UNDERRATED TO HELL N BACK

03.05.2022

It's an interesting one. Bernice Summerfield is an excellent companion to the Doctor, and even though it's not her first appearance (see Virgin New Adventures), it was still immediately clear who she was and how she interacted with the other two. I think there's a story waiting to be told just with Bernice's character alone, that's how good of a character she is.

I don't like the scheming Seven. I find this interpretation of the Doctor to be rather dull and monotonous. Once you've seen one such story, you've basically seen them all. But this one has a twist. What if the Doctor's plan doesn't work out? What if he's outsmarted and outskilled?

This results in a surprisingly coherent story, that unfortunately starts coming together only in the last third of the story. Before that you can even think it's another procedural with no point.

It's longer than it needs to be, gets sidetracked and the actual core of the story, though very-well formulated, is shaky in the realized version. It's a good listen, but also skippable. 3.5/5

MR 013: The Shadow of the Scourge

Well that was horrifying. This is definitely the first real horror story in the main range and it works very well.

An eight dimensional army of beings called the Scourge emerge from another universe and feed on the fear of humans. What makes this story really horrifying is what they can do. They're so far beyond humanity that they can force humans to kill themselves or each other just by speaking to them. They come through into this universe by inhabiting and transforming the bodies of humans, preying on their fears and insecurities to push their way in. So you've got body transformation and mind control horror.

The Doctor has a plan to deal with them, but that plan fails and halfway through the story he gets transformed himself in a pretty horrific second episode cliff hanger. It's wild to see this Doctor, the one who plans and lays traps and always seems like he's in control, very much so NOT in control. We get to see the Scourge playing on the Doctor's insecurities. I love the characterization here of this Doctor being someone who constantly tests his companions to see if they'll leave because they always inevitably leave him anyway. So he pushes them away before they have a chance to hurt him. I relate to that so much cause I do the same thing.
Ace does something rather insane here. She has someone bash her ears in and thus ruin her eardrums so she can't hear the Scourge's commands. Which is certainly one way around the mind control if you can't deal with the insecurities that they cause. It's pretty wild. We get to hear her shouting and not hearing anything for most of the backhalf of the story.

Bernice also says things like "by the goddess" a lot, I assume she's from a world where they worship a goddess.

The story also starts off in a very interesting way with three different conventions going on. A mystic conference to the great god Om (which is the spark to let the Scourge in), a time travel demonstration, and a cross stitch convention. I don't know about the characterization of cross stitchers being desperate and depressed but sure. It works for what they're going for here.

In the end, the Doctor pushes back by crawling to the top of the Scourge hive mind after he's been transformed. And when he's about to succumb to the Scourge entirely, Bernice comes back for him and pulls him out of it. They get the humans to push back, to not be afraid, to admit their insecurities and failures and not be afraid of hiding them anymore. It's a great ending to a great story.

Also, this cover does not in any way do the Scourge justice. Not sure what they were thinking with preying mantis people. Does this scream "the embodiment of human fear and insecurity and the conception of hell" to you? No. No it doesn't. Nice shades for Ace though. Still, great audio, easily the Seventh Doctor's best so far.

The Monthly Adventures #013 - "The Shadow of the Scourge" by Paul Cornell

The Shadow of the Scourge is a very interesting entry of The Monthly Adventures - the first of three “side steps” (stories featuring characters from the books and comics), this one written by Paul Cornell, my second favourite Who writer beaten only by Rob Shearman. Featuring one of my favourite TARDIS teams, with an interesting premise and a unique place in canon, it’s needless to say that I was very excited to listen to it. But did it land? And could it live up to the legacy of the VNAs?

