Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Serpent Crest’s third instalment brings us worlds within worlds, and is a chance for writer Paul Magrs’ well honed fantasy sensibilities to let rip even further than usual. “I know I keep on saying this Mrs Wibbsey, but hold on!”
At the culmination of The Broken Crown, the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey found themselves sucked into a world lying within the powerful Skishtari egg, a dormant but dangerous item brought from the far-flung Robotov Empire of the future. Its master Alex, a confused young boy who is the cyborg heir to that empire, has grown up on 17th century Earth while ostracised from society and fed on a diet of fantastical literature. It’s these stories that have fashioned the world of fictional references presented in Aladdin Time, where our heroes find themselves in, and one book in particular holds sway, the Arabian Nights.
Using the now familiar device of a narrator in the Nest Cottage Adventures, Magrs begins the tale with a storyteller. This echoes the Arabian Nights which has as its central conceit a narrated framing device too. The Storyteller, played by Sophie Ward, has intense, yet moderated tones as she cautiously spins her tale. She’s ever mindful of her position and ensures she leaves her listener, the Shahryār, wanting more on each occasion in a cliffhanger style as her life depends upon it. Employing a formal and sophisticated language, the Storyteller draws you in as her story appears to spin out of control, taking on a life of its own when the usual rules of narrative begin to break down.
The Doctor and Wibbs find themselves beginning within the tale of Aladdin and progress through a series of caverns meeting a collection of supporting characters. All are twisted versions of the characters from the previous instalment and so Boolin, the lad’s android physician, becomes The Magician and Alex is the boy Aladdin himself. Others familiar from the previous adventure are a delight when presented too. The Doctor appears to relish being in this environment, though he insists to his companion that there will be a scientific explanation for it all.
As the characters move from cavern to cavern, the score creates an air of breeding menace employing creepily effective chimes and horns.
“Good night, sleep tight. Hope the Drashig’s don’t…”
Of all the fantastical elements, the strangest and boldest idea has to be that of the Doctor’s scarf coming to life. Voiced by Andrew Sachs, it’s a superb and surprising creation whose loyalties are interesting to try and work out. Even the Doctor seems flummoxed by this turn of events and wonderfully refers to “the treachery of knitware”.
Guy Harvey puts in another solid performance as the boy here and you really feel for him. His confusion once again threatens to engulf everything around him while he endeavours to work out what is real. He seems to cling to Mrs Wibbsey as a stabilising influence and looks after her. She too appears to have genuine affection for the lad too as they endure the trials of the journey and it’s nice to see this softer side to Susan Jameson’s performance of Mrs Wibbs.
In the post-script, the Doctor has an ingenious and typically temporal solution for the egg that both amuses and sets the stage for the concluding two chapters. It appears that the Doctor feels this adventure is over and I look forward to him discovering he’s wrong, as he surely will be, in the next instalment.
Aladdin Time is available either on CD from all the usual places, or on download from AudioGO. Serpent Crest #4 The Hexford Invasion and #5 Strangers in Space are on sale from 8th December 2012.
Posted in: Doctor Who,Ian McArdell,PastTimesBBCBaker
