Quinnis by: Marc Platt directed by: Lisa Bowerman: A Throwaway Line Turned Into Brilliance

Quinnis is performed by Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman with Tara-Louise Kaye as Meedla.  It was written by Marc Platt, directed by Lisa Bowerman, and originally released in December 2010 by Big Finish Productions.

 

How could Marc Platt make such a good story from a throwaway line in The Edge of Destruction?  Platt takes the line about the ship nearly being lost on the planet Quinnis four or five journey’s back and makes it a thematic inspiration for Susan reminiscing about her sun sometime after Relative Dimensions with the Eighth Doctor.  It isn’t necessary to listen to Relative Dimensions to understand this story as Platt in his genius only has this as the bookends of the story while the bulk is taken up by the main plot.  This isn’t like a Simon Guerrier story that doubles two plots and it really shows as Platt uses the hour of runtime to almost full advantage.  The biggest criticism I can levy at Quinnis is that its first few scenes are just a bit too rushed, but are still able to execute a pretty good twist with the Doctor actually becoming the rainmaker for this group of people where you would think he would be thrown off the cliff and this is only the beginning of the story’s twists.

 

The plot really focuses on Susan and her feelings of being left out as she travels with her grandfather, a man much older than her.  She doesn’t have any friends so when the ship arrives on Quinnis she latches on to the first girl her age as a friend in Meedla and in turn the audience uses Susan’s viewpoint to understand the story.  We get wrapped up in the superstitions of the people of Quinnis with people going into the valley to farm once the rains come and big black birds causing bad luck.  Platt almost writes with this wonder of a child that translates into the performed story well only to pull the rug out from underneath the listener halfway through episode two “The Plains of Despair”.  Episode One, “The Rainmaker” is one that has this hopeful tone with playful children enjoying themselves until the rains come and nearly sweeps away Susan and Meedla which is the prologue for things to come.  “The Plains of Despair” sees the big twist reveal itself with the witch doctor like figure featured on the atmospheric cover of the story revealed to be a protagonist.  Yes Platt makes the good and kind Meedla the symbol of bad luck, and Susan is responsible for releasing her from a trap and promising her a trip in the ship.  Oh and the Doctor is in the story for quite a bit, but this really isn’t the story for him being told.

 

Platt shines in writing the characters, as this story has characters that rival some of the full-cast audio dramas when it comes to the amount of characters used.  He makes each and every one interesting even a stalls lady with a piglet, based off of a woman Platt saw on vacation according to the CD extras.  The story is really a focus for Carole Ann Ford as Susan to develop to the point she is seen at the beginning of An Unearthly Child.  It’s an early story for her with very few adventures under her belt, but she has become lost in a lot of her life.  She has no home to speak of and her grandfather has thought that it is time she interacts with people her own age because of the trouble she causes in the story.  The listener really gets to feel for Susan because of the portrayal by Ford who has the cadence of someone who is lost to the winds of time.  The listener falls for the tricks of Meedla hook, line and sinker.  Meedla is played by Tara-Louise Kaye, daughter of Carole Ann Ford which I do believe helps with the realism in the story as the two actresses already have a lot of chemistry with each other.  Kaye performed with hay fever but still gave the story her all and made the character her own with a lot of care given to letting the audience fall for her tricks and making the villainous side of the character really be a juxtaposition with the kind hearted girl of the first half.

 

To summarize, Quinnis is another brilliant story from Marc Platt extrapolating an emotional chance for character growth from a throwaway line in a very early serial.  The acting is great and the atmosphere from Lisa Bowerman’s direction makes the listener connect with the events.  Problems with this story are a real lack of the Doctor being a character pre-An Unearthly Child and some opening scenes that feel rather disjointed on the whole.  90/100