| THE WORMERY by Stephen Cole & Paul Magrs |
| Story 51 Synopsis: The Doctor lands in a nightclub called Bianca's, ostensibly in 1930's Berlin, where he is not pleased to meet old sparring partner Iris Wildthyme. He is even less pleased to find that though the entrance is on Earth, the nightclub is actually in space. Iris complains of hearing voices, and is persuaded to usurp club owner and chanteuse Bianca as a star turn. When she does, she nearly causes a riot. The Doctor is dismissive of Iris' talk about the tequila worms, but falls under Bianca's influence, and nearly shoots Iris. It seems that two rival factions are trying to take over, one through Bianca and one through Iris. To complicate matters, Bianca is a future incarnation of Iris, much as the Valeyard was to the Doctor. Her club is Iris' old TARDIS. By using his own TARDIS in a Time Ram, the Doctor is able to thwart the invaders, at the cost of the club. Iris is free to go, but with the same cloud in her future as the Doctor has in his. |
| Review:- Released in the same month as mega-release Zagreus, and pitting a solo Doctor alongside Iris Wildthyme, this was greeted with less fanfare. Instead, it feels in the same league as previous panto efforts like The One Doctor, but rather better. Some distinction is achieved by the unusual narration between one of the nightclub staff, Mickey, recounting the tale to a mysterious Mr Ashcroft, who gets to hear events on tape. This gives some clues to later events, with the demise of the club and her survival, but no real ideas of what's been going on. The Berlin nightclub setting seems deliberately chosen to reflect a mood, a cultural moment, rather than for plot convenience. Bianca runs a strange club where Iris and the Doctor both arrive by chance, and realise something serious is going on. But the machinations of terrible time worms don't really inspire much drama, even with Colin Baker shouting his best. The notion of the club being only partly in Berlin, but really in space, does at least divert towards the actual plot, rather than the dressing of Nazis around the place. By the time the story suggests that Bianca has bamboozled the Doctor, that Bianca is Iris' unwelcome destiny, and that fate depends on a singing contest between Iris and Bianca, the audience will either be entranced, or bored rigid. Whilst the Doctor gets to do some vaguely Doctorish things with the TARDIS, the whole resolution is dreary in the extreme, with the worms seeming even less scary than before, which is hardly compelling. So ends the tale, which tries to deal with the Valeyard in a novel new way, but to the Doctor's deficit. As a committed disbeliever in the Cult of Iris, I will say that Katy Manning did her best to make the character succeed despite the rotten characterisation, with a voice worlds away from that of Jo Grant. But the final vocal bow goes to the elusive Mr Ashcroft, who in the play's final moments is revealed as being the 7th Doctor (presumably, being played by Sylvester McCoy). This does at least give a final solidity to a play that didn't succeed in being serious, but kept it above the level of farce. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |