Marc Platt is one of my
favorite Doctor Who writers, writing only one television story that is
criminally underrated, but writing the final Seventh Doctor Virgin New
Adventure and continuing to write to this day for Big Finish Productions, his
contributions to the Doctor Who universe has been large as he’s outlined
Gallifreyean society and nearly always given us great stories to sink our teeth
into. His first Big Finish audio drama
is no exception to this as Loups-Garoux
is an audio that puts the Doctor for once in a place of near neutrality between
the two factions of the story. Now if
you don’t speak French you won’t get the twist of the title as in French
loups-garous is the word for werewolves.
Yes this is Doctor Who vs. Werewolves which doesn’t sound like that
interesting of a premise. That compiled
with the fact it’s a Fifth Doctor and Turlough story there isn’t much
confidence for this story to excel with the exception of the writer’s caliber.
The plot instead is
something completely different with the Doctor and Turlough both getting some
of their best characterization. The
story involves the two arriving in Brazil in 2080 for the Carnival celebration
where a rich old woman, Illeana de Santos, is going to transport her son into
the countryside as he has fallen ill. It
is eventually revealed that de Santos and her son are the leaders of a group of
werewolves running away from the immortal Peter Stubbe. There is also a native tribeswoman, Rosa, who
is trying to prove herself for her tribe.
Oh and she has a forest in her head.
Yeah, Platt is not one for standard stories and this one can only be
described as trippy as hell as everything is very abnormal in structure. The Doctor is made to help with de Santos’
son and de Santos starts to have feelings for the Doctor who while never really
reciprocating, he doesn’t want her to die going so far as challenging Stubbe to
the death so that he can save her and her son.
Platt is giving this plot his all and infuses it with some extremely
complex characters to just increase the tension.
Starting with our villain,
Peter Stubbe played brilliantly by Niky Henson, who is the weakest character as
the power hungry and almost sex crazed.
Stubbe is the original werewolf who has had a past relationship with Illeana
and wants to get back with her now that her husband is dead. He becomes extremely jealous when the Doctor
enters the picture. His character is the
most one note but Henson gives such a chilling performance the story is much
more bearable. I honestly get chills
from his voice alone. Next is Dr.
Hayashi, played by Burt Kwouk, who is the Japanese doctor Illeana has decided to
bring in to help with her son. Hayashi
is a scumbag and a racist who wants to cure the werewolves as they’re different
from normal people. He gets everything
he deserves in the end which is a great allegory. He is working as a double agent as he is also
a very greedy man.
Illeana de Santos is the
highlight member of the supporting cast.
She is played by Eleanor Bron who has cameoed in City of Death. She plays
Illeana as a motherly figure who is also looking for love, but still wants the
best for her son. She becomes smitten
with the Doctor, yet also has an extreme dark side that emerges on several
occasions as she is a werewolf. Peter
Davison and Eleanor Bron share remarkable chemistry through the course of the
audio as the Doctor isn’t in love, but is still sympathetic to their plight and
wants to help. The Doctor in this story
becomes neutral to the main argument as if werewolves are good or evil as they
are a lot like humanity in they can do it.
Davison’s performance in this is on point and makes me love his Doctor
more than I ever did on television. Something
similar happens to Turlough, who actually gets to return to the character seen
in Mawdryn Undead and Terminus as the alien who will do
anything to get what he wants. While he
doesn’t try to kill anyone he is extremely arrogant as he should be and
actually develops as he is put down once he is shown the darkness inside
himself. His arc continues with his
interactions with Rosa who teaches him.
The story also has a few
problems as the pacing is a bit off for its cliffhangers. This is the first time Platt has written a
four part story which is apparent as the cliffhanger to Part Two is really
badly paced. The villain is also weak
and the acting from Mark Strickson as Turlough has a few moments which come
across as extremely squeaky and it has problems.
To summarize, Loups-Garoux is hands down an example of
how good Marc Platt is as a writer with very few problems as there are some
weak characters and a few pacing problems.
I can recommend this to anyone who wants to see a Doctor Who story that
does something different with an honestly old idea. 87/100
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