| NIGHT THOUGHTS by Edward Young |
| Story 79 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in an isolated spot. When Ace falls into a lake, the Doctor and Hex bring her to a nearby residence where she can recover. But when a young doctor dies mysteriously in the cellar, the Doctor suspects something is very wrong. Ace hears crying, and Hex has a nasty encounter in the kitchen. The doctor's body goes missing, and the Doctor finds that a top secret experiment in particle time travel is underway. Ace nearly comes a cropper in a bear trap. It turns out that 10 years earlier, a young girl was thought to have got gravanax poisoning, the first stage of which is blindness. In fact, it wasn't so serious, but by then she's been given a lethal injection as a merciful release. The scientists are trying to send a message back to stop them making their mistake. But instead they deny it, and the Doctor muddies the waters. With most of the scientists dead, and the police summoned, the Doctor, Ace and Hex return to the TARDIS, whilst a young patient leaves with her rediscovered father. |
| Review:- This story was originally intended for TV transmission, in either 1990 or 1991, according to an extensive and authoritative article in DWM many years ago. With changes, it turns up here on audio, where it probably stands a better chance. Spooky settings in cut-off locations is par for the course sometimes, and this story plays on its cliches with aplomb. The time travellers find everyone is suspicious and when someone dies, the natural reactions are absent. Leading the pack is Major Dickens, with Bernard Kay adding BF to his many on-screen DW roles. The Major seems the main protagonist, even with the mystery of the murders, and his behaviour is odd more than it isn't. I think there's some suggestion that his time in uniform is responsible for the way he is, but that's as insulting as it is thin. Anyway, there are two strands to deal with, and the Major is connected to the more rational of the two, a time travel experiment to correct a mistake. A blinded child misdiagnosed and then killed, whom the Major believes can be saved. This motive for keeping shtum is crazy, and since the Doctor seems to be on his guard against trouble from very early on, suggests that he knows there's more to it. His praise of the special machine one minute, only to ridicule it the next is even more bizarre. Then he goes back in the TARDIS anyway to check out what happened. The impression is created of a script with no control at all. The other strand is the more pointedly spooky, as the murders seem to little similarity, and no clue as to whom is causing them. That the dead child is later deduced to be the culprit by climbing into and out of her tomb of a bear suit suggests that macabre moods are desired, but a jumpy tape recorder and a silly toy teddy do not a horror make. Whilst the Doctor is busy with his mind games, Hex has his work cut out trying to get through to Ruth, who in a real minus for the play, finds her father has been close to her all along, and her dead twin sister may or may not be a killer. But this still beats Ace, who falls into a lake, nearly drowning, before blundering through a field of traps and nearly losing a leg. The cliffhanger at the end of part 2 which implies she has was presumably too tempting to ignore, but its rather dull explanation kills off the tension. The bear traps seem to be inexplicable except for this cliffhanger, and to show how nuts the Major is. And since he is, why do the others put up with it? To cap it all off, the Major is tied up and left for the police, but finds that despite the Doctor's assurances, the killer is still at large, and has one more victim to take... Bewildering, boring, baffling and bemusing. This play makes nice with the atmosphere, but fails to create sound enough reasons for things to occur, which renders the whole thing a failure. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |