The Bonfires of the Vanities

Love this story amazing recast Ben too always forget that he isn’t the actual Ben sometimes haha

An overall average story, that could’ve meant something with a little more confidence.

 

After landing on the North Pole, our party steps out to find themselves in… Lewes, 1950. There’s no time to think, however, as they quickly get swept up in the festivities of bonfire night. However, it seems not everyone is in a party mood….

 

This is a story that starts fairly well, but quickly dwindles into nothing. The settings starts strong, there’s some intrigue and some striking setpieces. One of the main locations, a library from the 1950’s, truly speaks to the imagination. Polly mentions how it feels weird to be in a library at night and I truly feel like I am there with them.

 

But when the plot takes hold, all the atmosphere kind of drains away. We quickly fall into a routine: Hooligans come to smash everything to pieces, the Doctor saves the day with a speech. They calm down and go away. Repeat 3 times, and the story is over.

 

And that repetition is what really kills this story. The beginning, middle and end are the exact same events. Rowdy people, speech, rowdy people, speech, rowdy people, speech, the end. Nothing excites or plays with your emotions.

 

But here’s where it gets odd. This adventure did get me hooked in an unexpected way. I didn’t get hooked on the mediocre story, but the interviews afterwards were notably striking.

McCormack describes her research going into this project. How she looked at Lewes as a city and noticed the history of the library there. She describes the history of bonfire night and how she never got to join in the celebration, since her father was a catholic. Her biggest experience was watching from the balcony with a glass of wine in her hand.

 

And her description of it all is incredibly vivid. I think everyone can, in some way, relate to the feeling of a festival by night. The cold air sweeps around you, yet you feel warm from all the festivities and the crowd. Yet as time goes on, more and more people go home. The cheers and laughter turn into murmurs, before finally growing silent. This goes on until you, too, decide to call it a day. It’s a striking scene, and what McCormack describes feels very similar. But it doesn’t show up at all in the main story.

 

Same goes for the history, I didn’t know what Bonfire night was, but the explanation makes it feel very real. But that explanation came after the actual story.

 

So why was this not actually in the adventure? If I’d hazard a guess, it is because of a lack of theming and misinterpreted expectations.

 

This story does not really have a clear focus. There’re loads of themes it could have tackled, both big and small: Bonfire night, Libraries at nighttime, celebrating festivals the wrong way, hooligan behavior, groupthink and greed are all topics that this story could’ve said something about, but it plays it very safe.

 

It clings to the self-imposed limitations of Doctor Who. We have to be constantly on edge. We have to have speeches and aliens. We have to have that happy ending. It hides behind these superficial “Doctor Who Elements” and drowns out original concepts.

 

And there’s really no reason to do that. If you’re alien concept is so vague that it doesn’t even have a name, I’d rather focus on the interesting stuff. Stories have done perfectly fine without relying on aliens. Especially when we’re with such an early Doctor. Look at a story like “Farewell, Great Macedon”. It has no outside threat, barely any pressure and 1 speech, which isn’t even given by the Doctor. Yet it is considered one of the best stories this Doctor has ever had. Good things come when you see opportunities instead of limitations. It is okay to just write something atmospheric.

Which brings me to the last thing I want to mention: the character of Mary. Mary is the librarian in this story. She is described as a middle-aged lady with a love of books who has, in a surprising twist, even written some science fiction books herself. The character is clearly a bit of a self-insert for McCormack, which I have absolutely no problem with.

 

But imagine if Mary had taken a bit more from her writer. Imagine if she, too, had a complicated history with Bonfire night. Imagine she knew all the things McCormack describes in the interview. She would have been an incredibly layered character that people would’ve loved, instead of another one of the “friends” we come across and leave behind without a second thought.

 

I genuinely think this story had a lot of potential. It could’ve been a great atmospheric piece. The knowledge to make it so was definitely present, but it feels caged by preconceived ideas of “proper Doctor Who”. As it is now, it is nothing more than another one in the pile, but if it had truly followed that initial bit of passion, it could’ve been a masterpiece.