154. The Witch from the Well.

4 episodes. Approx. 110 minutes. Written by: Rick Briggs. Directed by: Barnaby Edwards. Produced by: David Richardson.


THE PLOT

An excavation at the village of Trenchard's Fell uncovers a well, blocked by stone and left undisturbed for centuries. Naturally, the workers remove the stone - and in so doing, free a witch who proceeds to butcher them all within minutes. 

Twins Lucern (Kevin Trainor) and Finicia (Alix Wilton Regan), the children of the village squire, have witnessed this massacre and appear destined to be among the victims - until the Doctor and Mary rescue them. The Doctor insists there are no witches, and that they are dealing with an alien life form. He sets the TARDIS controls for the 17th century to investigate the origin of the creature.

But there is more to Lucern and Finicia than meets the eye. Thanks to the twins' interference, the Doctor and Mary soon find themselves separated by centuries - Mary, evading the witch in 21st century Trenchard's Fell; the Doctor, probing the secrets of the 17th century village. But the Doctor's search for answers will meet a deadly barrier in the form of Master John Kincaid (Simon Rouse), the infamous Witch-Pricker!


CHARACTERS

The Doctor: The Silver Turk saw the Doctor focused on destroying an alien being, so it is a good decision here to show his more compassionate side. From the very beginning, he refuses to judge the aliens as monsters. Determining that they are trapped on Earth, he focuses on helping, not destroying. This trait is shown particularly strongly in Part Two, when he discovers a dying creature trapped on the alien spaceship. Unable to free it, he insists on staying until it dies: "I'll stay with you as long as it takes. You won't die alone."

Mary: Spends the bulk of the story separated from the Doctor, running about the 21st century Trenchard's Folly with the hapless Aleister Portillon (Andrew Havill). Though her function in the story is very much that of "generic companion," writer Rick Briggs has woven in a lot of material from his research on the historical Mary Shelley. Particularly amusing is her reaction to Aleister's worship of Lord Byron and his scorn of Byron's contemporaries (including her). She deals effectively with the "witch" in the modern setting, even as the Doctor deals with the witch-pricker in the distant past. Julie Cox continues to impress, and I hope that the remaining story of this Big Finish "season" does not end up being the last we hear of her version of Mary Shelley.


THOUGHTS

Most Big Finish "seasons" have a traditional runaround in the middle, with more ambitious stories on either side of it. The 8th Doctor/Mary Shelley season seems to be following the pattern, with Marc Platt's atmospheric The Silver Turk followed by this more traditional pseudo-historical.

Thankfully, The Witch from the Well is not just a tedious retread of what some audio writer thinks the show would have aired in 1976 (as too often ends up being the case). Writer Rick Briggs, who previously penned a clever single-part story for the Demons of Red Lodge collection, continues to show structural ingenuity. Separating Mary and the Doctor in time but not in space allows both characters scenes in which to shine. And by giving each character one side of the story to investigate, the Doctor the beginning and Mary the ending, we get to see how the Doctor's actions may impact on Mary's predicament.

Briggs' script juggles the two strands effectively. The 17th century scenes are the primary focus, with Mary's adventures in the modern day being clearly secondary. The cutting between the two strands is done with care. We cut back to Mary often enough to keep her story alive, but at well-judged points so that her scenes don't interrupt the flow of the Doctor's story. Her scenes also tend to be shorter than the Doctor's, which means that her bits never keep us away from the main story for long enough to lose track of the plot.

This is a good thing, because the scenes in the past are much more effective than the ones in the modern day. 17th century Trenchard's Fell is a much better-developed setting, with several strong guest characters. Simon Rouse's Witch-Pricker is the most memorable of these. He's clearly villainous, lacking any compassion for any individual in the village. The Doctor reacts to him with all the disdain you would expect, in scenes that see Paul McGann in particularly good form - but in a nice turn, we discover that he is actually genuine in his belief in his work, even if he goes about his gruesome business with one eye on his Bible and the other on his own ambitions.

The Witch from the Well is a good, entertaining yarn, one which manages to avoid the curse of the "dull middle story" that has plagued so many Big Finish trilogies. It's largely pretty traditional, with superstitious villagers and aliens who are taken for supernatural beings. But it's presented in a way that feels fresh and clever, with solid performances from the entire cast and a satisfying resolution. Another good story, in a set of stories that I'm finding immensely enjoyable.


Rating: 7/10.

Previous Story: The Silver Turk
Next Story: Army of Death

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