Doctor Who Review: The Eighth Doctor and Charley – Season 1 (Audio)
By James Aggas
After reviewing each of the Eighth Doctor’s stories individually, let’s take a look at the strengths and flaws of his first season overall.
Looking at Paul McGann’s first audio season of Doctor Who as a whole, it’s interesting to see how Big Finish handled such a huge task. Particularly how successful they were of making their first brand new season of Who that was “modern.”
One thing that is surprising is how there isn’t much of an arc between the stories — especially since the very beginning of a very clear arc was presented in ‘Storm Warning.’ In short, the Doctor ends up saving Charley, a woman who was supposed to die on the R101, according to the Web of Time. Even worse is that despite her being his latest companion, she has no idea about it. It’s only briefly mentioned in ‘Minuet in Hell,’ and isn’t remotely mentioned at all in ‘Sword of Orion,’ or ‘The Stones of Venice.’
The overall impression is that the production was rather rushed, but not in a way that detracted from the quality, necessarily. Considering that only two of the scripts were completely original stories, and the other two were adapted from fan productions of Audio Visuals, I get the feeling that Big Finish aimed to get a season out of the way the moment they brought McGann on board. If that’s the case, it’s quite impressive how successful the first season was.
One crucial and especially successful element of the season was Charley Pollard. The Eighth Doctor’s first audio companion (well, production wise), she was an absolutely perfect match for McGann’s Doctor. Brave, eager for adventure, and with just the right amount of class, Charley complimented the Eighth Doctor extremely well. The fact that she is someone who is so full of life, and yet was meant to die young, really does help to add something extra, too.
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India Fisher portrayed Charley absolutely brilliantly, and really was a crucial part of why the companion works so well. Charley was written with an innocence and a high level of enthusiasm to her. If she hadn’t been portrayed correctly, I believe there was a good chance that the character could have gotten annoying really quickly.
Instead, Fisher took these qualities and not only made them three-dimensional and believable, but also incredibly endearing. She also has perfect chemistry with McGann, and they were really fantastic at portraying this brand new, but close friendship so convincingly.
As for Paul McGann himself? Just absolutely brilliant, that’s all I can say. Five years since he had played the role on television and yet he slips back into it so very easily. Like Charley, Eight still has a lot of innocence and eagerness to him at this point. Oh boy, is that gonna change in later seasons!
As far as first seasons go, McGann’s was a pretty strong one. Despite the disappointing finale of ‘Minuet in Hell’ and not having much of an arc, it’s overall a strong beginning with some good stories, great performances, and a brilliant new companion.
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