Doctor Who - The Secret History

Written by Eddie Robson
Directed by Barnaby Edwards
Big Finish Productions, 2015
Stars: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Maureen O’Brien (Vicki), Peter Purves (Steven Taylor), Germane Grade (Quintus), Lysette Anthony (Sophia), Giles Watling (Belisarius), Tony Millan (Procopius/Yazid), Tim Wallers (Justinian), Saran Woodward (Theodora)

Doctor Who has had many proud milestones throughout its history, not least its 50th anniversary celebrations two years ago. Last year, Big Finish Productions also celebrated 15 years of producing licensed Doctor Who dramas with its Worlds of Doctor Who release. This year, BF has decided to mark its 200th release in the Doctor Who “main range” with its “locum Doctors” trilogy. It’s a milestone that’s pretty dubious, to be honest, considering BF’s Doctor Who output in the last 15 years truly exceeds 200 releases and does not encompass the Fourth Doctor adventures (with Tom Baker) or the Eighth Doctor adventures (Paul McGann’s Doctor started in the “main range” before getting his own series). By my estimation, coupled with various spin-offs, BF is really celebrating something like its “500th” release, not its 200th! But hey, any excuse for a party ...

The “locum Doctors” concept has already seen the Seventh and Sixth Doctors involuntarily replace the Third and Second Doctors in the 198th and 199th releases The Defectors and Last of the Cybermen. In both tales, each Doctor found himself forced to resolve the situation by directly contradicting the position of his predecessor and by extension threatening to unravel his entire time stream. In The Secret History, the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) finds himself transplanted into the First Doctor’s era and reunited with companions Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) – just in time for the TARDIS to materialise in Italy in the sixth century AD as Byzantine general Belisarius (Giles Watling) begins his conquest of Italy.

Just as The Defectors and Last of the Cybermen were homages to the Pertwee and Troughton eras, so The Secret History also honours the Hartnell era through an historical tale that sees the TARDIS crew interact with characters based on personalities from that period, eg Belisarius, his secretary Procopius (played by Tony Millan, whom the Doctor recognises as the author of the tomes The Wars of Justinian and The Secret History) and the Byzantine Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora (Tim Wallers and Sarah Woodward). Indeed, the story starts with the tried and trusted Hartnell era formula of the Doctor and his companions arriving in a period setting and then being separated and forced to participate in events against their will. In this instance, Steven is taken prisoner by the invading Roman forces and transported from Italy to the Roman capital Constantinople. The Fifth Doctor and Vicki have little choice but to follow and by the time they arrive in Constantinople, the Doctor is arrested by Justinian on suspicion of being a Persian spy. He subsequently spends much of the second episode in prison and is largely absent from events (not unlike the First Doctor who could also disappear from the odd TV episode whenever William Hartnell took a week’s holiday!). This leaves Vicki to delve deeper into the mystery while Steven is recruited at the Hippodrome – first as a stablehand, then as a painter and finally as a driver in the local chariot races between the (historically accurate) rival green and blue teams as the regular drivers are struck down by the first bout of the Justinian plague. Vicki is particularly a great foil for the brazen Belisarius (“What d’you mean ‘we’?” he blurts out when he realises Vicki has invited herself to accompany him to an audience with the Emperor), continuing a humorous trait of the Hartnell historical – the Doctor and his companions would often provide much needed light relief amongst some of the earnest and unrefined figures they encountered in period settings. Writer Eddie Robson cleverly echoes the same approach.

However, it is from the second episode on that the serial really strays from the traditional Hartnell pure historical tale. Indeed, The Secret History becomes a SF story with a period setting as extra-terrestrial entities not unlike the modern TV series’ Weeping Angels seize control of Justinian and Theodora (and by extension the Roman Empire) and an old adversary of the Doctor’s under the alias of Quintus, aided by his time-sensitive assistant Sophia (Lysette Anthony), finally plays his hand and manoeuvres the Doctor into a trap that imperils his very existence. The final episode could not be more unpredictable from the first three as history (at least as the Doctor knows it) assumes an entirely different course.

