Who can resist a good old
fashioned heist story? Well add in some
space sharks and you can get a Doctor Who suited story that is straight out of
the swinging sixties. The Selachian Gambit is one of those
stories. It opens with an evocative
image of the Doctor, Ben, Polly, and Jamie in a Galactic Bank because the
Doctor got a parking ticket and is going to get a loan from the bank. So the premise to get the Doctor into the
story is interesting, at least in a way that when you really think about it
doesn’t make sense. So the Doctor is
going to take out a loan, but how’s he going to be paying it back. He isn’t employed and he doesn’t really have
money so it seems like he’s just going to be getting himself in even more
trouble. Really the story is quite simple
as before the Doctor can get the loan the Selachians arrive, try to steal money
from the bank, but because it turns out the vaults are in other dimensions they
decide to blow everything up. The story
has the Doctor dealing with a lot of the heist elements and the bomb is really
just so we can have a good climax to the story.
Steve Lyons really
understands how to right for the Second Doctor and Polly Wright in particular
in this audio. Lyons writes the Second
Doctor very much as the mischievous imp in the early years of his own
life. He jumps around the bank and is
working in the background to defeat the Selachians similarly to the
characterization in The Tomb of the
Cybermen. It’s also very interesting
to see how Lyons decides to handle Polly Wright, who is an underrated
companion, and in keeping with the stories surrounding The Selachian Gambit has her told to go and make the coffee. While this happens in The Moonbase, and the implication in that story is the same as it
is here, she goes and finds a way to deal with the threat. It’s while she makes the coffee that the
story can actually progress. Anneke
Wills is an excellent actress in the role of Polly and is a natural in the
audio medium. A lot of her problems is
on television she went over the top, but in an audio medium Wills just relaxes
into the role of Polly and plays it for all it’s worth. What’s interesting however that Lisa Bowerman
and Steve Lyons only gives Wills the role of Ben Jackson to play. Ben really doesn’t do much in the story, but
Wills actually gives a good performance similar to the performance Katy Manning
will give for Jon Pertwee. It obviously
isn’t Craze doing the voice, but Wills lowers her voice a few tones and adds a
slight accent and gives us Ben.
Frazer Hines basically
plays the other roles in the story. His
Selachians are excellent, but Bowerman may have added a bit too much voice
modulation for the entire story. He
plays a rich lady which is honestly hilarious and as always his Second Doctor
is on form. Jamie McCrimmon is out of
his element in this Galactic Bank as he really doesn’t know what any of these
things are. His curiosity really makes
the story interesting overall as Jamie, but really this is a story centered
more on Polly.
To summarize, The Selachian Gambit is an excellent
story that has Steve Lyons extremely interesting Selachians in another story
with the Second Doctor. Anneke Wills and
Frazer Hines are the only two actors in the play which allows each of them to
flesh out their strengths as performers.
The plot while pretty good overall, has a bit of a convoluted mess when
you really put the premise under any lens of scrutiny. The direction is surprising as while Lisa
Bowrman is usually excellent, but a lot of her choices just are a bit odd when
it comes to the story. 75/100
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