Doctor Who Review: ‘Storm Warning’ (Eighth Doctor Audio)
By James Aggas
In his first audio adventure, ‘Storm Warning,’ the Eighth Doctor meets Charlotte Pollard. (credit: Big Finish)
The Eighth Doctor meets Charley Pollard on board a doomed airship in this incarnation’s first audio adventure, Doctor Who: ‘Storm Warning.’
Well, it’s long overdue, but five months after writing up my review of Doctor Who: The TV movie, I’ve begun my planned journey of re-listening to all of the Eighth Doctor‘s audio stories from the start. And what a brilliant start it was.
Released back in January 2001, ‘Storm Warning’ was an incredibly major release for Big Finish. After over a year and a half of releasing Doctor Who audio stories exclusively for the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors, the company was finally making stories with the “current” Doctor, Paul McGann.
This was significant in two major ways. Firstly, it was the first time that McGann had played the role since the television movie. Secondly, the show was still off the air, and would remain that way for another four years. These new audios were, along with the comics and the Eighth Doctor Adventures range of novels, one of the closest ways of fans getting Doctor Who that felt brand new. For some, with McGann back in the role, perhaps the closest.
With these stories, Big Finish could go anywhere with the character. Here was a Doctor who never got a final story on television – heck, he didn’t even get a second! Five years on, and this Doctor was still very much brand new. Big Finish could follow the interpretation set by other expanded media, or it could go in its own direction. Unsurprisingly, considering how very complicated arcs in the novels and comics were by this point, they decided to go with the latter option.
‘Storm Warning’ kicks off the series with the Eighth Doctor arriving in 1930 onboard the airship R101 on its maiden voyage. On the ship, he comes across many things: a spy with a top-secret mission, a mysterious passenger that a lot of people want to keep quiet about, and a young Edwardian adventuress: Charlotte Pollard (or “Charley” to her friends) — someone who’s about to affect his life in a big way.
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There’s no question that this is a great introduction story, and I need to give a lot of credit to writer Alan Barnes for why that is. In this story, he not only had to further characterize a Doctor who had barely been given an hour’s worth of screen-time, but also introduce us to a brand new companion, set up both their new relationship dynamic as well as their arc, and tell a good Doctor Who story in the process! I can’t imagine how much pressure there was on him to get this story exactly right with all of the elements it needed. Ultimately, he succeeded really well here, all things considered.
So how is the Doctor portrayed? At this point in his life, Eight comes across as a highly enthusiastic wanderer, embracing new sights and new adventure with almost childlike enthusiasm. At times, he almost reminds me of Tom Baker’s Doctor at his best, particularly when he’s acting silly or just having fun. This is due both to the characterization of the Eighth Doctor and, of course, how much Paul McGann just seems to throw himself into the role. It’s strange to think that it had been half a decade since he had last played the Doctor, and yet he plays the character as brilliantly and with as much enthusiasm as he had for the movie.
Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor (credit: BBC)
Another noteworthy performance? India Fisher. Her first story as Charley, and she’s absolutely brilliant. She makes the character’s eagerness to see the larger world hugely endearing, and her chemistry with Paul’s Doctor is incredibly clear. It’s funny how Charley and the Doctor seem to become such close friends within minutes of meeting each other, but due to both leads, it works incredibly well.
In fact, the whole story is absolutely filled with really great and memorable characters. Gareth Thomas’s Lord Tamworth is one clear example. In some ways, he’s a loud aristocrat who’s clearly looking for glory. As the story goes on, however, it’s gradually revealed that he’s also a man with hidden depths, and with more than a little hope for redemption.
Rathbone, on the other hand, is another story. A man working for British Secret Service, he’s an absolutely repulsive individual who’s clearly out for himself as much as he’s out for the glory of the British Empire. A man more dangerous than the alien race in the story, he’s a wonderfully loathsome villain who’s really well played by Barnaby Edwards.
I think the reason that the characters work so well is because of the story and environment given to them. While there’s more than a hint of science fiction with the alien race known as the Triskelion, it’s the 1930s setting that provides the story with a lot of depth and three-dimensional characters. This is particularly so in regards to the tragedy of the R101, as the Doctor is aware from the start that none of the passengers aboard the airship will survive the doomed flight.
Well, almost none. The Doctor, finding out that Charley is a stowaway on board the R101, believes she was never meant to die on it. Unfortunately, by the end — and only after he takes her away from the crashing ship — he rapidly realizes that this is far from the case. Charlotte Pollard was meant to die on that ship, and he has to take her back immediately.
The fact that he doesn’t, and in fact agrees to her offer of becoming his companion, not only kicks off a major arc for McGann’s first two seasons, but also establishes one more important character trait about the Eighth Doctor: his compassion combined with his emotion. He’s only just met Charley, and yet he risks unravelling the web of time to travel with her. It’s a beautiful way of both truly establishing McGann’s Doctor and bringing Doctor Who into the modern day with an emotional edge, even if it was purely on audio.
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