The main story aside, Robson is excellent at portraying the politics of the Byzantine era, along with the exuberant, flamboyant personalities that inhabit it. Wallers’ Justinian is pompous, sleazy and paranoid while Watling’s Belisarius is ostentatious, authoritative, dutiful and dry-humoured, making them perfect rivals for the future of the Roman Empire. Woodward’s Theodora is also haughty, with some cutting dialogue for her husband, whom she clearly enjoys antagonising. Millan’s Procopious is unsurprisingly scholarly, a little cowardly and in Belisarius’ words “a complex chap”, given his misogynistic views of the Empress (“Her soul is a cesspool!”) and of women in general (“No man should trust himself around beautiful women!”). Millan also deserves another mention for his gruff, rough diamond performance as Hippodrome proprietor Yazid who is such a complete contrast to the quietly spoken Procopious that it is easy to assume the parts were taken up by separate actors.

Maureen O’Brien and Peter Purves reprise the roles of Vicki and Steven almost effortlessly, as if 50 years haven’t elapsed at all since their time in the TV series. Both actors obviously put a lot of youthful inflection into their performances to convey their younger characters but they never sound too old or unconvincing. Peter Davison, of course, continues to be as excellent as ever as the more “fretful” (in Vicki’s words) Fifth Doctor, displaying the vulnerability that was typical of the character in his era on television and far less of the assuredness and arrogance of his first incarnation. Davison’s expression of fear when his Doctor is presented with a solution that could save a man’s life (and by extension change the course of history altogether) is particularly noteworthy:

Belisarius: Doctor, is he saying that you could save this man’s life?

The Doctor: I’m afraid so.

Belisarius: Afraid? What are you afraid of?

The Doctor: Everything. Don’t you see? It would change everything.

Of course, it is precisely the Fifth Doctor’s character traits that the villainous Quintus exploits to spring his trap. The villain’s true identity (I hesitate to even name the actor who plays the part for fear of giving the character away) will either be a pleasant surprise or an unsatisfactory revelation to the listener (in fact, my suspicions about who might be behind the Doctor’s translocations throughout his time stream proved correct before I even listened to The Secret History, and the cowled figure on the cover sleeve – even though there’s no implication in the story that the villain actually wears a cowl! – did little to allay that suspicion). To this reviewer, it’s not exactly a bold revelation and the villain concerned is wearing a bit thin but nevertheless the actor who plays him (a renowned British comedian that we all would have loved on TV as we grew up in the 1970s – well, at least in Britain and Australia), delivers an excellent performance, offering the right balance of humour, charm, mischief and fervour.

While this trilogy fits with Quintus’ modus operandi (he even gets to fulfil every Doctor Who fan’s wish in the final episode!), I find it deliciously ironic that, given this is the “official” 200th release in the Doctor Who “main range”, the antagonist is driven to usurp and destroy the Doctor out of revenge for events that actually occurred in serials that are not counted by BF as part of the “main range”. Again, this illustrates to me that for all the pomp and ceremony, The Secret History is no more remarkable than any other BF Doctor Who release. “Main range” or not, it’s all Doctor Who!

That said, The Secret History is an entertaining and at times fun tale, with the right blend of drama and humour befitting a Hartnell era historical, and as long-time BF listeners can expect, excellent sound production values and performances. You really do believe that you could be accompanying the Doctor, Steven and Vicki around sixth century Ravenna and Constantinople, and the incidental music and sound effects, including the TARDIS interior noises, also create the impression that you are experiencing a “lost” Hartnell era tale, albeit with Peter Davison as the Doctor!

However, when compared to the rest of the “locum Doctors” trilogy, The Secret History is the weakest link (with The Defectors the highlight of the bunch). This is partly because unlike The Defectors or Last of the Cybermen, The Secret History ceases to be a story in its own right about half-way through and becomes a closing, convoluted chapter to a broader saga. It’s also dependent on whether you feel you get the pay-off that the trilogy promises – it doesn’t necessarily convince nor does the villain impress either, despite the threat he poses to our hero’s survival.