Doctor Who Review: The First Doctor Volume 2 – ‘The Bonfires of the Vanities’ (Audio)
By James Aggas
In the third story of the First Doctor Volume 2, the First Doctor, Ben and Polly face scarecrows and the darker side of human nature, in ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities’.
"When the Doctor, Polly, and Ben arrive in Lewes in the late 1950s, they’re just in time to celebrate Guy Fawkes’ Night. But there’s no fun on the streets tonight – the town is in the grip of fear. There are imps on the loose in Lewes, the Bonfire Boys are on the march, and nobody is safe from the fire."
Before this story, Ben and Polly had had no Companion Chronicles with the First Doctor. While they’ve had plenty of stories with the Second, this is their first taking place with Hartnell’s Doctor.
There’s a rather crucial reason for this. On television, Ben and Polly only had three stories with Hartnell. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem for creating new stories in a new medium. Peri only had two on-screen stories with Five, and yet they were given a huge era on audio.
However, one thing that helped expand their era was that there was a clear gap between their TV stories Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani. Not that I’m saying the TV series strongly implied that there was a great deal of off-screen adventures for the pair. But, at the very least, the ending to one story didn’t necessarily lead into the other.
Ben and Polly weren’t quite that lucky. The ending of The War Machines lead directly into The Smugglers. The latter was clearly established as their first actual journey on the TARDIS. The end of that story had the TARDIS crew arrive at the South Pole, directly leading into The Tenth Planet. This, of course, was the First Doctor’s final story. So how could Big Finish find a way around this problem?
Guy Fawkes Night
It’s nicely addressed directly at the start of The Bonfires of the Vanities, and does it in an intriguing way. The Doctor and his friends arrive in Lewes instead of the South Pole, which they had expected. This is immediately presented, to the audience at least, as something very wrong. It’s not clear to the main characters, and it isn’t resolved by the end. But it does let us know that the writers have carefully thought about the problem of telling more stories of One, Ben and Polly.
Right, now for the story itself. There were quite a few things I enjoyed about The Bonfire of the Vanities. I loved that it was set during Guy Fawkes Night, for one thing. For those of you that don’t know, the Fifth of November is a rather popular night in Britain. Bonfires are made and usually scarecrows (or “guys”) are placed on it to burn. There’s a long history to it, but it’s basically a way of Britain celebrating a failed political bombing, as well as a great excuse to use fireworks!
Monsters Both Alien and Human
The episode focuses on two kinds of monsters. There’s the classic typical Doctor Who kind of monster, which are, in this case, the scarecrows that are suddenly coming to life. It’s a really great, simple visual, and the story makes full use of that.
But the story also uses another kind of monster – humans. The story explores what happens when a general air of fear and paranoia spread across a town. Impressively, it does this with only two cast members. There is an alien threat in this story, but I love that it’s more keen to explore the human and psychological aspect, too.
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a great story for One, Ben and Polly. It’s atmospheric, it’s got some great key visuals with the scarecrows, and it’s keen to explore the darker side of human nature. This wasn’t my favourite of The First Doctor Volume 2, but that’s only because this set is so incredibly strong. It’s still another really great and effective story.
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