Nightmare Country

Paradise doesn’t come cheap. This is no simulation. This is no simple shared dream. It is a genuine alternate reality, formed and maintained by the minds of our volunteers.

Konis

Synopsis

The Doctor wakes up on a planet of relics, a dead world, a hostile world… He has no memory of who he is, or how he got to be here. He’d better remember soon, because the very structure of reality is at risk and it all has something to do with that strange blue tomb with the light on top.

Review

Nightmare Country sees the Lost Stories range return to the Fifth Doctor era, and marks another script written by Stephen Gallagher. Gallagher wrote Terminus, which I really did not like, but that was possibly more to do with how it was realised and the performances rather than the writing, and Warriors’ Gate, which at the time of writing, I have not seen yet, but I understand to be quite high concept.

Steven Gallagher’s script for Nightmare Country is one that feels quite high concept, and it is certainly one that it is a struggle to imagine being effectively realised on the sort of budget Doctor Who was operating on in the early 1980s. Certainly the scenes in the TARDIS would probably have been filmed in similar locations as The Invasion of Time, or relatively bland corridors, so these scenes are probably best left to the imagination. Others, like the graveyard planet created by the reality engines could quite effectively be realised by use of a good old-fashioned quarry, like the one used for The Five Doctors for instance. Perhaps it is because of the bad taste that Terminus leaves in my mouth that I think that the production team would have struggled to bring another high-concept Steven Gallagher story to screen. That is perhaps the strength of the Big Finish Lost Stories range, that they can take these stories that would have been difficult to realise at the time they have written for and utilise the listener’s imagination to make the images needed.

That being said, I did quite like the central concept of the story, and the concept behind the Guild of Reality Engineers, who design planets for others but have no home themselves. The sense of mystery that surrounds the Doctor as he comes to terms with his new surroundings in the reality engine does unfurl really nicely in the first part but the story does struggle as the Doctor regains his memories. The cliffhanger at the end of Part 3 is one of the best moments in the story, when the Doctor realises that the Vodyani had already left the reality engine. There are parts of the story that don’t entirely make sense though, like the fact that the Engineers have made a rocket out wood in their creation of reality, even though they are in a graveyard of other rocket ships. The story also starts and ends quite abruptly, almost as if something had to be cut before the ending and the story seems not to cue the ending up, almost as if itself is surprised by the end credits rolling.

I’m less sure about the guest cast here, but I’m not sure that they are given a lot to work with by the script. Big Bob particuarly stands out here as a character who is perhaps not absolutely essential to the narrative, and I can’t say that any of the other characters really feel fully fleshed out.

Despite this, the focus is definitely on Tegan and the Fifth Doctor. Tegan is key to the Doctor regaining his memory and escaping the alternate reality. The story does give both Peter Davison and Janet Fielding the chance to do something a bit different, giving us an amnesiac Fifth Doctor who slowly regains his knowledge of who he is as the story goes on and, by giving us a N-copy of Tegan, a real sense of stakes. Both Davison and Fielding sell those scenes as the copies of Tegan and the Doctor reach the end of their lives. This feels very much in keeping with the grim tone that began to creep into the show more in Season 21, and would continue into the ill-fated Season 22.

Turlough feels utterly redundant here. Whilst both the Doctor and Tegan both feel like they have something to do in this story, Mark Strickson at times feels so superfluous that he may as well be sat beside the listener, as he is broadly narrating what he can see on the screens in the TARDIS. He does get a chance to do something in the rebellion against Konis, but it is too little too late. I suppose, as this is a Lost Story, it feels quite in keeping by not giving him anything to do, as the show in season 21 didn’t really know what to do with him either. Perhaps the most in-keeping part of this story is the reveal that Turlough cheated in the coin toss to decide who was copied to go into the reality engine. It is a shame, because I think Mark Strickson is rather good here.

Verdict: Nightmare Country is built on the foundation of a perfectly good idea but suffers with its abrupt ending, some unmemorable guest performances and not giving Turlough very much to do. Davison and Fielding are on top form though. 7/10

Cast: Peter Davison (The Doctor), Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka), Mark Strickson (Turlough), Beth Chalmers (Zorya/Tasja), Ian Conningham (Maximov/Konis), Edward Dede (Volos/Vodyani Leader/Big Bob) & Tracy Wiles (Marzanna/Engels).

Writer: Steve Gallagher

Director: Ken Bentley

Producer: David Richardson

Composer: Andy Hardwick

Parts: 4

Release Date: 14 November 2019

Behind the Scenes

• This is the first Lost Story to feature Turlough.
• The story was written to be a part of Season 21, however, was scrapped by Eric Saward due to being too expensive to produce.

Cast Notes

• Beth Chalmers has appeared in a number of Big Finish audio plays, most notable as Veklin and Seventh Doctor companion Raine Creevy.
• Ian Conningham played Chuckles in The Girl Who Died. He has also appeared in the Big Finish plays The Primeval Design, Previously, Next Time, The Hollow Crown and Storm of the Horofax.
• Edward Dede voiced Lloyd Walker in The Diary of River Song story An Unearthly Woman.
• Tracy Wiles has appeared in a number of Big Finish plays, most notably in the role of Jacqui McGee in the UNIT range.

Best Quote

This entire reality is fluid! But I am the Doctor, whatever I am, whoever I am, I am the Doctor.

The Fifth Doctor

Previous Fifth Doctor review: The Awakening

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