I am so glad this story
was left for the Lost Stories and not made for television. Not because of how bad it is, but just
because of how good it was and how it couldn’t have been realized on television
without having many scenes either cut or their setting moved to a small studio,
while Brian Hayles’ script calls for expansive mines and the landscape of a
dying Mars. Picking John Dorney to adapt
the script into audio was a stroke of genius considering his past work for Big
Finish. He even was able not to change
much showing just how strong the actual script was from its conception back in
the 1960s. The plot is essentially Genesis of the Daleks, but years before Genesis of the Daleks was even written,
as the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe arrive on a dying Mars. There is still oxygen on the Red Planet, but
there is only one city still standing after the planet started naturally
dying. The survivors are living in the
city, but due to genetic mutation they need to drink life drink to continue
living. The life drink and the city is
controlled by Zadur, a ruthless dictator queen who rules with an iron fist and
is carrying out experiments on mutating the race further into the Ice Warriors
that we will come to know later on. The
Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe have to team up with Professor Quendril, the man responsible
for the genetic mutation, to find a way to stop Zadur and allow the mutation to
progress naturally. The ideas present in
the script are genius, especially the life drink. You can really imagine the planet being
forced under the thrall of Zadur as they have no choice but to drink or die. Late in the story when one character drinks
too much you see just how much power Zadur has over her people as the life
drink would cause death when too much is had.
The story for a six part
story actually has a really good pace for the era. There really isn’t any drag in Episode Four
or Five, and the action doesn’t really let up at all. I think this is down to the quality of the
original scripts, as Dorney used two versions of the story, and the wonderful
direction from Lisa Bowerman. Up until
this point the Lost Stories featuring the first three Doctors have been done in
the style of the Companion Chronicles, but for Lords of the Red Planet, Bowerman realized that she could get the
narration down to a minimum and hire a full cast. Many of the Martians are already similar to
or already are Ice Warriors so she brought in Nicholas Briggs to voice them,
only needing three more parts to cast.
It really does work for the story as the narration doesn’t take you out of
the story and only enhances the descriptions of the Martian landscapes in your
mind’s eye. Bowerman must be commended
for her ability to do this as it isn’t an easy feat.
Frazer Hines and Wendy
Padbury reprise their roles as the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. This story is their best performance outside
of the powerhouse that is The War Games. Padbury does a great job of communicating a
sense of dread when Zoe is captured without having to say it and Hines does his
usual best as Patrick Troughton, so much so that Michael Troughton became
emotional during recording as he was reminded of his late father. Jamie and Zoe of course share their usual
great relationship in the story making the plot feel even stronger when
everything starts to fall apart on Mars.
Bowerman’s push to bring
in a full sized cast also really paid off as each member of the supporting
cast. Michael Troughton is extremely
sympathetic as Professor Quendril who has this great relationship with the
Second Doctor in some truly funny scenes among the descent into madness. You feel for his plight as he wishes to save
his people, especially considering he’s the one who caused a lot of the mess
the planet is currently in. He is the
reason Zadur is in power and he is in so much guilt over it. Zadur is played by the wonderful Abigail Thaw
who like Hecuba in The Queen of Time is
the embodiment of the femme fatal and I love that that is how female Ice
Warriors would be portrayed.
Zadur’s sister is the
Princess Valtreena played by the wonderful Charlie Hayes. Valtreena is an airhead with a heart of gold
who gets to have a lot of touching scenes with Jamie and they form a
connection. She has a failed experiment
for a butler which is really touching and her final fate will have you in tears
as it really is a tragedy performed right in front of you. The rest of the Ice Warriors are played by
Nicholas Briggs who is again doing his best here like he always does. His portrayal of the first Ice Lord has this
great relationship with Zoe, which allows the race to have their noble personality
and their code of honor. It really
allows Zoe to shine as it is her kindness that makes the Ice Warriors different
from your typical science fiction trope of invading Martians. The subversion of the usual tropes allows the
story to fill the weird storyline gap between The Seeds of Death and The
Curse of Peladon. Briggs also does a
great job at making each Ice Warrior their own character and not having them
sound the same.
To summarize, Lords of the Red Planet was meant for an
audio drama treatment. Big Finish have
worked their magic to make everything come together in a way that allows for a
near perfect story. Better than any of
Brian Hayles’s television stories, this story has the perfect cast, ideas, and
villain to bring everything together.
The closing lines are simply hilarious and a direction treatment from
one of the directors of the time would have made the story one of extreme hope
for the future. I can only give it a
score of 100/100.
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