Introducing a new
companion for the Seventh Doctor was always going to occur in Season 27, but
originally it would have been the third story of the run. It had the working title of Crime of the Century to go with the fact
that the companion would be a safe cracker and most likely would have been
written by Andrew Cartmel. Of the four
Lost Stories to be adapted it had the least amount of work put into it. What was known is that it was allocated three
episodes for the plot and could have included the Metatraxi who would be
introduced in Earth Aid at the
beginning of the experiment. The first
scene of the story was the only portion scripted out seeing a beautiful woman,
Raine Cunningham, infiltrating a party to crack a safe where the Doctor is
waiting for her inside. This scene stays
beat for beat in the story with the only change being a translation into the
audio medium with a waiter played by John Albasiny to vocalize some of the
thoughts. It is a remarkable scene to
open the story with while Raine Creevy, the name was changed in production from
Cunningham, introduces herself to the audience and makes an immediate
impression. Cartmel has a joy writing
this and the scenes that follow as we have the Doctor and Raine escape from the
estate. Raine and the Doctor have
immediately chemistry together as we learn that the Doctor actually hired Raine
to steal a sword from the safe. It is a
genuinely entertaining sequence.
The actual plot of Crime of the Century is the Doctor, Ace
and Raine infiltrating the Middle East after Black Monday to defeat the
Metatraxi, a warrior race, and Felnikov from Thin Ice who have a hold on the money in the situation. The plot really isn’t anything special outside
of having the Metatraxi be interesting and a good excuse to revisit the
characters from Thin Ice, but it
really is a standard Doctor Who story and Ace really doesn’t have much to
do. It honestly feels very much like Battlefield as it is a three episode
storyline drawn out to four. Part Four
is really dragged out to a conclusion that just sort of happens while Part
Three pretty much has enough material to end the story where it is. It doesn’t help that Andrew Cartmel had to
add in something for Ace to do last minute and it shows. Ace has very little to do except bring Markus
Creevy into the plot and fight the Metatraxi leader near the end of the
story. Sophie Aldred is of course giving
a good performance and has good chemistry with Beth Chalmers and Sylvester
McCoy, but is done a disservice here as there really isn’t much that she has to
sink her teeth into.
The story does really
shine with its villains being the Metatraxi.
They are the creation of Cartmel and writer Ben Aaronovitch who were
originally going to have the aliens feature in their Doctor Who stage
play. The Metatraxi are a very
interesting species as their gimmick is they are honor bound to fight, but only
with the weapons of their opponents.
They also are honor bound to only fight men and to fight to the
death. They are introduced extremely
well for a race, but aren’t very fleshed out.
This is mainly because this was meant to be their second appearance
after Earth Aid. Beth Chalmers is great as Raine Creevy here
for an introduction. We get a real sense
at how she operates and how odd her life is.
She hates her father for being a criminal, but is a criminal
herself. She justifies herself by saying
it’s all for the greater good and she is extremely flawed as she doesn’t have a
moral compass.
Sylvester McCoy as the
Doctor is really interesting as the oddity is that he feels much more like a
mixture of personas. He never gets as
dark as here he has a masterplan, but no one is emotionally scarred by it. He does act like a buffoon as he changes the
Metatraxi translator to a surfer setting which is hilarious. I just cannot tell what sort of performance
McCoy is going for here, if it’s the manipulator of Season 25 and 26 or the
buffoon of Season 24. Ricky Groves
returns as Markus Creevy and here he is much more melancholy than in Thin Ice which really suits his
character. Here he is down on his luck
in almost every way as he has become a beggar living out of his van.
To summarize, Crime of the Century is an alright story
that really fails for the fact that the plot is minimal. Ace has nothing to do and moving it up in the
running doesn’t really work well as the Metatraxi should already have been
introduced in Earth Aid. Raine does make a really good introduction
here with all the flaws of the story considered. The acting from everyone is alright to be
considered. It is nowhere near a bad
story, but it isn’t a very good one either.
60/100
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