Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Memory Lane by: Eddie Robson directed by: Gary Russell: Legos, Astronauts, Ice Cream Trucks, All Pleasant Memories

Memory Lane stars Paul McGann as the Doctor with India Fisher as Charley and Conrad Westmass as C’rizz.  It was written by Eddie Robson, directed by Gary Russell and released in October 2006 by Big Finish Productions.

 

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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