Writing a companion
departure halfway through their run as companion to the Doctor seems much like
an odd thing to do, but perhaps fearing they would lose their license to
produce Doctor Who related audio dramas, Big Finish decided that now was the
time to write the departure for Dr. Evelyn Smythe into a story. They made it even more unconventional as Thicker than Water while dealing with the
departure of Evelyn Smythe, does it in flashbacks while the main story involves
the Doctor and Mel revisiting Evelyn who has married Rossiter from Arrangements from War. The plot of the actual story is not nearly as
good as the original Arrangements for War
as it becomes a much less meaningful plot about what is right to do with
prisoners of war after the war is over.
Sutton doesn’t handle it nearly as well as he handles the characters
going through the war which made that plot work much better. That isn’t to say Sutton isn’t good at his
characters which he is brilliantly here and his characterization allows for the
two hour piece to feel like it’s only about one hour in length which is done
very well.
Let’s talk about those
characters starting with Evelyn and Rossiter who share a much more intimate
relationship than in the previous story.
Maggie Stables’ Evelyn has been advocating for research into the
Killorans DNA and is happy to have her heart condition taken care of, but the
price is that she has become more aggressive of a person. These headaches have been making her act out
against people and that plays into some of the mystery of the story. Evelyn is still the character we know and
love, but she has started to change and become almost hardened and Stables is
able to pull it off. Of course by the
end there is a return to the status quo where you get a cameo from Sylvester
McCoy’s Seventh Doctor where we get to resolve the plotlines from some earlier
releases which is extremely well done. I
won’t go into spoiling what exactly will be revealed but it serves as a set up
to another one of Seven’s master plans in a very clever way. The story makes it very subtle, but there can
be no denial that it is there and something special is coming for the Seventh
Doctor. Gabriel Woolf as Rossiter shows
a lot of the same chemistry with Evelyn which was seen in Arrangements for War, but not because of the writing but because of
Woolf’s inflection in every line. Each
delivery directed towards Evelyn has a sense of love put behind each line. Woolf isn’t being the villain here, but being
a genuinely caring husband and father to his own daughter.
Yes Rossiter has a
daughter from his previous marriage who is a doctor called Sophia and is a
well-developed character. She is only
trying her hardest to help people while the villains are working under her nose
to experiment with Killoran DNA which leads to her almost breaking down which
is a great scene to listen to as it really works. Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford are also
giving some great performances as the Doctor and Mel. Mel’s dialogue with Evelyn is School Reunion but before School Reunion and done in a much less
catty way. The two women get on
immediately and both of them make fun of the Doctor and the crazy adventures
they get up to. The opening scene of the
story with the Doctor and Mel allows for a lot of these jokes to be set up with
Colin Baker on top form throughout.
To summarize, Thicker than Water is a great story even
though it isn’t nearly as good as the preceding story Arrangements for War as it doesn’t allow itself to be as emotional
and the plot is a rather weak one. It is
nice to see how Evelyn leaves the TARDIS which is the most emotional piece in
the story as she gets a happy ending of her own. 82/100
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