underrated end-of-days story that I really vibe with - and for him to go from something so up my alley I can fearlessly defend it’s lukewarm reputation to something completely ruined by my inability to connect with it is surprising to say the least. Hopkins’ strengths are still on full display here, he writes our main characters marvelously and if there’s one positive I have to give Other Lives, it’s that it’s completely competent. The dialogue is good, the characters aren’t shallow, the direction and message is all fine. Hopkins’ ability to build a setting is still there - the 1850s feel totally alive throughout. There’s really very little actually wrong with this story besides my personal taste, but that’s exactly where the problems lie. I just can’t get into this story, it’s so very much not for me and I think that a lot of my issues with it stem from the plot.

My first priority, whenever I’m assessing something, is story. The backbone to any piece of fiction, in my opinion, is a good plot and once you have that down, the rest is just window dressing. Some people, it would seem, don’t agree with that and make things without any kind of actual plot to them, Gary Hopkins seeming to be one of them. There’s very little momentum to this story; props to Hopkins for writing so many different plot threads and balancing them enough that none felt completely underbaked but the actual drive of the story doesn’t seem to exist. All we have are our characters running around aimlessly in increasingly droll misadventures until they’re eventually reunited at the end, with little sense of resolution or victory.

Actually, let's go through these narrative strands quickly: the Doctor gets mistaken for a woman’s lost husband and has to convince her he isn't who she thinks he is. Georgina Marlowe is an utterly fine character but it’s not like there’s any question of the Doctor staying with her so it’s mostly just frustratingly slow plodding towards a predictable ending. Charley is doing a number of miscellaneous things and eventually runs into the Duke of Wellington, who she promptly tells about time travel. It’s a very ineffectual plotline that really has little going on in it but is saved by being the funniest. Other Lives is a difficult story to categorise because it seems to both want to be an emotional character piece that separates and analyses our main cast but also wishes to be a light slapstick comedy, with our characters getting into various shenanigans. It’s decision to make no decision as to which it wanted to be leads to a clash in tone that really downgrades the story for me. However, Charley’s subplot is the funniest and Hopkins can do comedy when he wants to. It’s just a shame he didn’t try and focus on this aspect.

And then there’s C’rizz’s subplot, which just rubs me the wrong way. As an alien wandering around the 1850s, he’s quite quickly kidnapped and sold into a freakshow. This whole section of the audio feels mean-spirited to me, it’s not exactly doing much with C’rizz’s character and consists of him being whipped and humiliated until Charley can come along and save him in the final part. The conclusion of C’rizz “saving” his abuser is a little more interesting and the closest we really get to the ending of Terror Firma being followed up on but it’s still misery for misery’s sake that I was just waiting to be over with.

Other Lives is a story that really would have benefited from direction. As it stands, it is a dull little affair consisting of a number of ok historical plots that go nowhere and feel completely aimless. It didn’t know if it wanted to be a comedy or a drama but what we actually ended up with was just a bit naff. Some alright comedy and a competent script makes it go down a little easier and I’m upping its score by one to account for subjective elements but I won’t be returning to Other Lives for quite a while.

6/10

Pros:

+ Well written and composed

+ The 1850s are wonderfully realised

+ The comedy can be hit or miss but really lands when it wants to

Cons:

- A story with little momentum or stakes

- None of the many plot threads really work for me

- The stuff with C’rizz feels needlessly mean spirited

- Doesn’t really know what it wants to be

MR 077: Other Lives

A comedy of errors (and fetishes) as the Doctor and friends get up to some hilarious hijinks! Well, more like get caught up pretending to be other people.

They go to the grand Crystal Palace exhibition, a huge international exhibition of technology in London in the mid 1800s. The three get separated through a series of hijinks. They told C'Rizz to stay in the TARDIS, but he didn't. Charley meets the Duke of Wellington. And The Doctor gets caught up in an assassination plot against the French ambassador. An assassin tries to shoot the French ambassador and his wife outside the TARDIS, the Doctor pulls them in then goes back out himself, and then the French ambassador and his wife accidentally take off in the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor there without his ship.

The story doesn't really go into detail about where they went. I think they were supposed to have just time traveled directly to the ending, but that's not as fun. Where's the French ambassador and his wife spin off series where they go to a pink planet or something?

C'Rizz naively follows a man named Mr. Crackles who... proceeds to kidnap him, turn him into a slave, put him in chains, forces him to strip naked, and then puts him in a thong. So, you know, super fetishy. He runs a freak show and C'Rizz will be the star attraction. No, not that kind of freak show! The kind where you put people who look weird in cages and point and laugh at them. What did you think I meant?

Meanwhile Charley wanders around on her own and gets mistaken for a prostitute. Yet again, another fetishy thing. The man who thinks she's a prostitute is named Rufus Dimplesqueeze. No I'm not making that up. She ends up sleeping on a doorstep at night and then goes to the Duke of Wellington's house after they shared a nice moment in the Crystal Palace exhibition the previous day.

Might as well do another fetishy thing with the Doctor, although this one isn't so much. The Doctor gets mistaken for another man named Edward who has been traveling for a year. His wife tries to get the Doctor to believe he is Edward right up until the point where she realizes that he couldn't be Edward. Her husband needs spectacles to read the newspaper whereas the Doctor does not.

All three of these characters just exist in these plot cul-de-sacs for awhile. There's not really much of a point to the story here, just allowing the characters to exist and see how they react to living these other lives, hence the name. It's nice. Charley hangs out with the high and mighty, the Doctor has a nice time in a high class house, and C'Rizz gets to see the worst of Victorian London. Seems like he got the short end of the stick here to be honest.

Their plots finally coincide when Charley notices C'Rizz on the freakshow advertisement posters and she has the Duke go rescue him. They then need to impersonate the French ambassador and his wife because everyone is going to think they've disappeared. Which will spark a French revolution in the UK maybe? Kind of a bad look for Charley to be fighting against democracy and upholding the monarchy, but sure. It's not really the main point. The main point is that we get more hijinks as Charley and C'Rizz try to impersonate the French couple, but don't do a very good job of it.

The Doctor then has to impersonate Edward to please his doppleganger's uncle who is none other than Rufus Dimplesqueeze???!!!?!?!?! Yes, we get a nice little "I'm actually him, trust me, lol" scene where they convince Dimplesqueeze that the Doctor is Edward because his wife will lose the house if Dimplesqueeze is not convinced. Yes, I just like typing the name Dimplesqueeze.

The Doctor then sees that the French ambassador and his wife are back in the newspaper, but it's actually Charley and C'Rizz impersonating them at the Crystal Palace. He thinks this means the TARDIS has come back, so he heads off. Only to find that coincidentally the TARDIS has just arrived here at this exact time, fast traveling to the finale with the French ambassador and his wife none the wiser. The end.

The interesting thing here is when C'Rizz is freed, he goes back and cripples and blinds his slave master. He could have killed him and the voices in his head told him to do it, but he didn't. I guess being unable to walk and blind in the Victorian era is punishment enough. Fate worse than death probably.

And that's about it. It's pretty much just fluff, but enjoyable fluff. Except for C'Rizz who has a horrible time. I just don't have that much to say about it. Very cute story.

well, this was just all round lovely!