Phantasmagoria by Mark Gatiss directed by Nicholas Briggs: Got any Hearts?

Phantasmagoria stars Peter Davison as The Doctor and Mark Strickson as Vislor Turlough.  It was written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Nicholas Briggs and released in October 1999 by Big Finish Productions.

 

While The Sirens of Time saw Big Finish’s Doctor Who range begin with what was supposed to be a bang by reuniting three Doctors in a multi-Doctor story, what classic team will they follow it up with?  Well they decide to get Peter Davison in to do the story, but set the story within the gap between Resurrection of the Daleks and Planet of Fire where he is travelling with Turlough.  Yeah not really a classic team as Turlough’s character had some promising beginnings but after his second story he became one-note with his trait being whiny.  So Big Finish could easily elevate themselves by redeeming his character through this story, which it does by giving him nothing to do except to be captured and ask questions.  So yeah this is the stereotypical companion role for any character in Doctor Who which doesn’t do anything to improve his character.  It makes him completely indistinguishable from the other companions, but Mark Strickson is trying his best with the material he is given and like The Sirens of Time he shows potential to be better with a better script.

 

Peter Davison gets his first full story as the Doctor for Big Finish here and he does come through as the Doctor.  He feels a lot more wary from the events of Frontios and Resurrection of the Daleks which see him go through a lot of stuff.  He nails the old man in a young man body seen in Season 21.  Some of this helps that Davison is much older here than he was when his television era was.  He is clearly having a blast working with the story as it is a pretty interesting mystery in the seventeenth century akin to The Visitation.  The biggest problem with the mystery is that Part Four really lets the entire story down and there is a bit of a tone shift from a dramatic comedy to plain drama.  The writing early on is really comedic as Mark Gatiss can excel at comedy and drama, but not at the same time.  The script also feels like it was meant to be a lot darker than it turned out, like something akin to the novel Nightshade.  Though I do commend the Big Finish Team for getting Gatiss in along with a rather star studded with Gatiss in it as a character and comedian David Walliams playing a big part.  Also the lesser known actors are much more memorable than the ones in The Sirens of Time.

 

The problem with the story is mainly that it feels very cut down and like it’s rushing to get to a conclusion without all the pieces in place.  The twist cliffhanger for Part Three just sort of happens with very little buildup to be had and while it doesn’t create plot holes it does just happen and the plot then changes focus quickly.  Also some lackluster characterization but great comedy.

 

To summarize, Phantasmagoria has the potential to be a great story and Mark Gatiss can do great things, but here he just has some good ideas that could have been great.  With that said Davison is clearly having another ball as the Doctor and Mark Strickson is really trying his hardest here, yet it doesn’t really click as well as it could have.  Acting is top notch here and Briggs does a lot better with direction than in The Sirens of Time.  60/100