Adapting Damaged Goods into an audio drama form
was always going to be a difficult task as the story is highly acclaimed by
many for its dark story and bleak atmosphere.
It gets bleak enough that it could have been heavily censored to make it
appropriate for children, but Big Finish decided to pull out all the stops and
have Jonathan Morris adapt it into an audio drama format. Jonathan Morris who is a writer not afraid to
push the boundaries of Doctor Who in his writings, taking one of the novels
into an audio drama where boundaries can be pushed even further. Yet Morris did tone down the audio just a
little bit from its novel counterpart.
The body count is much less with four more characters surviving to the
end, some characters being cut completely (Mrs. Hearn and Carl Tyler), and the
death of the Capper being changed from setting himself on fire to jumping off
the roof of a parking garage. I cannot
fault Morris for making these changes along with toning down the more sexual
elements of the novel for the audio as some of them even help with the
story. Cutting Mrs. Hearn helps when it
is revealed how alone Winnie Tyler feels, changing the Capper’s death makes the
story feel a bit more realistic, and while they did tone down Chris and David’s
relationship, it still has the full gravitas of the public view of
homosexuality at the time.
The script is already in
favor of the adaptation, but if this really works better than the book you need
to look at the direction, music, and acting of the story. Ken Bentley has his work cut out for him as
this audio has to introduce us and the actors to the characters of Chris and
Roz as this is the first of their stories to be adapted into audio. Bentley does pull it off as he works with
Oliver and Bannerman to embody their characters. Oliver plays up Chris’s naiveté as Bannerman
works off of him with Roz’s signature brand of pessimism. Bentley must be rewarded for the way he
directs the opening of each part of the audio, telling the prologue of the
novel from the perspectives of Bev and Winnie Tyler so we can get the full
story. Horror elements seep through in
several places as Bentley lingers on disturbing imagery of the graveyard scene,
Mr. Jericho’s death by rat poisoned potatoes (which is performed in gruesome
detail) and how the N-form have been invading the world. Yes the drug is changed from generic cocaine
to SMILE, but that makes the story feel more unique as it makes the search for
it a bit easier. The novel could have
had the Doctor get the wrong consignment of cocaine, but here all SMILE is
contaminated. Howard Carter scores the
audio adaptation using a single piano and ambient sounds which emulates almost
a dark Christmas story. The score is
haunting and only adds to the tension of the story as events escalate from bad
to worse in the second half.
Sylvester McCoy as the
Seventh Doctor gives a performance to rival the one in Master and The Curse of
Fenric. The Doctor feels like
someone who is in a deep depression which works with the dark tone of the
story. His interactions with Gabriel
Tyler is also better by simply having McCoy be performing the story. The supporting characters are all done really
well and can be easily imagined in these roles.
I’ve already touched on the performances from Chris and Roz, who make a
great first impression, but it is the rest of the supporting cast that make the
impact. Tayler Marshall, who was fifteen
at the time of recording, does a great job as Gabriel Tyler which is down to
Ken Bentley being able to direct children.
Marshall gives Gabriel that air of mystery the role deserves and the
ambiance of someone more powerful than we are ever led to believe. It’s just as chilling as the turn from Peter
Barrett as the Capper who balances this mix of over the top ham with
subtlety. The performance embodies the
insanity of the character well with the flip flopping of personalities.
The real star of the
story are Denise Black and Michelle Collins as Eva Jericho and Winnie Tyler
respectively. Black as Eva Jericho captures the madness of the character and
while her plotline is scaled back a bit to work in the two hour format, but
that improves the meaning of the title.
While the novel makes it an arbitrary aspect of Mrs. Jericho’s
personality the adaptation shows it better as the sign of her madness as she
believes Steven is damaged goods, needing to be returned to the store. That scene, the killing of her husband and
her takeover of the N-form at the end are all wonderfully performed as you get
the sense of mania in her head. Michelle
Collins as Winnie Tyler on the other hand actually gives that warm motherly
feel from her performance and if her scenes at the beginning of Part Two don’t
make you wish her to use that blood money, nothing will as she has suffered
greatly for her children.
To summarize, Damaged Goods is another example of Big
Finish perfecting the flaws on an already great storyline. Sure people may be disappointed that things
were changed, but most of these things are minor details and only take place
right off screen as they do get referenced in the audio. Everything in this one is perfect from the
acting, the writing, the adaptation, the haunting score, and the direction. 100/100
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