Doctor Who Review: ‘The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Horror of Glam Rock’ audio
By James Aggas
While trying to get Lucie home, the Eighth Doctor arrives at a motorway café in the early 1970s. But when monsters attack, it looks like they and a host of glam rockers are on the menu, in ‘Horror of Glam Rock’!
Horror of Glam Rock is, on the surface, a nice little light-hearted story. With its ordinary 1970s setting and huge influence from glam rock, it does seem to present some light relief after the grimness of Blood of the Daleks. Even with the horror of monsters eating people, there’s still a fair bit of lightness to the story.
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As it goes on, however, there’s a little more to it than that. There’s more of a bittersweet edge, particularly when it focuses on its human characters. For a lot of people at this café, they all really want to make it big. They want to be rock stars and show the world how brilliant they are. Some are on their way to stardom. Some aren’t going to be anything at all. There’s a heartbreaking moment when one character is made to realize this, in a rather blunt way, too.
There’s a great guest cast in this one. Stephen Gately from boy band Boyzone stars as one of the “Tomorrow Twins”, a rising glam rock duo. He plays the role of Tommy rather well. Someone who’s not just out for fame, but a rather naïve soul who’s looking for answers in all the wrong places.
However, perhaps more interesting to New Series fans is who plays rock star manager Arnold Korns. Bernard Cribbins, more familiar to New Series fans as Donna’s grandad Wilf, plays Korns. Arnold is a great deal less likeable than Wilf, though. He’s arrogant, self-centred, and at times, even callous. It’s definitely interesting hearing him play such a radically different role. Especially when this was broadcast just less than a year before Wilf’s first appearance in Voyage of the Damned.
Developments and foreshadowings
As for the regular characters, Lucie is nicely explored further. She’s getting a better idea of what the Eighth Doctor and his adventures are like. At the same time, the Doctor is learning to respect her more, especially how well she handles herself in a crisis. It’s clear that they’re not quite ready to admit that they actually like each other just yet. However, the signs are definitely there.
There’s also a rather personal element for Lucie in this story. As a result of time travel, she gets to meet someone she’s very close to, years before Lucie herself was even born. This kind of plot and character development feels closest to the New Series, especially during Russell T. Davies’s seasons. While this story isn’t quite as hard-hitting as, say, Father’s Day, it’s nice that a companion’s backstory and family are explored so early.
There’s also another element to Horror of Glam Rock, but it only becomes apparent on re-listen. On its own, it’s a good stand-alone episode. And I’m convinced that’s all it was intended to be, at least initially. But, like The End of the World, this story becomes the starting point for a key arc of the series. It may not seem like it on initial listen, but Horror of Glam Rock has consequences that spread all the way to the fourth season of The Eighth Doctor Adventures. Perhaps even to the very end of it.
But more on that later. For the moment, as a good stand-alone episode, Horror of Glam Rock is a nice mix of horror, humour, and melancholy over 45 minutes. It may not be the best episode of the range, but it’s still a very enjoyable listen.
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