Tony Fyler dodges a
bullet
There are
points throughout Doctor Who’s history where spin-offs become possible. Some
have been realized, others not yet. 1985’s Remembrance of the Daleks screamed
‘spin-off’ right from broadcast, its team of three humans fighting the combined
Dalek threat alongside the Doctor and Ace having the distinct air of a ‘Web of
Fear proto-UNIT’ about them – Group Captain Ian ‘Chunky’ Gilmore, Professor
Rachel Jensen and Dr Alison Williams were well-characterised, rounded, real
people, and when the Doctor and Ace left them behind, there was always the
sense of them having lives beyond their involvement in the Doctor’s life.
That’s how you can tell a natural spin off point – if you can imagine the
characters going off to have adventures of their own, that’s a spin-off point.
But still,
before you commit resources to writing and recording stories for them, any
group of spin-off characters needs a try-out, and that will usually be a story
which allows them to show off their potential, but which probably still
includes the Doctor in some way, to carry the weight of ‘omnipotent alien with
a plan’ plotting, in case such a thing is necessary.
The
Intrusion Countermeasures Group – Gilmore, Williams, ministry man Sir Toby
Kinsella and maybe, at some point, Jensen – were given their try-out in The
Assassination Games, the third Big Finish story celebrating fifty years of
Doctor Who, the so-called '1963' stories. In terms of personal reaction, I was
looking forward to the Peter Davison and Colin Baker outings in the trio, but
not particularly the McCoy entry, not being the biggest of his fans. Both the
first two though disappointed by padding and a moderate insanity of plot.
McCoy’s The Assassination Games managed to keep the story reasonably tight all
the way along, and I was forced to concede it had ‘won’ the trio.
Because
it’s both a Counter-Measures origin story and a Seventh Doctor story, the trick
is in giving everyone enough to do, without spinning the story out for hours
and hours and making the listener lose the will to listen. That’s why you give
such a story to a writer like John Dorney. He establishes the tone, the period
and the nature of the action rapidly – a new kind of nuclear missile, the
Starfire, can cause solid amounts of devastation, but leave relatively little
fall-out and minimize the shockwave effect. And Britain
There are
nuclear agendas, nuclear protestors, political sex scandals (this being 1963,
the year of the Profumo scandal is shamelessly, even joyfully worked in, with a
‘good-time girl’ sleeping with both a Minister for Defence and a Russian spy),
some fantastic undercover work from both Ace and the Doctor (the Doctor’s
reveal in particular is delicious). There are basements full of alien tech,
there are hyno-zombies, and there are creepy alien illuminati who combine
elements of The Faceless Ones, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Bodysnatchers and the
Darwinian nightmare of parasitoid wasps – so, pretty grim, all in all. But more
than all of this, there’s a solid sense of period here, and of the potential of
what Counter-Measures could be: perennial Big Finisher Hugh Ross adds to the
Counter-Measures team we know with a smooth, polished performance as Sir Toby,
the ultimate Westminster mandarin, while there’s something entirely logical for
everyone to do within the storyline – Alison the duffle-coated idealist going
undercover with Disarmament Now, Jensen giving the semi-official once-over to
the armament stores of the arms manufacturer du jour, Sir Gideon Vale, Gilmore
chasing down assassins and saying ‘What the devil-?’ a lot – it sets out a
manifesto that says ‘This bunch could sustain an adventure series on their own,
once the Doctor bogs off in his blue box again.’
While
Dorney and veteran Big Finish director Ken Bentley keep the plot cracking along
and reasonably tight, there’s also enough about the plot that’s absolutely
barking mad, in the style of the great ITC adventure serials of the 60s and 70s
– Danger Man, Department S and yes, The Avengers – and adds that element of
demented invention to the stall that The Assassination Games sets out for a
potential Counter-Measures series. Without being too spoilerific, threads of
conspiracy and the potential replacement of key personnel lead to
doppelgangers, double lives and a potential third world war between America and
Russia – nothing like upping the stakes! It plays in to the paranoia of the
age, but also delivers enough realism in the characters’ lives and dialogue to
make you buy into the potential of the story and the show.
In some
ways, The Assassination Games is the inversion of Remembrance of the Daleks, in
which the Counter-Measures team (in embryo) were strong enough, but played
second fiddle to the Doctor and Ace’s battle with the Daleks. In The
Assassination Games, the Doctor and Ace are strong enough, and crucial enough,
while playing second fiddle to the Counter-Measures team, meaning that once
it’s over, you don’t immediately think ‘I could listen to more Seventh Doctor right
now,” but rather “I could listen to more with that Counter-Measures team right
now.’
Fabulously
of course, you can – the original Counter-Measures team went on to have four
whole series of adventures. The latest news from Big Finish is that in 2016,
there will even be a reboot – The New Counter-Measures. That will be a very big
gamble, because Counter-Measures was spun off from a core group of characters
created for the screen by Ben Aaronovitch. But before we even have to confront
the question of how The New Counter-Measures will work, there are sixteen hours
with the original team to enjoy.
The
Assassination Games works well – barking and realistic, finely balanced and yet
crackingly paced. If this story sets out the stall for the Counter-Measures series,
then bring it on!
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