The Haunting of Thomas Brewster is (as the writer, Jonathan Morris, admits in the interview extras) very much inspired by the ghost stories of Charles Dickens (and other later, non-Victorian writers such as M R James and Susan Hill).  The Haunting of Thomas Brewster is centred on the atmosphere often conjured by Victorian stories on television and film.

This story fits the stereotype of Victoriana.  Another story with a similar atmosphere and tone to this audio was the DWM comic strip The Curious Tale of Spring-Heeled Jack.  Coincidentally, that story also featured gaseous alien beings, just as this story does.  Spring-Heeled Jack’s aliens were rooted in the gaslights which began to line London streets around this time.  The Haunting of Thomas Brewster’s gaseous aliens are more synonymous with the London fog so often used in horror and thriller stories set in this time.  The Unquiet Dead also features gaseous style aliens with the Gelth, again being aligned with the gaslamps dotted around Gabriel Sneed’s funeral parlour – more on this thematic link of Victorian-based aliens another time.

Another link between stories is between this and Assassin in the Limelight.  In that story, the plot of Lincoln’s assassination, Knox’s time meddling and the possessive Indo often took second place to the characters of the Doctor, Evelyn and Knox.  In The Haunting of Thomas Brewster, we also find a lot more focus on the characters than the rather thin plot of aliens from the future trying to create their own future.  The script spends more time on the eponymous Thomas Brewster (which is to be expected, bearing in mind the title of the story) but also takes time to take a look at the relationship between the Doctor and his temporary assistant Robert McIntosh.  Whilst not as interesting as the character work presented in Assassin in the Limelight (and arguably not as well acted by the guest cast) it does have some interesting aspects.

Thomas Brewster is, basically, the Artful Dodger.  The behind the scenes interviews explain that Big Finish wanted to try a companion character like Adric, but done right.  Whether or not they succeeded at this is something I may look at when I review Industrial Revolution in a couple of stories time which is Brewster’s final story, but in this story at least he does work as a ‘Dodger’-type character.  Aside from ghost stories, Oliver Twist is the other obvious inspiration for the whole story including Brewster’s character: the orphan; the workhouse; the Fagin-like Creek; the well-to-do aristocracy (represented by the Doctor, McIntosh and Nyssa) taking in the urchin from the wrong side of the tracks.  The difference of course is that whereas in Oliver Twist the orphan ‘belongs’ in the upper echelons of society, Brewster is a born and bred denizen of the gutter and, at the first opportunity, nicks the TARDIS.  Brewster is written as a wrong-un but I don’t think he comes across as self-serving as the production team want him to.  His epiphany in the final episode softens any edge he might have had earlier and his stealing of the TARDIS at the close of the episode comes rather out of the blue.  John Pickard does his best with the script but he’s not the most successful of characters.

It’s been a while since I listened to Time Reef, the next story to feature his character, but I have recently listened to The Crimes of Thomas Brewster which again seems a little too desperate to show how self-serving his character is but just seems to soften his edges too much.  Maybe I’m missing the point of the character but it will be interesting to see how he develops in The Feast of Axos and subsequently Industrial Revolution.

The other main guest character is Robert McIntosh, the Doctor’s assistant.  When The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was announced much was made of Christian Coulson (Tom Riddle from the Harry Potter movies) joining Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton as a new character, Robert McIntosh.  I am sure the publicity at the time suggested he was the new ‘companion’.  I could be misremembering, but if I wasn’t, it was obviously a tactic to draw attention away from the actual new companion of Brewster.  There is some good work between Coulson and Davison when McIntosh discovers that the Doctor has been misleading him for the past year, although it stretches credulity a little that in all that time, Robert never once brought up the fact the Doctor had a Police Box in his house.  Unfortunately, Robert sacrifices himself to save the Doctor (something I had completely forgotten from my original listen a few years ago) meaning much of this character work is a little wasted, not helped by the fact that Robert is then never mentioned again demonstrating how rather throwaway he was.  I feel it would have been much more fun to have had hints of many unseen adventures for the pair (a little Jago and Litefoot in tone, maybe) which could have been a source of jealousy for Nyssa.  (It would also have allowed for a cross-over further down the line with Jago and Litefoot teaming up with the 5th Doctor and Robert to defeat some terrible Victorian menace…although actually this story is set much earlier than The Talons of Weng-Chiang, so any encounters would have to have involved some form of timey-wimeyness.  If McIntosh hadn’t died, maybe he could have come into Jago and Litefoot as a guest character…but I’m rambling now).

All in all, The Haunting of Thomas Brewster is something of a mixed bag.  Whilst I am not as vehemently against Brewster as a character as some fans, I do think his characterisation is a little fudged and not quite as successful in what they were trying to do as they may have hoped.  The plotline of ghostly apparitions feels a little cliched but the structure of the whole story is interesting: Episode 1 is entirely from the point of view of Brewster showing his life from infancy to ‘the present day’; Episodes 2 and 3 involve the Doctor, Nyssa and Robert and we explore the alien’s plan; and then Episode 4 revisits the first episode from the Doctor and Nyssa’s point of view filling in some of the gaps and jigsawing the timey-wimey aspects back together.  This does make for interesting listening.