In a luxury hotel in Kent, a group of fanatical religious types, investors of a time experiment and the annual cross-stitching convention converge at the invasion and feast of deadly alien menace The Scourge, who the Doctor is seemingly powerless to stop.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

I think I’ve made it quite clear here before that I have a very big soft spot for the Virgin New Adventures. Adventurous, untethered, willing to do what the show couldn't before, a series unfortunately plagued by edgy writing and grimdark narratives spawned some of the most iconic and interesting Doctor Who stories and when it worked, it really worked. Chief amongst the visionaries bringing this series to life was Paul Cornell, a writer who has become Who legend for introducing fan favourite companion Bernice Summerfield and writing some all time great stories like Human Nature and Love and War. The main thing I was excited to see here was a fully voice acted Benny and “New Ace” (Ace after her personality was reworked in the VNAs) and I’m glad to say I did not go away disappointed. Aldred and Bowerman both nail their performances and since this is written by the author who pioneered these two characters, you just know the characterisation is superb. In the realm of dialogue, Cornell can sometimes struggle with making the characters speak naturally but very often you get some great one-liners and a very nice, wry humour that persists throughout the whole story, which helps alleviate the otherwise incredibly twisted tone. Creating this dire mood are our antagonists - The Scourge, unfeeling and ravenous aliens that possess and transform different members of the hotel in an incredibly horrifying manner. The sound design and voice acting makes these things absolutely sickening and incredibly threatening, especially when they succeed in partially taking over the Doctor. I also think The Shadow of the Scourge’s setting is rather unique: a bougie hotel in Kent that gets transported to another dimension, leaving behind a massive pit where it once stood, kind of like the hospital in Smith and Jones. The hotel setting is not only pretty evocative but being sent to and trapped in a universe made entirely of thought and void is a terrifying visual.

As for things that didn’t work for me quite so much, The Shadow of the Scourge is one of those weird stories where I find it hard to outline what exactly detracts from it except general vibes; I like so much of it and yet I feel it falls short of the mark. Mainly I think the story’s just lacking in… something. It feels too constrained and like it spends too much time not doing anything, a lot of the action takes place in the background. Plus, most of the time we do spend fighting our resident alien menace is spent with incredibly dull side characters who I just could not bring myself to like - not one of them felt that deep, despite the script’s attempts. Another thing I found myself rather disappointed in was the Doctor himself, especially since the VNA take on the Seventh Doctor is one of my favourite incarnations; the dark trickster and cosmic chess player is a really fascinating way to portray this character and when done right, I think it can be one of the absolute best takes on the Doctor. Unfortunately, whilst The Shadow of the Scourge makes an attempt to have the Doctor play massive, multistep games with the enemy and have him work against his own companions to win, it doesn’t follow through and only really uses this characterisation for one fake-out early on, the rest of the time he acts more like the regular Big Finish take on the incarnation, which just annoying to me personally.

The Shadow of the Scourge was a fun time, it’s really nice seeing what is essentially a VNA - if a pretty bog-standard one - made for audio with all the tone and general ideas in place. More than anything, The Shadow of the Scourge is a fascination for me, a sideshow more than a side step, where I can see some of my favourite characters together in a new medium. It’s a weird sort of in-betweeny story, but definitely a good listen.

7/10

Pros:

+ Great to hear Ace and Benny on audio, Aldred and Bowerman both nail the performance

+ The Scourge are a well realised and scary alien menace

+ The hotel transported to another dimension makes for a great setting

+ Boasts some fantastic and quotable dialogue

Cons:

- Indistinct and dull sidecast

- The Doctor’s characterisation feels half baked

- The story feels like it’s lacking in vitality

I had a fun time with the Shadow of the Scourge. I do love this line of early main range audios that feature literary Doctor Who characters.

This is a really fun edition of that. I love the setting featuring a couple of conference rooms at a hotel, the Doctor trying to manipulate the situation to save the Earth, and how seamlessly it felt to have him working with Ace and Benny. I also really liked Ace's bonkers (and extremely harmful) plan to deafen herself. It's the kind of thing that pushes against realism but the fun of the scene and the dialogue, coupled with Benny's reaction, really sold me on the moment. The monsters were decent too, as there was a good sense of struggle in the Doctor going up against these beings.

What is weaker about Shadow of the Scourge is how much time our protagonists spend apart. This is mitigated by the strength of writer Paul Cornell's side characters, who are all pretty memorable, but it still is a shame when audio stories with Benny and the Doctor are comparatively rare. They are fun together and it does leave me wanting to check out some of the novels where she is a companion.