Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Thicker than Water by: Paul Sutton directed by: Edward Salt: Blood in the Water

Thicker than Water stars Colin Baker as the Doctor with Gabriel Woolf as Rossiter, Bonnie Langford as Mel and Maggie Stables as Evelyn.  It was written by Paul Sutton, directed by Edward Salt and released in September 2005 by Big Finish Productions.

 

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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