The Quality of Mercy

Now that was odd. I had only listened to The Quality of Mercy once before, soon after purchasing it. I remember being intrigued by the idea of David A McIntee continuing the adventures of Guy de Carnac, a character from his New Adventures novel, Sanctuary – a novel I had enjoyed immensely.
I also remember enjoying the audio.

As JNT once said…the memory cheats.

I had fully expected to be writing a positive review of this story in the same way I had fully expected to write a negative review of The Green Man (which I had actually listened to more than once). My hazy recollections of The Green Man were, frankly, spot on. My hazy recollections of The Quality of Mercy were not.

The story sees disgraced Templar Knight, Guy de Carnac arrive in a village to find himself aiding a local priest who is looking after a mysterious foreigner who apparently arrived in a flying ship. Soon after, the Inquisition arrive to question the foreigner. One of the Inquisition aids Guy in helping the foreigner escape. The end.

It struck me, as I listened to this story, that nothing really happens throughout the entire play. Guy arrives in the village, Guy meets the strange man, Guy, the priest and the Inquisition debate the foreigner’s origins, Guy and Brother Reynard help the man escape back to his flying ship, everyone goes home.

The cast perform quite well but there are endless scenes of characters just talking about things: the foreigner, religion, Guy’s morality, the Inquisition’s morality.

The main problem I have with the story is its vagueness. The blurb states this is medieval Europe and that is as definite as the time and place get. Guy is an ex-Crusader but there is no indication of where in the world he is now, how long he has been dismissed from the Templar Knights or whether the Crusades are still occurring. The presence of the Inquisition suggests the 13th Century but nothing more specific than that. Even more vague are the origins of the stranger. He cannot speak our language but can be understood if the locals wear a scarab beetle broach. His flying ship is not (as one may assume early in the play) a spaceship, but an actual flying boat. At the end of the play he intimates that his ancestors once lived in Egypt, but his race now live far, far south – wherever that may be. But ultimately, there are no real answers. We don’t find out who the stranger is, or where he came from, or how it is he has a flying boat or a magic language translator shaped like a scarab. We don’t find out why Guy was dismissed from the Templar Knights or why he is wandering apparently aimlessly through Europe.

I know some writers enjoy ambiguity in their writing, but it just irritates me as a reader/listener/viewer. I don’t mind working some stuff out for myself, but in a story as vague as this there is no sense of satisfaction – which is something I look for in a good story.

Historically there are some interesting sections commenting on the rites and rituals of the Templar Knights, the public perception of the Inquisition and the odd detail thrown into dialogue such as references to the Crusades and Saracens. It is also good to finally have some medieval monk characters – aside from the Meddling kind (although I am aware there are some in The Book of Kells, an 8th Doctor audio I have skipped due to not owning it yet).

This story has been a surprise for me – a surprise that I hadn’t remembered how unsatisfying it is. The constant dialogue scenes take the story nowhere and offer very little insight into the characters or the situation, constantly skirting around the edges of the plot rather than being willing to offer up some actual answers. It is not an audio I am going to rush back to listening to again and, coupled with The Green Man, makes for a unimpressive start for BBV’s contribution to this marathon. I hope that my fond recollections of stories such as The Barnacled Baby and In2Minds don’t prove to be as misremembered as these.

This is barely a Doctor Who related story.

The tale is interesting and well told, but doesn't do a lot for me. It's merely fine. The cast does a good job and really inhabit the characters.