Something Inside

Bending spoons for King and Country, hmm?

The Eighth Doctor

Synopsis

WARNING!
YOU ARE ABOUT TO ENTER THE CUBE
ALL FORMS OF TELEPATHY ARE PROHIBITED
DO NOT ATTEMPT TELEPORTATION UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
PSYCHIC POWERS WILL BE FORCIBLY REMOVED
(MENTAL SURGERY IS COMPULSORY)

CAUTION!
YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS
YOU HAVE NO POWERS
YOU HAVE NO DEFENCE
YOU ARE NOW INSIDE THE CUBE

Review

Something Inside is a rather disappointing story, as it has a lot of interesting ideas, but feels as though none of them are entirely committed to.

Part of the issue may be that this story was originally intended to be part of the Divergent Universe arc and so was constrained by those rules. We have the Doctor and his companions being separated from the TARDIS, the novelty of which has really worn off following the Divergent Arc being focused on finding the TARDIS. Then we have got the issue of the Eighth Doctor’s amnesia, which has been a recurrent trope of his era. After all, the Eighth Doctor starts off with amnesia in the TV Movie, then suffers from it again in Minuet in Hell, and had partial amnesia in Terror Firma. Here, it does not really serve a purpose and wears off as the story demands, rather than feeling organic. Ultimately, Something Inside really doesn’t work as a coherent or interesting story, and it is certainly one of my least favourite Eighth Doctor stories.

It almost feels as though the sub-plot about the soldiers who have been augmented by the work of Rawden is more interesting than the brain worm. The Cube is a prison for soldiers, who are now defunct following the conclusion of the war. As they were ostracised by their society as they are able to read minds and, in the case of Latch, telepathically assassinate targets. That’s a story that sounds a lot more interesting than the whole brain worm plot we get here, but it probably needs a writer who is more interested in exploring these ideas further. In the end, these soldiers just seem to be there to turn up when the plot needs progressing, rather than because there’s a genuine reason for them to be there.

Something that does majorly let Something Inside down is the score, which is used fairly infrequently, but when it is used, seems to think that it is in a much lighter story. This really means that the tone is not effectively conveyed, especially in a story where characters are getting their skulls turned inside out. It does become a distraction, as it almost makes it a game to wait for the music cue – and there is only one – to crop up again. There’s also very little in the way of sound effects, which did cause problems with drawing me into the story. We’re told that we’re in a psychic dampening prison, but I feel that we’re not given much more, either through sound design or dialogue, to enable your imagination to form an impression of where this action takes place.

The villains of the piece, Rawden and Twyst almost feel like lacklustre Bond villains. Whilst Rawden had motivations that halfway made sense, Twyst just seems like a sadist with no real reasoning behind it. Even Rawden turns into a generic bad guy at the end of the story, and that makes for a very unmemorable end to a disappointing story. Both characters do disappear from the narrative for long stretches of time, before then popping up at the last moment to prevent the Doctor from escaping the Cube.

Whilst the Eighth Doctor has amnesia yet again, I do feel that Paul McGann puts in a good performance and is certainly putting his all into a script that might not quite be up to scratch. He manages to make some clunky dialogue function quite well and that does help make Something Inside not fall into the depths of weaker stories. Drawing parallels between their situation and the 2005 Champions League final did raise a smile, as the Doctor takes away the message never to give up in the face of incredible odds. The Doctor’s amnesia seems to wear off without any real rhyme or reason, which does make it all seem all the more frustrating.

With the Doctor having lost his memories, Charley and C’rizz have to take up the mantle and it is a good idea to have his companions know more about what is going on than he does. That being said, it does not really feel as though Charley has very much to do, and C’rizz does not have that much more except for be horribly tortured by Twyst. It really feels as though the writers don’t really know what to do with C’rizz, as there is a suggestion that he has some psychic abilities due to one of the people that he has “saved”, but the story very quickly moves on from this. It almost feels like the situation with Turlough following the Black Guardian trilogy, which is again disappointing.

Verdict: Something Inside is an incredibly disappointing experience, helped along by Paul McGann. 2/10.

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley Pollard), Conrad Westmaas (C’rizz), Ian Brooker (Garth Twyst), Louise Collins (Jane Thirgood), Liz Crowther (Tessa Waylund), Steven Elder (Eryk Rawden) & John Killoran (Gorden Latch)

Writer: Trevor Baxendale

Director: Nicholas Briggs

Music and Sound Design: Joseph Fox

Release Date: June 2006

Main Range release number: 83

Behind the Scenes

• This story had the working title of The Cube.
• Gary Russell’s original intention was for this story to be set in the Divergent Universe.

Cast List

• Steven Elder has appeared in Jubilee, Blood on Santa’s Claw, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day and Brightly Shone the Moon that Night.
• Ian Brooker has appeared in a number of Big Finish audio plays, including Embrace the Darkness, The Entropy Composition and Wirrn Dawn.
• John Killoran would go on to appear in The Nowhere Place opposite Colin Baker.

Best Quote

Previous Eighth Doctor review: Time Works

For more Eighth Doctor reviews, click here.