An Hour of Who a Day: 11/04/14

November 4: The Awakening Parts One & Two

There's been a tendency over the last couple of seasons for stories to feel somewhat relaxed at times, interested in exploring their environments rather than being on the move. And while there's certainly nothing wrong with that, it does mean that stories feel a bit slow from time to time. However, The Awakening is the opposite of this -- it's packed full of incident and energy as it moves from scene to scene. That's partially because this is only a two-parter, but while other two-parters have simply had smaller, less urgent plots to deal with, The Awakening attempts to squeeze all the incident of a four-part story into half the time. In this respect it's much closer in feel to the 21st-century version of Doctor Who than anything surrounding it.

To this end it moves with tons of energy, opening with a contemporary woman being chased by Cavaliers on horseback in a way that suggests that perhaps time is mixing -- but no, it turns out the Cavaliers are also contemporary men reenacting the English Civil War. But then later, in a double bluff, we learn that, no, there is some mixing of time periods -- that early fake-out was preparing us for the real thing later on. And the war games that are being put on by Sir George Hutchinson and the rest of the village are becoming more and more serious, much to the alarm of schoolteacher Jane Hampden, who seems to be the only person not participating. This is the environment that the TARDIS materializes in, and the three travellers are quickly caught up in the reenacted events. And since this story is packed with incident, we quickly move from being captured to being free, leaving the Doctor to investigate the nearby church and discover a local boy named Will Chandler, from 1643. Will was there for the real Civil War battle, and he doesn't seem keen to live through it again. And the Doctor learns that there's an alien presence in the church called the Malus, which made the local events of 1643 particularly bloodthirsty and is preparing to make the 1984 reenactment just as violent.

This is a story filled with an outstanding guest cast -- Denis Lill is perfect as the charming yet deranged Sir George, with Glyn Houston as his much more skeptical friend Ben Wolsey, while Polly James provides the voice of reason as Jane and Keith Jayne gives a very likable performance as Will Chandler. It's therefore impressive how much Peter Davison stands out from this crowd, giving a very strong turn as the Doctor, full of energy but with a biting edge at times -- his delivery of the line "Yes, I know", in response to Jane's statement that Sir George must be stopped, is filled with exasperated sarcasm and makes this Doctor far more interesting as a result. I also like the way the Doctor tells everyone in the TARDIS to "remain perfectly calm and still", and then leaps into motion like a hyperkinetic jackrabbit. And there's the tasteless pun about the burned alive Queen of the May being "the toast of Little Hodcombe", which leads to a sharp rebuke from Will: "'Tain't funny. She were screaming." These elements all combine to give us a much more interesting Doctor than we've had in a while -- it's as if someone's finally letting Peter Davison push the boundaries of the role. It's therefore somewhat sad that it was during the production of this story (28 July 1983, to be exact) that it was announced that Peter Davison would be leaving -- he'd had to make a decision to stay or leave the show after season 21 at the end of season 20, and thus decided to leave -- partly because he hadn't thought the scripts for season 20 were particularly good, and partly because Patrick Troughton told him not to stay longer than three years.

Now, while there are moments of brutality in The Awakening (the attempted burning of Tegan as the Queen of the May, the death of the hapless trooper by psychically-projected Roundheads), it never feels gratuitous, the way it did in Warriors of the Deep. This makes a big difference, and while Sir George is killed by the Malus (which then self-destructs, in a sequence somewhat reminiscent of the conclusion of The Dæmons), his sadistic right-hand man Willow is forgiven by Wolsey and Jane (we're probably meant to think that he was under the evil influence of the Malus and is now free, although this isn't remotely conveyed on screen), rather than being condemned to die by writer Eric Pringle/script editor Eric Saward. And, charmingly, the whole story has just enough time to end with a lovely little discussion in the TARDIS about staying behind a bit in Little Hodcombe and having tea. It's the perfect end to a neat little story.

The Awakening is an engaging tale, told very well by first-time Who writer Eric Pringle (odd that he never came back -- he doesn't appear to have even submitted another story idea) and well-directed by first (and also only)-time director Michael Owen Morris. It's got a great villain and a nice hook (the English Civil War period hadn't really been explored on the show in any form before), and the whole thing moves along with a sense of speed and fun. It's not "big" enough to stand up among the classics of Doctor Who, but The Awakening does so much right with such economy that it's really hard not to adore it. So why fight it?