What doesn’t make for good listening though is the terrible incidental music.  It is truly awful.  It has a ‘Sea Devil’ vibe about and just stabs into each scene with no apparent feel for the actual tone or atmosphere of the piece.  It is odd that in Assassin in the Limelight, I didn’t even notice the incidental music whereas in this, I felt like I wanted to escape from it, very fast, in the opposite direction to the synthesisers creating this cacophony.
An interesting structure, a smattering of good ideas and a thematic link to other Victorian-set stories is where The Haunting of Thomas Brewster leaves me.

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Return to the Web Planet

I really like timey-wimey stories, and I'm a big fan of stories that play with the format aswell. Sprinkle in some really emotional themes and you get a great story that I thoroughly enjoyed. There's a lot to like about this one even if I'm not entirely sure on how the time-travel stuff worked towards the end.

Thomas Brewster is a fun character, a brilliant foil to 5 and Nyssa. He has a very tragic backstory which I appreciate but he really seems to shrug it off for most of the story. I'm looking forward to seeing how his character develops especially after that cliffhanger. I still can't believe that they pulled the same thing twice in a row.

I strongly recommend this story, great time-travel mystery and I personally love stories that go "full circle" like that.

Next Story: The Boy That Time Forgot

This was creepy, ballsy and so brilliantly clever! I went into this with little expectations, and for such high remarks from many people, I'm surprised this isn't heralded as a classic and one of the all-time greats! In a lot of ways, this felt like Torchwood's Random Shoes, but with a witty and clever script and actually likeable characters.

I'd love to see the Fifth Doctor with a beard - part of me thinks it'd work on him. What a killer way to start the story from the Doctor and Nyssa's perspective. After losing Nyssa, he waits on Earth for a year to find her. A full year. You'd think, after reuniting with his companion, he'd be a lot more pleased to see her and optimistic, but it seems like his time in the Victorian era has made him grouchy and rather short at times, especially when he loses his TARDIS - Twice! Nothing seems to go right for the Doctor, and Davison performs this marvellously, often losing his temper and getting quite angry! I know I say this pretty much every story, but Nyssa has matured so much - whilst she started off as a meek orphan, she's developed into an adult who's able to comfort and help Thomas out with what's going on the way the Doctor had with her. The Doctor and Nyssa have such great chemistry, bouncing off each other with such witty dialogue. Thomas Brewster helps to narrate this story, and it's told from his point of view. With a phenomenal actor, unique characterisation and a tragic backstory, this gives him such a brilliant appeal as a companion. The way he almost plays an anti-hero creates such an interesting dynamic in this episode and I'm so excited to see how he throws a spanner in the works of this very tight and intimate pairing.

Oranges and lemons say the bells of saint clements... Brewster is haunted by a creature taking the form of his dead mother - marvellous idea. A lot like the Midnight entity, we never truly find out what it is or what it wants, but the way it's written is very creepy, and it uses the sound design to create such a brilliantly scary atmosphere. The mystery is built up so well, and the tension is constant and never lets up - resulting in a fantastic, timey-wimey conclusion that is so satisfying. The emotional ties to Thomas are so clever and it really develops both the plot and the character to be so complex and explored so brilliantly, the final confrontation is so interesting and it's so clever for him to reject the maternal figure that Thomas has craved over his entire life - it's a heartbreaking end for a rather light-hearted characcter.

Victorian London - I'll be honest, I struggled to see the Fifth Doctor in this environment, but such a grim tone, almost gothic horror, it fits so well with this setting. I love the narrative structure that this story follows, going chronologically in terms of Thomas' perspective and then going back in time to stop the events from coming into play. It's always engaging and utilises the location to its maximum potential.

Brewster's friend is a great plot device to help accelerate his character - there's a nice little mention to him possibly being gay, but not overtly discussing it because of the Victorian values and the repression of sexuality, a common trope and a clever reference to gothic horror. It's really heartbreaking when he dies, as do a lot of other people, raising the stakes for the final battle. The Doctor's servant is also very human - whilst he doesn't have a massive role in the story, there's still some real motivations and care taken with even the minor side characters, adding to the realism of the episode.

The music feels very 80s, bombastic and epic. Whilst some people don't care for it, I think it's nice. It doesn't fit too well with the story, but I think it grounds the story in the era it's meant to be set in and I feel like this could definitely work if made for television.

Favourite Line: "You were in the TARDIS in the year 2008 which will shortly be ending up at the bottom of the Thames."

An atmospheric, superbly written story. The actors clearly love their roles and give it their all, the tone of the story is terrifying with the setting used brilliantly, with the fog and the way time is folding in on itself, it allows everyone to share the spotlight, creating very human and realistic characters and the narrative structure is so clever. Full marks from me.