Probably Not the One You Were Expecting #9: Damaged Goods by: Russell T. Davies adapted by: Jonathan Morris directed by: Ken Bentley

Damaged Goods stars Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Travis Oliver as Chris Cwej, and Yasmin Bannerman as Roz Forrester with Denise Black as Eva Jericho, and Michelle Collins as Winnie Tyler.  It was written by Russell T. Davies, adapted for audio by Jonathan Morris, directed by Ken Bentley, and released in April 2015 by Big Finish Productions.

 

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