Taking C’rizz into the
Victorian era on Earth is an idea that presents the main problem that being an
alien that resembles a humanoid chameleon, he cannot go to that period of Earth
without being mistaken for a freak. Gary
Hopkins of course doesn’t forget this and makes it one of the three subplots that
makes up Other Lives. The story is surrounded by the Doctor taking
Charley to see the Great Exhibition and the Crystal Palace where two French
Ambassadors steal the TARDIS, C’rizz is taken to a freak show, Charley meets
the Duke of Wellington and the Doctor is mistaken for the long lost husband of
a poor woman. Each of these stories serves
as a way to show just how the characters act when put into an odd situation and
each is extremely entertaining to listen to.
Starting with the Doctor’s
story, we have another situation of the Doctor meeting up with a random
doppelganger of himself for no reason except because why not and is confused
for the missing husband of Georgina Marlow played by Francesca Hunt. This portion of the story is definitely the
weakest, but not for McGann or Hunt’s performances, but for the writing from
Hopkins who beats around the bush to explain why Mrs. Marlow would confuse the
Doctor for her husband until Part Four where the plot gets interesting and the
motivations behind Mrs. Marlow are revealed.
You see she and her husband are very poor and are living in the home of
his uncle Rufus Dimplesqueeze played by Maitland Chamber who has it under
contract that if George disappears for more than a year his wife and kids are
left on the street with nothing. This
alone makes you sympathize with Marlow’s plight and of course the Doctor is
only happy to help with convincing Dimplesqueeze that George has returned and
they can keep the home. Paul McGann really
feels invested in his story which just brings back the breathless romantic that
we all know and love.
Moving on to Charley who
has an almost comedy of errors happen to her.
First she gets separated from the TARDIS, but that’s okay because she
meets the Duke of Wellington played by veteran actor Ron Moody and gets into
his good graces. She then gets kicked
out of the Great Exhibition and mistaken for a prostitute by Rufus
Dimplesqueeze and gets drunk and kicked to the curb. Everything begins to come up roses when she
gets accepted into the Duke’s home for the night, helps solve C’rizz’
storyline, but they have to impersonate French diplomats which for C’rizz is
just a chance to get some witty wordplay and then it’s all over. Now I like India Fisher and she has quite a
lot of good stuff in this and is at the top of her game, but a lot of Charley’s
plot in this also has the feeling of extreme padding except for the French
diplomat stuff. It isn’t necessarily a
bad thing, it just sort of sticks out like a sore thumb in this story which
just diminishes the whole piece some.
The real meat of the plot
is C’rizz’s plot which reviewer Stuart Hardy described as fun, well as fun as a
man being forced into a freak show and degraded for his outward appearance
actually could be. He really sums up
this portion of the story in a nutshell Part Four of his overview to the Eighth
Doctor Adventures which is a worthwhile watch for anyone wanting to get into
Big Finish. This story is really good at
giving us leaps and bounds for C’rizz as a character as he is captured by Jacob
Crackles who he eventually promises to save in a scene that is absolutely
terrifying as we know what it means for C’rizz to save someone actually is. This story outside of the disturbing freak
show subplot has a lot of comedy in it with the absolute best being Charley’s
reaction to being called a prostitute and the Janet! Brad! Dr. Scott! Rocky!
Piss Off! Moment at the end of the story.
To summarize, Other Lives does just what it says on
the tin, giving you a good glance into the other lives of Victorian era. It relies on a lot of coincidence and quite a
lot of it happens to feel like filler, but it is still a really good photograph
into another time that I say must be enjoyed by people. 80/100
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