1950’s America saw the
rise of suburbia where every house was neatly lined on a street with the same
coat of paint where your standard housewife will stay home all day and at the
evening the whole family would sit around the television entertaining
themselves. Now take that image, bring
it to a British setting and make it somehow a claustrophobic base under siege
style story by first time writer Eddie Robson.
The tone of this story is an honestly odd one as there is a base under
siege element to it, but Robson’s story plays off the memory of childhood. Even the blurb on Big Finish’s website points
out this idea: “No summer can ever quite be as glorious as the ones you remember from
when you were young, when a sunny afternoon seemed to last forever and all
there was to do was ride your bike, eat ice-lollies and play with Lego”. It’s this type of romanticized memory that
fits in extremely well with the characterization of the Eighth Doctor who has
always been the breathless romantic. At
the start of this story when he seems to land in an old timey home with an old
timey ice cream truck outside he of course is in love, but soon the base under
siege story sets in. Everything outside
looks the same and the Doctor, Charley and C’rizz are immediately lost and have
to figure out which house has the TARDIS only to find the ice cream man steals
it. Yes this story has an evil ice cream
man that steals the TARDIS. Ok I know
that that isn’t really an ice cream man, but that’s what the mystery is. Why does everything look the same? Why does an adult claim to be a ten year old
living with his grandmother? Why is
there an astronaut running around the place?
Giving anything more away would be ruining Robson’s superb ability to
get his audience invested in the mystery.
As this is a story about the memories of when a man was a child the
Eighth Doctor is completely in his element and Paul McGann is on top form. While he is wary of the situation the Doctor
can’t help but accept a free cup of tea from a kindly old lady. Robson makes the Doctor have to go through
several character shifts in this story and McGann has to pull them off at the
drop of a hat which he does excellently.
The Doctor becomes more and more lost in the environment McGann gives a
sense of air to his voice as he is put in his ideal spot which really
works. He is actually juxtaposed with
C’rizz who is the only character not to get lost in the idealism of memory as
he has no real happy memories of his own inside his head and there are too many
from the people he’s killed to be weeded out for manipulation. It’s Conrad Westmass’ best performance in Big
Finish History and his penultimate one, but there is one major problem in that
after all this time as companion he has had very little development. Yes we have the plotline that he is hiding
minds in his head, but that hasn’t gone anywhere and we know he isn’t
trustworthy.
India Fisher’s Charley on the other hand actually gets to have some
needed development concerning her family since Zagreus. Her memory is one
of her mother again played by Anneke Wills.
We actually get to see more of what her home was like and how her
mother, while not being abusive, was a little neglectful when it came to her
constant questioning of the world around her.
Both actresses pull off the complexities of their roles especially
Fisher who also has to deal with Tom.
Tom has the mind of a ten year old, but is obviously much older in body
and while he has no ill intent there is this sinister sense around the
character which really makes him feel like he is hiding something.
To summarize, Memory Lane is a
great debut for writer Eddie Robson who does go on to write several Eighth
Doctor Adventures. He knows just how to
evoke sinister imagery from your standard street to a scientific future. He implements the base under siege formula
perfectly. Everything feels spot on
except C’rizz who honestly had so much opportunity for character growth here,
but that was squandered when they decided that all they would reveal is what we
already knew back in Terror Firma. It is a complaint on the writers however and
not Conrad Westmass as an actor. 90/100
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