6.5 - The Haunting of Malkin Place

After an encounter on a train with a mysterious spiritualist, the Fourth Doctor and Romana II are led on the trail of a mysterious ghost and the most convincing case of a haunting the Doctor has ever seen. They are brought to the mysterious Malkin place where strange sounds and movement are afoot and the residents are hiding in fear. The Doctor is determined to find a rational and scientific solution to this haunting but is there one and what exactly is going on at Malkin Place? With writer Mulryne's past experience in Big Finish with a great story in the final War Doctor Series and the spectacular 'Contingency Club' earlier in the year, I had high hopes for this one and for the most part it succeeds. This is a nice supernatural story with a strong message on grief and PTSD in particular that reminded me quite a lot of 'The Empty Child' / 'The Doctor Dances', 'Hide', and many other examples from the show. The tone of this one is genuinely creepy in a Fourth Doctor era sort of way meaning that it really revels and delves in to the material at hand. This one actually made me jump listening to it more than once which in practically unheard of for an audio story. While it's not the greatest script I've ever heard for a ghost story, the acting and atmosphere really sell the hell out of the situation and bring more credibility than a lot of supposed 'horror' ghost stories we've seen in Doctor Who more so than even some recent TV stories. A lot of it comes down to the two leads as this is one of the best exemplifications of the Fourth Doctor and Romana in a story. Baker continues to bring his charismatic charm and intellect to the character and he really get to bring a sense of both different and yet similar emotions in parts which keeps you on your toes with his performance the whole way through. I really love Lalla Ward as Romana II in this one as she really gets to play what she is best at: the sweet and soothing skeptic with a hard edge but yet a soft inner core. It's the perfect role for her character and it's really on form here. The side cast is also surprisingly good with the twins of Maurice and Beatrice sufficiently effective as the traumatized residents of the house with a strong and emotional backstory, an over the top spiritualist who brings most of the humor and pathos in the story, and a maid with a dark story on whom the plot hinges. While things do kind of go off the rails a little bit in the second half of the plot and there were some elements that I didn't think were needed, it all fits really well together especially in an ending that for once had me genuinely satisfied. For a simple Fourth Doctor haunting excursion, this one does a lot of things right and really adds a great little story in to an otherwise kind of middling line of recent Fourth Doctor stories. Mulryne is a writer I'll have to keep a better eye on in the future as this one is a spooky little tale that will have you enjoying the chills all the way through. 

In May 2017's Fourth Doctor Adventures release, the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) are on their way to visit the birthplace of MR James, when they are suddenly drawn into a mystery surrounding a haunted house called Malkin Place. Mysterious noises and apparitions appear in the house, making the tenants uneasy. Skeptical as always, the Doctor decides to investigate this house, but he soon realizes he may be in over his head, and he has to work to find the cause of these hauntings. The Haunting of Malkin Place, Phil Mulryne's first work for Big Finish, is a noticeable step up from some of his other work. Baker is on top form here, while Romana works well in this story as a soothing presence. The story itself, of a house caught in a complex temporal event from the future, makes for a rather interesting little story, especially given the rather excellent ending.

Tom Baker and Lalla Ward once again reprise their roles as the Fourth Doctor and Romana II. Baker is on rare form here in this story, giving an excellently funny performance of Mulryne's script, making it really pop. I particularly liked the scene where the seance reveals that there is in fact a "haunting" of some kind, and Baker plays the scene with a fine mix of perplexed and just a bit scared that there actually is something. Throughout the story, Baker gives a fine performance, one of his best to date. Similarly, Ward gives a strong performance here in this story, acting as a rock for many of the characters throughout the story to lean on. I've made note that Ward's demeanor has changed in recent years and that the "fun" of her performance that she had back when she was on the show has somewhat disappeared. It works in some stories, but it doesn't work in others; here is a case of the former, where her "no bullshit" attitude serves to make her stand out a bit more, acting as a supportive character for the rest of the cast, in a way that she couldn't have done if she the more whimsical Romana II.

The guest cast was a solid guest cast, but in particular, Gunnar Cauthery and Simon Jones stood out as Maurice, Beatrice's brother who never quite came back from the war, and Talbot, the spiritualist who comes to investigate Malkin Place. Cauthery gives a strong, emotional performance throughout, selling the hell out of his pained, doubtful performance, especially in the final moments of the play, as he's ripped through time to save Jack. Similarly, Jones gives an exceedingly honest performance throughout; I appreciated the way that Jones' Talbot felt like a really honest character, as if they actually believed in the spiritual. They had a nice full arc throughout the story, and they really felt like an interesting one-off character, who I'm glad Big Finish introduced to the series.

Phil Mulyrne's script for this story was an overall enjoyable affair. It wasn't the best script I've ever heard, but it was an enjoyable, temporally complicated story, and so far, the highlight of this series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures. I liked the idea of an actually haunted house, and while, for the most part, they explained it as a temporally complicated situation where things from the future were bleeding into the past, I'm happy that Mulryne was able to stick with it, with Denise Black's Mrs. Mountford being revealed as a ghost herself at the very end of the story. Other than that, I found myself quite liking the creepy nature of the story, and the mechanism for the haunting of the house. It's not exactly an original idea, but it's an enjoyable one nonetheless, and Mulryne really made it his own, spinning an emotional tale of loss and courage in the end. I liked that Mulryne had Maurice sacrifice himself towards the end of the story, as it helped to really drive home the emotional centerpiece of this story. While I felt that the story somewhat meandered in the second half of the story, it was still, overall, an enjoyable enough script by a spotty writer, and proof that he can write some excellent stories.

Overall, The Haunting of Malkin Place was an enjoyable affair. The story is really led by two excellent performances by Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, but helped by a solid guest cast, most notably Gunnar Cauthery and Simon Jones. The script by Phil Mulryne was enjoyable enough, and was a clever little emotional tale. What I liked most is how Mulryne stuck to his guns throughout the story, making it a really creepy horror tale, and leaving an ambiguous ending. It was a joy to listen to, and it may be Mulryne's best work to date.