5.6 - Quinnis

Marc Platt as written a Companion Chronicle that to all intense and purposes has the feel, and the quality of a something that could well have been written when all of the cast, where alive and well, and we sat down on a Saturday tea-time to watch on our 12" Black & White T.V. The interesting thing about this is chronologically it continues off from the previous Companion Chronicles. There are references made throughout this release. There is also a relationship mentioned to the events that have gone on through either Big Finish's work on the Doctor's canon, or indeed the BBC tenure when they were in the production seat.


So what we have here is Carol Ann Ford taking on the role of Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, and the wonderful interaction of Tara-Louise Kane taking on other voice acting roles as well as taking on the mantle of the main protagonist within the story. I liked the manner in which the story paints a very vivid picture in your mind. We have the Doctor being adopted mainly through his tenacity being taken in by a the inhabitants, of whom live in a sort of suspended community of bridge dwellers with the plains that lie below them being the remit of the much feared protagonist of the community. The Doctor is taken on as the "rainmaker" the man who will bring them a much needed drop of water for their crops. However, Susan starts to become no more than a gopher for the Doctor, that is until the small girl whom she makes friends with turns out to be more of key element in the society that both the Doctor and Susan have adopted than they care to admit. In fact she becomes part of the solution as well as in some respects the problem.


I enjoyed this outing, Carol Ann never ceases to amaze me at her versatility, you really do forget that she is essentially the driving force behind this incredibly cut down and minimum casted drama. There is a magic that Big Finish weave when it comes to making through production the whole thing sounding and feeling like a much broader brush that has been swept across the audio canvas than is actual here. Lisa Bowerman also must be congratulated as she has pretty much nailed this stripped down, yet a versatile methodology of knocking out these Companion Chronicles which give so much pleasure to the listener.


Cracking release, and a nice 4th Dimension adventure to boot.

The planet Quinnis is suffering a severe draught and the local inhabitants believe the Doctor can end the draught. Susan makes friends with a girl called Meedla. This uses the framing device of Susan writing a letter to David after the events of 'An Earthly Child', yet in that story David was dead. I haven't heard the 'Relative Dimensions' story from the Eighth Doctor Adventures yet so maybe I am missing something? The story about Quinnis that Susan is recalling is set before the events of 'An Unearthly Child'. 'Quinnis' was written by Marc Platt, and directed by Lisa Bowerman.

With only two actresses, Meedla is played by Tara-Louise Kaye, this relies heavily on narration; unsurprisingly that limits the range of voices, and Carol just can't even come close to Hartnell's voice. Susan mentions the planet Quinnis in 'The Edge of Destruction', which is a nice tie-in to the original series. There is some good narration and imagery. The story is OK, but merely OK.

As a whole Quinnis is a set up story, it's there to set up An Unearthly Child as well as to loosely set up Relative Dimentions. That said its a rather good set up story, it's a very sci-fi story, which is not very similar to the classic First Doctor stories but it works in this case. I'm not entirely sure weither wether the *reveal* was meant to be a reveal at all which is my main complaint about this story, it's very predictable, pretty much everything happens that you'd expect to happen. Marc Platt tends to write more serious stories and you get the feeling that this was meant to be serious too, however it's best to look at it as a more fun story.

There are some Companion Chronicles that absolutely blow me away and provide amazing new insight into a character. Quinnis isn't one of those, but it is a fantastic adventure tale set before an Unearthly Child that finds the Doctor and Susan on the planet Quinnis.

Carole Ann Ford captures the spirit of the First Doctor very well in her reading and you see the tenderness and care he has for her. The story world is pretty interesting and writer Marc Platt brings it to life quite nicely as this piece of continuity from the TV show is filled in. There's a scary monster and a a few nice plot twists. Ford and her daughter are great working together in this story. Overall, this was a fun hour of audio.