| AULD MORTALITY by Marc Platt |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Adventurer travels back in time to meet and observe Hannibal, as he marches on Rome. Meanwhile, back on Gallifrey, the Doctor is a reclusive writer, looked after by Badger, a robot bear, and kept company by his great-uncle, Quences. Hannibal is angry at the Adventurer, who claims that this is just his fictional fantasy. A stranger arrives at the Doctor's house. She evades Badger and breaks into the Doctor's illusion. She is his long-lost grand-daughter, Susan. It turns out she is set to become President of the High Council, to Quences' delight. But Susan finally realises who he is - the real Quences is dead, this is Auld Mortality, a guiding figure which has dogged Presidents for a very long time. As Susan begins her investiture, the Doctor tries to stop Auld Mortality from taking over. Hannibal and his warriors break out of their reality and kill Badger, who was holding Auld Mortality. The Doctor realises his home is his missing TARDIS, and can finally go out among the stars, as he wanted to, but had been held back before by Auld Mortality. He asks Susan to come with him, even though she has grand-children of her own. The TARDIS takes off with the Doctor... |
| Review:- The Unbound audios were an interesting sideline in expanding the worlds of Doctor Who, by examening 6 scenarios and asking "what if things had been different?" Here, the choice is concerned with how things would have been if the Doctor had not left Gallifrey with Susan. It turns out that he's a semi-famous writer, who imagines adventures via equipment that allows a virtual interface with his subject matter, in this instance, Hannibal marching on Rome, although the basic inaccuracy of Hannibal's elephants being able to walk and talk casts some shadows of doubt on proceedings. Things seem fairly normal until Susan arrives, forcing her way in to find her Grandfather, who has forgotten all about her. She helps him find out that Quences has been clouding his mind, and is in fact, not Quences at all, but some strange mythological notion, of "auld mortality". This is a little odd, but then again, the NAs often suggested that ideas like Pain, Time and Death were people, of a sort. Auld Mortality is trying to use Susan, who turns out to be about to become President of Gallifrey. The Doctor of course comes to her rescue (and that of Gallifrey). Despite his apparent status as a non-interventionist, he is really. Quite how Hannibal and his troops get to help save the day is rather confusing. The end is, too, with a dual effect to suggest that Susan didn't go with the Doctor on his travels, and/or that she did. The big problem with this story is that it seems to get rather too tied up with its "what-if"-ness. Whilst there are brief nods to life beyond Gallifrey (the Thaleks, most notably), there is no obvious correlation with the Doctor staying home. That Gallifrey's observe-not-interfere rule seems to show that the rest of the universe in a terrible state, the idea that it was the absence of the Doctor that has caused this is left to the viewer to suppose. Tie this to the less-than-enthralling drama of Hannibal's choice of crossing the Alps, and Auld Mortality's less-than-gripping Machiavellian manipulation, and the result is a pretty flat play. Geoffrey Bayldon copes well as the Doctor, but is not helped by a pretty flat supporting cast. Carole Ann Ford at least keeps Susan to her usual standard, however that's a polite way of saying she's still rubbish. Derren Nesbitt gives his best shot at the evil Quences, but the story can't help it as much as it might. Not a promising start to the Unbound experiment, really. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |