Tony does the monster mash.
There are characters
studded throughout Doctor Who history who spark the imagination, who make you
think ‘Oh, they’d have been good in more adventures than they got.’ Mags, the
werewolf brought to the Psychic Circus in The Greatest Show In The Galaxy is certainly
one such character, mostly, if we’re honest, because of her sympathetic
portrayal by Jessica Martin.
Big Finish exists for many
reasons, but one of them is the opportunity to fill in gaps, to open cracks in
the canon and hear what might happen if we fleshed out events we’ve only dared
imagine before. So, welcome back Mags, for three adventures with the Seventh
Doctor as he’s getting on, putting things right, tidying away loose ends,
rather than bringing down staggeringly powerful Elder Gods. He feels he has
unfinished business with Mags, and goes to seek her out.
Mags, again played by
Martin, is on a mission of her own, tramping across the planet Gokroth in this,
the first of her three return stories, written by Matt Fitton. Gokroth has… monsters.
It has frightened villagers. And it has a mad scientist in a tower. Do you
really need to know any more?
We’re off to the races
with a sci-fi take on some classic horror movies. Where are the monsters coming
from? Are they being engineered by the mad scientist? Will the crowd ever take
the plunge and storm the castle, pitchforks a-go-go? And what’s in it for Mags
either way?
There’s a sub-story here
about narratives, what they need, how they change and, especially at the
mid-point in the story, how they can sometimes get pulled right out from under
you. When Mags goes in search of the woman who might be able to help her regain
control of her Vulpanan instinct to change with the phases of the moon, she
instead runs into the Doctor, who sets himself up as a better authority, more
able to help her achieve her goals. The nature of reality and truth is the
prize up for grabs on Gokroth – but whether the terrified natives have either
the gumption to seize it, or the guts to deal with what they discover, are entirely
different questions. Meanwhile, Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor has his work
cut out trying to get reason to prevail in a climate of binary contempt and
fear, of secrets, lies, fake news, questionable history and the seductive
notion of blaming the ‘other.’
McCoy is on top form in
this story, delivering a Doctor closer to the version from the TV movie than to
his early, busy, chess-playing, god-bating days. It’s a brave way to take his
character development (and of course, it doesn’t stop anyone delivering more
stories with a ‘younger’ Seventh Doctor in the future), and it helps to see
this Seventh Doctor, while not exactly mellowing as such – he’d still be
standing in the way of tyrants whenever it was necessary – but focusing more on
the small stuff, the missteps, the paths not taken and the setting right of
things unfinished. It speaks of a Doctor settling down to his life, all the
most important elements on his to-do List of universal housekeeping ticked off,
a Time Lord free to do individual good deeds for good people, rather than
battling behemoths from the dawn of time.
Jessica Martin too fits
back into the voice of Mags as though no years had passed since The Greatest
Show. She has an interesting journey in this story – deciding whether to
continue as planned and seek out the help of Dr Maleeva (she of the tower, and
sounding too much like ‘Malevolent’ for it to be a coincidence that she’s
portrayed as evil), or to put her trust in the funny little man with the
strange blue box. The years between the Psychic Circus and Gokroth have not, we
feel, been particularly kind to Mags, haunted as she is by the unpredictability
of her own nature and the colossal potential for murder and mayhem that comes
with it. There may well be monsters on Gokroth, but when we meet her again
after all these years, Mags isn’t sure that she’s not one of them.
What we get through the
course of this story’s ups and downs is a through-line where the Doctor is able
to face the truth, no matter what it is, and when he offers to help her
overcome her problems and get on with her life, Mags joins the Tardis and
becomes a fully-fledged (or indeed fully-furred) companion. It’s been a long
time coming, and The Monsters of Gokroth is a busy tale of truths, half-truths
and nothing-like-the-truths from which Mags and the Doctor emerge surer of each
other, ready both to trust and to travel, to find the answers to the
outstanding questions of her life.
Pop along to Gokroth, and
find the monster inside yourself.
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