In which Hex meets an infamous figure from his family’s past and the Doctor delivers a baby.
And we finally get a story set in Ireland. I can’t think of many of those in any of the thousands of ‘Doctor Who’ books, audios and TV stories. From Big Finish – ‘The Book of Kells’, ‘Iterations of I’, some of Molly’s story in ‘Dark Eyes’? Any others that I’ve missed?
So why is this? Well part of it I think, is obviously the history between Ireland and England/Scotland, but more the fact that this history is still very relevant and very raw. As such, it is easier for many creatives particularly those with no Irish connection, just not to take the risk and go there. I sort of understand why this is, if you don’t address the history, you could be accused of ducking these issues and if you do, you get accused of taking sides (normally by both sides at the same time) in a conflict that is much closer to home (actually at home) than the religious conflicts in the history of France, Rome or Turkey depicted in the TV series and other BF stories. Even so, it is about time there was a TV story set in Ireland.
This story directly looks at what happens when an English Army besieges Irish cities. The events of the siege of Drogheda and sacking of Wexford, which form the backdrop to this story are infamous in Ireland, but less well known in the rest of the British Isles. They aren’t necessarily as well known as the potato famine or the Easter rising, Bloody Sunday or any of the atrocities perpetrated in the dark days of 70’s or 80’s, but it is a set of events that still live in the minds of people on both sides of the divide, despite being a period of history that I suspect many English people (at least those without Irish ancestry) know little about. It might seem to some people that something that happened 370 years ago wouldn’t be quite so sensitive now, however that would be to ignore the nature of such conflicts and divisions all around the world, Ireland is no exception. History matters. So, despite being set in 1649 it still feels unusual and a bit ‘risky’ for a ‘Doctor Who’ story, albeit one that it likely to have a distribution of less than 10,000 listeners.
You can easily be reductive about Drogheda and Wexford and still tell a good story about an oppressive alien army invading and you would still be correct. As ever in Ireland though, things aren’t really as simple as that, well they are – it happened and the death toll, particularly the civilian one, is horrific. However, it isn’t a simple English protestant vs Irish catholic conflict. Stationed at Drogheda were regiments of protestant English Royalist troops, along with Irish protestants, English and Irish Catholics. So, in some ways it is really a Roundhead/parliament/New Model Army vs Royalist conflict – an extension of the English Civil War. The massacre at Drogheda seems like a deliberate policy decision by Cromwell to make a crushing statement to avoid a lengthy campaign elsewhere in Ireland. It is a calculated act of terror, designed to deter future resistance. Something that partially worked in places like Dundalk that surrendered. Something perpetrated by someone who felt like he had God and right on his side and in partial reprisal for the massacres of Scottish and English settlers a few years earlier during the ‘Irish Rebellion’ following ‘The Plantation of Ulster’. Which was in itself largely a policy started by a Scottish Stewart king. As far as I can work out, Wexford seems slightly different, something that happened partly by accident, a lack of discipline in Cromwell’s army and a miscalculation on the part of the Irish commander. The result was the same, whatever the reason or nuances. What we are left with is one of the bloodiest moments in the history of the British Isles – the number of civilian deaths is unclear but in the thousands across the two cities. It is the sheer violence and terror of the attacks that lingers.
So that’s some of the rather complex background – it is actually more complicated than that, but hopefully you get the drift. I’m sure someone will correct me if I have got any of that wrong. Back to ‘Doctor Who’.
An interesting feature of the run of three stories that I am covering from this era, is that they place the Seventh Doctor into historical events. He obviously visited the past in stories like ‘Curse of Fenric’ and ‘Ghost Light’, but these are stories of alien activity in history – with an enemy to defeat, not of great historical events or figures from history. To my mind, there is a slight problem with using the later, darker Seventh Doctor in a historical story, a lot of the joy of these stories is derived from not being able to change history, in being swept along by events and trying to survive and do your best to help where you can. So, how does that work for this version of the Doctor – a planner, a schemer and a revolutionary? How do you place him in a historical story based on a series of infamous massacre’s in the British Isles, which are a real source of contention and conflict even today? Well, rather brilliantly you occupy him throughout most of the story in trying to deliver a baby! More of that later – and in the final review of this run. Here though the action is largely driven by his companions- Ace and Hex.
A quick introduction to Hex for uninitiated. He is Thomas Hector Schofield (played by Philip Olivier) a young nurse originally from Liverpool, who meets the Doctor and Ace in the story ‘The Harvest’ – which is set in the London hospital where he works. He acts as almost a younger brother to Ace and I think it’s fair to say that he wishes that their relationship was a bit less familial in nature! In this story there are long scenes (basically the framing device to this whole story) between them as they discuss the events and their repercussions as the episodes progress. Ace is helping him come to terms with his actions and their losses, while Hex has a long dark night of the soul.
The writer of this story, Simon Guerrier is one of the best at Big Finish to my mind – his Sara Kingdom trilogy of Companion Chronicles is excellent and he has also written terrific stories for Zoe and Steven Taylor. Here, Guerrier places Hex (of Liverpool Irish Catholic background) right into the camp of Cromwell – a hated figure within Hex’s family. And one of the key aspects of the story is the relationship between Hex and Cromwell, becoming almost his ‘favourite’. Much of what we find out about Cromwell here is from their discussion. Hex is honest with him and that honesty about Drogheda, which first attracts Cromwell to him is only going to be tolerated so far. Cromwell asks him to advise him on how to settle Ireland peaceably. It is a fascinating relationship that develops between the two and we get insights into Cromwell’s capricious character when Hex stands up to him one too many times and he turns viciously on him. Later Hex goes on to help organise the defence of Wexford – warning them of his experiences at Drogheda at the start of the story. At the end of the story he realises that he would have been better sticking to his role as a nurse.
Like, Vlad or Mary or Richard in previous stories I’ve reviewed, Cromwell is a very contentious figure in history, especially in Ireland. What is terrifying about all of them isn’t so much their ability to casually order the murder of thousands of people, but more the fact that at times they actually sound reasonable, before veering back into the genocidal. I suspect that these sorts of people are always like that, occasionally charming and thoughtful, charismatic and then just monstrous. Like Vlad he seems happy to use terror in a calculated way to inflict the maximum psychological damage on their opponents. Here, Cromwell is played excellently by Clive Mantel and similar to Mary he veers from the charming to the horrific and has an unerring sense of purpose and that he is right. And that defines these historical figures – a belief that they are in the right, such that they can justify any sort of massacre of innocents, the displacement and destruction of communities and families. It is all just ‘collateral damage’ – even ‘for their own good’.
Whilst the ‘high policy’ plays out in Hex’s story. Ace helps defend Drogheda and the Doctor stays with Mary, who is pregnant and stays with her to help protect her from the invading army. He keeps her safe, tells her stories to pass the time and ends up delivering her baby! This is the more loveable side of the seventh Doctor and it works very well. This though is just a microcosm of the overall tragedy, two brothers who die in each of the towns and in the end, even Mary, the woman they both love; distraught at their deaths, is horrifically killed just after childbirth, by Cromwell himself. A personal tragedy that mirrors the larger tragedy that has befallen Drogheda and Wexford.
As I said at the start of the review, the other Big Finish stories set in Ireland are very different to this – and quite right too. This is bloody and tragic, but it is only one aspect of the country and its’ history. Whilst it can’t be ignored, it isn’t the only story that can be told about the island. The TV series has ignored this part of the British Isles too long and hopefully it will redress this sometime soon.
A Journal of Impossible Things 