When do you know?
In which Ian struggles with his feelings for Barbara, Vicki is very brave, the Doctor communes with space mantas and there are some very nasty men with rocket packs.
Back in my youth, during school holidays or on a Saturday morning, the BBC often ran classic sci-fi serials from the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s – the sort that my Dad and his pals would have watched as youngsters at the Saturday morning pictures, shown along with the cartoons and westerns. Serials with cliff-hangers (very ‘Doctor Who’) such as ‘Flash Gordon’, ‘Buck Rogers’ and not forgetting ‘King of the Rocket Men’. The latter was an inspiration for this story – a man in a leather flying suit and helmet with am atomic-powered jet pack, this was also the inspiration for ‘The Rocketeer’ an early 90’s film and comic strip. This story however, does a very ‘Doctor Who’ thing with this little sub-genre and treats it totally seriously, in the process transforming the Rocket Men into a thoroughly nasty adversary. Future space pirates, sounding like East-end villains on a blag from ‘The Sweeney’, who use calculated acts of violence and threat to get their way. The result is a piece that is really gripping, scary at times and yet also rather lovely. In other words, it is prime John Dorney – a writer who if you don’t know his work is one of the gems of the BF range and a real favourite of mine.
The setting is a leisure platform (platform 5) suspended in the atmosphere of the planet Jobis – a stunning world, protected by the intergalactic trust, inhabited by a crystalline insect species and iridescent manta-like creatures. The narration beautifully describes this paradise world, with its wealth of wildlife. The First Doctor, Vicki, Ian and Barbara are enjoying a peaceful break, very much like the opening of ‘The Romans’. Ian is rather put out when the Doctor is invited (without him) to visit a scientific research platform on the other side of the planet. As ever though, the peace of this world is shattered with the arrival of the Rocket men, who emerge from their mother ship, flying with jet packs on their back to terrorise platform 5. They, especially their leader Ashman, are real thugs and thoroughly nasty, something which really ratchets up the tension and jeopardy and gives the whole thing a very real edge. The rocket men are quite happy to randomly shoot hostages and slaughter anyone who gets in their way and even randomly use the native fauna for target practice. Dorney cleverly employs an ‘out of story order’ structure and the narration by William Russell, who is on terrific form here, both add towards making this a gripping, pacey story out of something that could have been quite leisurely.
With the Doctor at another platform, which helps to raise the stakes as the Rocket men try to force him to surrender by threatening to kill his friends, the focus of this story is on Ian and Barbara. There is also a beautifully Vicki moment when she bravely stands up and admits she is with the Doctor when the hostages are being executed, Barbara bravely backing her up, while Ian is powerless to help. This is followed later in the story by a lovely change of perspective and sleight of hand, using the audio medium to the full and taking advantage of the abstract order of the story perfectly. It really is terrific writing.
At the heart of the story though is Ian Chesterton, his heroism and his developing love for Barbara. There is a moment in this story when he heartbreakingly thinks he has lost her for ever, and while bravely trying to rescue her, something that seems impossible, he realises how much she means to him. This really is a lesson in how to write about the love that develops between two slightly repressed British schoolteachers from the 1960’s as they travel the universe. Despite the views of William Russell, I think that I’ve always assumed the Ian and Barbara were in love. Why wouldn’t Ian love Barbara – she’s amazing and likewise Barbara love Ian – he saves her life and is heroic and clever. I always assumed that they would marry on their return to London. It seems obvious – the amount of times Ian risked his life to find her and that infamous scene in the villa during ‘The Romans’ and the montage at the end of ‘The Chase’. I just always thought that it was a very British romance, underplayed and unstated and private. Their marriage has been covered in a number of books, but Russell confirms this in the ‘Sarah Jane Adventures’ and it makes sense to me. The Big Finish ‘Companion Chronicles’ series, where we are privy to the thoughts of these characters, via the narration, is exactly the place that this can be explored and as ever with John Dorney, the emotional heart of this story is beautifully written and sensitively done.
I won’t spoil the ending, suffice to say it involves an action-packed act of heroism on the part of Ian and an elegant solution from the Doctor that left me chuckling. It is a great Hartnell moment. At its heart though, this story is about Ian struggling to decide whether he should tell Barbara how he feels about her. What is funny, is that everyone else seems to notice this anyway, even the Doctor offers his sage advice at the end of the story! He says ‘Don’t wait too long, my boy. These things can fade, we all have opportunities we let slide. You don’t want to live your life regretting chances missed’. The voice of experience, I can just imagine Hartnell playing that line – Ok it might have come out a bit mangled! He isn’t the emotionally naive ‘asexual’ figure that we sometimes see later in other incarnations and after all he noticed ‘something cooking’ between Susan and David and has a granddaughter. An astute piece of writing really.
I don’t think I want to say any more about this story – although a relatively straightforward story, with the abstract structure it fits together beautifully like a puzzle box and is a richly observed and realised character piece, whilst being gripping and tense and very, very satisfying. My advice – try it for yourself – effortlessly ten out of ten for me. Everyone should have a bit of John Dorney in their life!
A Journal of Impossible Things 