Fury from the Deep

 For a couple of years now we have made an approximately annual journey to the New Theatre Royal to take in a Doctor Who stage play.  This one was a little different as it was not an original story, but a re-make of a classic ‘lost’ TV story, from the Patrick Troughton era, and presented by the Bedlam Theatre Company and Dramatis Personae.  In series terms, this story followed straight on from the previous ‘classic re-make’ play (which we unfortunately missed out on) The Web Of Fear, which was presented by the same company.

  So having fought our way to the theatre, (“that’s our car park they’ve dug up!  And that’s the theatre!  And there goes the....theatre....oh *@$#!”)  consumed chocolate fudge cake (see left) we piled into the theatre and, escorted by the Who Shop’s working K9 prop,  took our seats.  

 The play started with a video sequence, rear-projected at the back of the set, which set the scene as the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria arrived on a windswept beach and investigate their surroundings.  But as they try to figure out why there appears to be the sound of a heartbeat emanating from gas pipes and valves running along the beach, they are being watched.  Suddenly their stalker fires, the three travellers are tranquillised, and the titles role...

 The basic story followed a gas pipe control centre, somewhere on the North sea coast, which had been experiencing problems with pressure in gas pipes and who’s contact with associated rigs is being cut off one by one.  The important personnel in the control room were Robson (with years of experience on rigs and not one to take the advice of others), Harris (with years of number crunching at University but not much practical experience)  Van Lutyens (a technical advisor from the Dutch government), and the chief engineer (who has worked with Robson for many years and is more inclined to do what Robson tells him than take the initiative).  Soon, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are prisoners, suspected of sabotaging the pipes, but thanks to Victoria’s hairpin and lock-picking skills, this doesn’t last very long.  Soon, Harris’s wife, Maggie has been bitten by some vicious sea-weed, two maintenance technicians are wandering around with glazed expressions meddling around in order to release toxic gas at every opportunity, and via more video footage on the projection screen (starring incidentally, Michael Sheard) we learn that the crews of the rigs are in serious trouble.  By now the Doctor is no longer a prisoner, and is throwing himself into the task of solving a deepening and increasingly dangerous mystery, and Robson is becoming increasingly paranoid and slightly unhinged. Maggie Harris  is seriously ill, and has also vanished, and at the end of the first part, via more video footage, walks off the beach into the sea, as the collective mind of the sea weed continues to assert it’s growing control.

 After the interval, another aspect of the use video of video footage came to the fore, with a mixture of live action and computer generated footage - the Doctor and Jamie flying out in a computer generated helicopter to one of the rigs, in pursuit of Robson, who had  abducted Victoria (“I’ve been wanting to get my hands on one of these” exclaims the Doctor with glee as the opportunity to fly a helicopter presents itself).  And soon the key to defeating the sea weed presents itself, when Victoria lets rip with a Langford-esque scream, and the sea weed-controlled crew (and Maggie Harris) run away in agony and terror.  The second big laugh of the evening occurs once the Doctor and company have figured out a way to project the loud and lethal noise over to the weed-controlled rigs - ie send the noise down the gas pipeline to the weed-infested rigs. Victoria is required to scream in order to be recorded, but seems unable to without something genuine to scream at.  “Victoria says she can’t scream!”, Jamie tells the Doctor.  “Victoria? Impossible!” the Doctor replies incredulously.

 Anyway, after much running around and reeling of technobable (the Doctor was very impressive on this front) the sea weed monster (which looked like a very dishevelled green paper pom-pom, but which I’m reliably informed was actually better than the original TV monster) was defeated and all was right with the World.  The possessed crew  recovered, and even Robson seemed to mellow a little by the end.  There was a poignant ending, however, as Victoria decided she’d had enough of being scared witless by Sea Weed, Daleks, Cybermen (“and Yetis”) and decided to leave the Doctor and Jamie and remain behind, staying with Mr and Mrs Harris.  As always in these circumstances, the Doctor was upset about losing a companion and friend, but accepted despite Jamie’s protests that Victoria’s decision was her own. 

 A brief word about the cast - all very good, with Nick Scovell’s portrayal of the Second Doctor worth a particular mention.  As can be seen from the photos, there was little physical resemblance between Scovell (who incidentally has worked on two Big Finish Doctor Who audio dramas) and Troughton, and yet his performance was creditably ‘Troughton-esque’.  Both John-Paul McCrahon (Jamie) and Laura Ford (Victoria) did good jobs in the roles of the companions, and David Head (Robson) and Juno Hollyhock (Van Lytens) and Carol Bagshaw (Maggie Harris) are worthy of mentions for some impressive performances. 

 Sadly the gloss was taken off the evening by the news broken at the end of the play by Nick Scovell himself, that the Queen Mother had passed away that afternoon.  Some in the theatre were clearly unaware of the news, so after observing the national anthem, many of the departing audience were in a somewhat sombre mood. 

 However, overall a very enjoyable evening - the TV remakes are well worth seeing.  Having not seen the TV version (obviously, because it no longer exists) or even heard the surviving sound track, I can’t say with any authority how faithful this was to the original, but allowing for the obvious restrictions of a adaptation, the whole look and feel of the play was a very faithful one. 

 I know not whether there will be any more remakes of this kind, however the Battered Suitcase Theatre Company will be back in town this coming November for the third instalment of original Doctor Who stories - Warsmith runs at the New Theatre Royal in late November.

Jeremy Ogden