This is the first story in a trilogy about Sara Kingdom, written by Simon Guerrier and is part of the Big Finish Companion Chronicles range. The premise is really rather ingenious, finding a way to give use more stories of Sara Kingdom and the excellent Jean Marsh, but creating in the process something really rather beautiful and quite different. The stories weave skilfully around the narrative of ‘Dalek’s Master Plan’, thoughtfully incorporating elements where needed, without contradicting anything in the existing continuity.
The setting is a house in Ely (Cambridgeshire) in the far future, after a great flood. It is now an island surrounded by the sea. A young man (Robert) enters a house in the pouring rain. An old woman called Sara Kingdom welcomes him. She runs a guest house and offers him hot broth to warm him after his journey. He wants her to tell him the story of a house and she starts by telling him of her first meeting with the Doctor and Steven. Sara tells him the story of the time that she, the Doctor and Steven investigated two unexplained deaths in a technological house of the future. She also talks about her relationship with Bret and how she followed him into Space Security and how she still feels his presence next to her. All leading to an acknowledgement of how wrong she was not to question her orders in ‘The Traitors‘. This is one of the main strengths of the Companion Chronicles, when they well-written as this story, they take us right into the thoughts of the leads, something which is used to great effect later in the piece.
The play is a two-hander, both leads are terrific and the story unfolds beautifully – Sara reminiscing about Mira, Liverpool, Hollywood and other stories outside of Daleks’ Master Plan. The story of the house very much has the feel of a Sapphire and Steel story. Something similar to assignment III. A modern house – empty and gleaming new, with photographs of the inhabitants in happier times. Sara places her hand into a palm reader and connects with the house. This act sets in motion the chain of events that allows Sara Kingdom to ‘live’ and talk to Robert as an old woman.
It is an intriguing world being built, both inside and out of the story of the house. Outside is a flooded world that has gone through a war, a magistrate (Robert) – a long line visiting the house in Ely, charged with protecting ‘church and state’. Hints of a more primitive, religious future world outside of the meeting between Robert and Sara. The mystery of the inner story (the Doctor, Steven and Sara in the modern house) is mirrored by that of the outer story – why does the older Sara exist and how did she come to run a guest house in Ely?
And then in the ‘inner’ story the bodies start appearing, neat, fresh, as if new – the former owners of the house as depicted in the photographs on display. As they move through the house, the sound design is very atmospheric and quite eerie – the ticking a creaking of a clock in the background as Sara tells the story. Then Steven disappears – a role normally taken by Hartnell in this era! Simon Guerrier captures the relationship between Sara and the Doctor from Master Plan well here . We are also given a direct insight into Sara as an investigator – she is as intrigued as the Doctor by the mystery. Jean Marsh, playing Sara for the first time after more than 40 years is absolutely terrific.
The inner story unravels -the house of the future listens to and grants the wishes of its occupants -a glass of water for the Doctor, Steven’s disappearance from Sara or the death of her husband for the female owner, and her subsequent death, wished in remorse of the consequences of a stray thought not meant. What became of the house isn’t clear, but it closed its own doors and froze time. Only becoming active when the travellers arrived. The inner story is wrapped up, as Sara saves the Doctor from the house and brings Steven back – reconnecting with the house and giving it a clear set of instructions. There is a brilliant moment where the narration switches from Sara to the impression of Sara left on the house looking at the travellers. The House/the impression of Sara has lived for 1000’s of years. Robert accuses her of not being Sara Kingdom – of being a ghost, whereas she argues that she is all that remains of her. The real Sara never came back and the house assumes that she died somewhere, she is not quite a ghost. The house is now merely viewed as a haunted house, Sara a spirit to be exorcised. The story ends on a cliffhanger, Robert to decide the future of the House.
Sara Kingdom died a long way from the house in Ely -we’ll return to that soon, but before she died she left an impression on the house – similar to The Stone Tape or even the Chimes of Midnight. The cast reference M.R. James – a fireside ghost story for winter. Home Truths, is as strange and eerie as those stories, it is beautifully written and played, intriguing and satisfying. The soundscape is haunting – a fireside refuge on a dark storm night, Two people taking, one of whom is a ghost.
Listening to this again, I liked this as much as I did first time around – even without the plot reveals. It is a brilliant way to give us more of Sara Kingdom and a fine accompaniment to Daleks’ Master Plan. It is very much recommended and one of a line of excellent Simon Guerrier stories.
A Journal of Impossible Things 