The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance by: Moris Farhi adapted by: Nigel Robinson directed by: John Ainsworth: Yellow Turns to the Blue of Sorrow

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance is performed by William Russell as Ian Chesterton and the Doctor and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman and Barbara Wright with Helen Goldwyn as Melody and Harmony and John Dorney as Rhythm.  It was written by Moris Farhi, adapted by Nigel Robinson, directed by John Ainsworth and released in November 2010 by Big Finish Productions in The Lost Stories: The First Doctor Box Set.

 

The First Doctor Box Set was always going to be four discs long and Farewell, Great Macedon was always going to take up three of the discs.  The second story used in the Box Set is The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance a forty minute example script written by Moris Farhi just to show David Whitaker what he could do as a writer and was at the odd length of for a forty minute slot.  It’s a rather self-contained story which details a truly alien society where instead of having a three part life cycle, they only have two.  The first portion of their lives are their childhood which ends when they fall in love and live the rest of their lives.  This is only if the love is reciprocated and if it isn’t the person who offered the love will go into a boat and sail off into the sun.  Yes this is a weird little story that has one purpose and that is to show off the society of Fragrance and how as a society the planet is a utopia.  It opens in media res with the Doctor and company being on Fragrance for several weeks where Rhythm falls in love with Barbara.  Of course his sisters, Melody and Harmony, played by Helen Goldwyn who are also in a relationship of sorts.  The plot is honestly the weakest aspect of this story as it is simply exposition about the world of Fragrance followed by the Doctor, Ian, Susan and Barbara escaping and the story’s over.

 

Nigel Robinson had to do very little work to adapt the story from the original script as the plot is character driven.  It’s about Barbara and Rhythm working off each other and the tragedy of the people of Fragrance.  The performances from William Russell and Carole Ann Ford are of course as good as they were in Farewell, Great Macedon and the direction from John Ainsworth this time around and again the music and sound design really works well for the story.  Helen Goldwyn is great at making her characters sound different and she makes the heavy exposition of the story much more enjoyable.

 

To summarize, The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance is really a story about what an alien utopia could be like and what happens if aliens to that society enter to make things be messed up.  The acting is fine and the direction is great just like it was for Farewell, Great Macedon in a story that really doesn’t have too much meat to it.  It’s a story that I quite like for the vivid world building on the alien society and has some really good characters but not much more.  70/100