Other Lives by: Gary Hopkins directed by: Gary Russell: Pictures at an Exhibition

Other Lives stars Paul McGann as the Doctor with Ron Moody as the Duke of Wellington, Mike Holloway as Jacob Crackles, Francesca Hunt as Georgina Marlow, India Fisher as Charley and Conrad Westmass as C’rizz.  It was written by Gary Hopkins, directed by Gary Russell and released in December 2005 by Big Finish Productions.

 

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