| FULL FATHOM FIVE by David Bishop |
| Story ? Synopsis: In 2066, the Doctor arranges with the owner of a submarine, Hoskins, to take him to the seabed, to an undersea base thought destroyed, the DEEP. Despite the Doctor's protests, his friend Ruth stows away on board. They find the DEEP still intact. Leaving Hoskins to do repairs to the submarine, the Doctor and Ruth explore, finding the research lab of a scientist, Lee, who had been conducting genetic experiments with backing from military funding. Ruth's father, Vollmer, was the public face of the DEEP, disapproving of Lee's sideline project. The Doctor begins burning Lee's notes, determined to prevent any repeat of his work. He admits he was present in 2039, when the DEEP was thought destroyed. General Flint was also present to check on Lee's work. He set off charges to destroy the DEEP. The Doctor shot Lee to stop him, and then shot Vollmer, who had begun to mutate. Flint had the TARDIS key, and the Doctor was forced to leave in a hurry. He finds the TARDIS still safely intact - but so is Flint, who has also mutated. The Doctor admits he wants to destroy the DEEP and all witnesses, so Ruth shoots him, and when he regenerates, she shoots him again. Flint tells her he will swim away to a merciful death, leaving Ruth to return to the surface in an escape pod, with the evidence of what really happened back in 2039. |
| Review:- A dark and murky tale of deception, and the dangers of consequences... Here, David Collings gets a turn as the Doctor. He had previously appeared in the series alongside Tom Baker and Peter Davison, and had also appeared in Sapphire and Steel and countless other series, including my favourite Look and Read: Dark Towers. He is a colder Doctor, less concerned with keeping people sweet, and prepared to take consequences. Indeed, the what-if here is, apparently, what if the Doctor thought the ends justified the means? Unlike the other what-ifs, this is a play about the effects of a change in character and ultimately, a different moral code. It begins sweetly enough, with his chartering of a submarine to investigate a mysterious under-sea base, and trying to stop Ruth, a friend, from coming along, even though her father died down there. The story continues in two strands, the "now" of 2066 and the crucial "then" of 2039, when the Doctor paid a visit to the DEEP. As events in the present move slowly through discoveries, we learn of crucial elements in the past. The Doctor is well acted by Collings, and is believable in the role. His repeated comments that Ruth ought to have stayed behind, as well as his destruction of the errant Lee's notes give clues to a rather more frantic nature, and his failure to stop General Flint in 2039 shows him losing control in a different way. His shooting of Lee is the crucial evidence, as he wilfully murders a man with whom he disagrees, merely to stop him. The mutation of Professor Vollmer, and Flint's rather drastic bomb-plot force him to evacuate in a hurry, leaving his TARDIS behind. Thus, in the present, he's still searching for the lost key, and has to face up to his consequences, whatever the cost. The play concludes with the Doctor admitting that he also killed Vollmer, and has lied to Ruth ever since, even though he fulfilled her father's dying promise to look after her. Flint still lives, a mutant, driven by the chance for revenge on the Doctor. Caught between the woman he has betrayed, and the man he left to die, the Doctor has no escape. First he chokes on his key, and then Ruth shoots him. Carelessly, he has told her of regeneration, and so when he does, she shoots him again, until he is dead. Many have praised this shock ending, but to my mind, it's one of the weak parts of an otherwise gripping play. Some suggest the Doctor may have become this cold figure because he's been trapped for 27 years (like the Master was trapped in Sympathy For The Devil). But the Doctor is clearly a cold figure before his incarceration. What this gung-ho killing machine fails to do is to get his way. That the Doctor could be a ruthless killer is one thing. But he now seems to have no people skills at all. He is careless to lose his TARDIS key, taking Flint face on. He is careless to let Ruth come with him. He is careless to tell her his secrets. He is careless in letting Ruth carry a gun, knowing she might well use it on him. It's not so much a what-if on morality, as "what if the Doctor was a careless buffoon?" And the consequences of that are all too evident. This is a great story, full of mystery, action and pace. Collings shines in a so-so cast, helped by a good script. One final note - the title comes from a Shakespearean quote, which Flint gets to recount in the final scene. Perhaps unfortunately, I once read a misquote of the line which went "Full fathom five thy father lies - his aqualung was the wrong size". Which has always been far more memorable than the actual quote... |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |