The Perpetual Bond

The first part of the Oliver Harper trilogy. All of which contain a contrast between science and fantasy.

 

A little heads up: I watched all of these in a row before reviewing, so I might reference some of the other parts that are coming up when relevant. I usually don’t do this, but Daleks’ Master Plan took a lot of time and I needed a break :p.

 

The Doctor and Steven are reflecting on the event of Daleks’ Master Plan, when the tardis suddenly gets dragged to the 1960s by a mysterious force. The Doctor and Steven see this as an opportunity to meet up with Ian and Barbara. They quickly get sidetracked, however, when they spot a weird mushroom man in a business suit. After investigation, they meet up with Oliver Harper, a young business broker who helps them along the way.

 

First things first. The story starts off with both Steven and the Doctor in a depressed state. Which is fitting after the last story, but I believe it fundamentally misrepresents the ending that actually took place. It paints a picture of both the Doctor and Steven mourning the events immediately after they happen, but that was very clearly not what happened on screen. It ignores the interesting part, where the Doctor smiles and celebrates and instead decides both of them were sad from the start. That’s a huge loss of nuance, which kind of matters when you want to do a sequel story which explores the consequences of that ending.

 

What’s interesting is that the third story in this trilogy does refer to this. But at that point it’s too late to really focus on that piece of information. But we’ll talk about that when we get there.

 

In the current story, the Doctor and Steven are both in a period of grief. There are constant little remarks about how Steven could just be the next one on the list. How he’s on borrowed time with the Doctor.

 

But at the same time, we do have a plot to solve! Basically, a number of mushroom people have entered the stock market and are looking to trade. What are they looking for? Human slaves. Ain’t that grand. Sadly, and a bit confusingly, they do have the proper papers from galactic law to make these kinds of deal and take random humans away from their home.

 

And that’s where the story gets a bit odd. Because what’s galactic law? It seems to be both understood by the mushroom people and the Doctor, but not by Steven. Yet at the same time we have a human ambassador from the 60s who actually signed those papers. So it’s something earth knows about?

 

And it’s stuff like this that keeps happening throughout the story. It keeps the rules it uses secret until you need to know, yet at the same time it wants to talk about changing those rules. Imagine if you’re trying to describe rocket science to someone who doesn’t even know what the sky is. That’s what this story is like. It knows what it is on about, but doesn’t think of taking the audience by the hand. We have a scene where Steven defeats the mushroom people by humming the Beatles. Why does that work? No clue! The story doesn’t tell us. It just knows it works and leaves it at that.

 

At the same time the story has problems connecting its real-world economics theme with the sci-fi shenanigans. Sometimes it focuses on one, and sometimes on the other, but when the two themes meet, it quickly becomes a mess. Hearing a giant mushroom man yell about fungibility is not the most appealing.

 

What could’ve worked would be a closer connection between the monster and the economics. Right now, they’re mushrooms, but why? What makes this whole scenario so mushroom like? Why not something more fitting, like literal loan sharks or monsters who use our money as food? Something that would make more sense in the current setting. That would make it easier for us to understand the motivation of the opposite side, which in turn can be used to bridge the gap between the two themes.

 

Besides all this, it’s worth noting that I haven’t mentioned new companion Oliver Harper once. That’s because he’s mostly just along for the ride without establishing himself. We know 2 things about him after this: He is a businessman and has a secret. That not the most expansive portfolio to start off with. Hopefully other stories take it a bit further.

 

And that’s “The Perpetual Bond”. It follows its own story rules, but doesn’t bother explaining those. It has a new companion, but barely gives him a chance to establish himself. It tries to balance the real and the surreal, but lacks connection between the two. And to top it off, it also massively misinterprets the ending of Daleks’ Master Plan. After all that, there’s really not much to like. Is it the worst? No, it touches on some themes that are worth exploring and has solid sound design. but overall, it fails way more than it succeeds. Let’s hope the later stories pick up the slack.