2.1b - The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance

The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance

Planet of Fragrance
Date : Unknown

This is one of the Lost Stories released in 2010 based on a script from 1964. For some reason I was under the impression that hippies were a late 1960's to early 1970's phenomenon yet they were obviously getting started in 1964 as evidenced by the main characters name of Rhythm and his sisters Melody and Harmony.

The Doctor has obtained a cube from this society which appears to be some type of fuel that the TARDIS needed so it's time to end their vacation and take off. Problem is that Rythem has fallen in love with Barbara and it is implied that they were in a sexual relationship. (This is rare in classic who but Big Finish toys with this aspect of character development such as when Nyssa was having sex in 91b. Circular Time - Summer). But Barbara just isn't feeling the love and she refuses to stay.

This society has some unusual flukes in it's culture and one of them is that love is a once in a lifetime thing. It almost seems to be bordering on religion. So since Barbara doesn't love Rythen he ends up having to kill himself for reasons I just didn't get.

The documentaries with this release do state that the story was changed quite a bit from the original TV script and if I had to guess on at least one reason it was not made? I suspect someone at BBC might have been standing around one day and suddenly realized "Wait a second, is it to good idea to glamorize suicide on TV with a program that has a large young audience?" As a side note, this is the second Big Finish release I have heard that seems to glamorize suicide with the other being the Short Trip - Running Out of Time by Dorothy Koomson.

Not much to this one. As a brief character piece I didn't think it added much to Barbara's story. I also wasn't interested in the aliens or world. The best thing I can say about it is that the story didn't overstay its welcome.

A complex and yet quite cleverly written tale, our 4 intrepid visitors are making ready to leave the planet Fragrance, a planet of blue suns, emerald seas and red trees. The inhabitants of the planet have a rather bizarre measure of their life and the stages of it. For it a person finds love and loses it then they must die. Added to this the Doctor is overly open about sharing the secrets of the Tardis with two local people who have assisted the Doctor in helping him with a faulty co-ordinator part for the Tardis. Ian is worried however that the Doctor is sharing to much with them. Ian however insults the two inhabitants, and this slight makes them insist that they all stop on the planet on Fragrance, for the two locals feel that if they die due to the part not working then it will be a bad thing. Fragrance seems a little too good to be true, and that in itself starts to raise your suspensions. Barbara if she does not tell Rhythm that she does not love him, must die, and she is essentially sending him to his death. This is all getting little like a twisted fairy tale.

The story in a sort of anti climax manner does not end well for Rhythm and that is somewhat a better ending, than it ending happily ever after. It made for a much definitive end, and it sets it apart as being a much more grown up ending than is normally expected from a Who adventure. I liked this for the fact that it appealed to my - smiling is not always a good thing, and a drop of sadness makes life much more balanced.

The TARDIS crew have landed on the world and a young man named Rythym has fallen for Barbara and perhaps she's fallen for him too. The story hints at it but isn't really clear. It's a one off story that writer Moris Farhi wrote as a sample of his work rather than a fully developed script and it shows. The Doctor makes the key decision that resolves the story but we never actually know why he did what he did. It feels like a science fiction story that could be in any franchise (or non-franchise for that matter.) Still, it's interesting for what it is.