Well, this one was brutal
to listen to, just brutal. Being Hex’s
first adventure into Earth’s history and in his infinite wisdom the Seventh
Doctor has taken his Irish companion to the taking of the Irish town of
Drogheda in 1649. A siege by Oliver
Cromwell that ended in an extreme death toll for the Irish as Cromwell ordered
their slaughter after refusal for surrender.
While Hex is a nurse, someone devoted to saving lives which he is of course
wanting to do even at this tragedy. This
makes for an extremely dramatic story as it acts as The Aztecs for Hex who doesn’t want to let anyone die and once he
realizes that Cromwell may be reasoned with, actually thinks that it may work
out for the best. Of course it doesn’t
as this shows another exercise in the futility of changing history with the
small twist that Hex’s actions caused a slightly less deadly siege to occur and
the Doctor got the chance to deliver a baby which is interesting. Now a lot of people really love this story
and I don’t think I can be an exception to the trend as the drama had me
extremely intrigued in how exactly this story was going to go and if the actual
story would allow history to be changed as for a moment it really seems like it
is going to happen.
There are a few flaws in
the story at the least as the only female character, the pregnant Mary played
by Claire Cathcart is there so the Doctor, Ace and Hex have an excuse to
actually stay to get involved in events.
Yes the character gets a laugh as she is almost stereotypically Irish
and wanting to fight for the freedom of her country, but is pregnant. It’s only redeemed that Guerrier doesn’t
decide to kill her off as that would be even more cliché for the story. Oliver Cromwell however isn’t nearly as bad
as he is played by the delightful Clive Mantle.
I don’t know much about the historical Cromwell and the English Civil
War except that he is the closest thing in Britain to France’s Robespierre, but
Mantle really makes Cromwell feel alive and three dimensional. He isn’t just the cackling villain of the
piece, but he actually cares about his man and unlike Robespierre, actually has
tolerance for different beliefs. He debates
ideas with Hex which destroys the first impression of the witch burner as the
unfortunate naming of Hex makes people accuse him of witchcraft.
Let’s take a minute to
talk about Hex as this isn’t the story of the Doctor or Ace, but Hex’s
manipulation into events. Of course the
Doctor knows where he landed them this time and is trying to show just how
everything isn’t black and white. It’s
Hex’s Ghost Light in a sense as it
places him in a place to confront his past, even if it isn’t his personal past,
but his heritage that he has to confront.
Philip Olivier is honestly great in the role as Hex here and really is
allowed to come into his own here as the Doctor forces him through the
emotional wringer. He thinks the Doctor
and Ace are killed in the siege so has to follow Cromwell around just so that
he can actually survive and is almost resigned to his fate as stranded.
The story also allows us
to get into Hex’s head by putting it into a frame story where Hex is recounting
his side of events to Ace after the fact.
This is where Sophie Aldred as Ace shines as she has to almost be the
older sister to Hex. She is obviously
much older than she was in Seasons 25 and 26 and has definitely experienced the
events of Set Piece and Head Games and made her peace with the
Doctor. She knows that the Doctor
probably was exploiting Hex, even if it isn’t confirmed, but knows that it
could have been a lot worse for him. She
is what saves the framing device from being boring and does it extremely
well. This does bring up the problem
that the Doctor doesn’t get much to do and yes it is a problem. You could make the argument that like many of
the Virgin New Adventures his presence is felt, but really that doesn’t hold up
as there are points where you forget that this is Doctor Who and feels like the
Adventures of Hex and Ace. Now I don’t
know how Guerrier could have fixed it and it doesn’t always get in the way,
just in the middle before we think the Doctor is dead.
To summarize The Settling is an emotionally engaging
story that knows just how to tug at your heartstrings in the right way to
solicit a reaction from its audience while staying in the Hartnell historical
style playing off the ideas of The Aztecs
and The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s
Eve, but keeping in the era of the Seventh Doctor with the master
manipulator and emulating the main motivation behind Ghost Light. There are some
flaws to be seen with the Doctor not being present for most of the story and
some characters not making an impression.
85/100.
No comments:
Post a Comment