PLOTLINE  

It is almost Halloween in the sleepy New England town of Blackwood Falls. Autumn leaves litter lawns and sidewalks, paper skeletons hang in windows and carved pumpkins leer from stoops and front porches.

The Doctor and Martha soon discover that something long-dormant has awoken in the town, and this will be no ordinary Halloween. What is the secret of the ancient chestnut tree and the mysterious books discovered tangled in its roots? What rises from the local churchyard in the dead of night, sealing up the lips of the only witness?

And why are the harmless trappings of Halloween suddenly taking on a creepy new life of their own?

COMMENT

Surprisingly, unlike many of the CLASSIC SERIES and NEW SERIES television episodes, Mark Morris' FOREVER AUTUMN sends the Doctor and his companion (Martha Jones) straight into the action without the usually long and protracted set-up.

It's New England, USA (however, the fact that it is not stated as the USA - neither in the reading or the sleeve notes - could be confusing for NEW SERIES fans. Is this New England on the television's version of New Earth?) and Hallowe'en. A perfect DOCTOR WHO setting for a mysterious and foreboding tale of ghouls abducting the unwary, swirling mists enveloping a sleepy hamlet and a threat from the mysterious, and FOREVER AUTUMN delivers on every count but with a twist that only the series can bring. Aliens.

Morris' has, obviously, been enamoured by the work of American writer Stephen King in his approach to this story (available in hardback), cherry-picking the best elements suitable for a younger audience without diluting the basic underlying DNA of a horror-ghost story. However, far from plagiarising King it pays homage to him, and to the passion for October 31st festival that Americans have engendered for decades.

In many ways, the set-up and story reminds me of the 1990 QUANTUMN LEAP episode, THE BOOGIEMAN (episode 36), with a hint (to taste) of the occult-monster a-salting (read: assaulting) CLASSIC SERIES story, IMAGE OF THE FENDAHL.

The characterisation of the Tenth Doctor is precise and intellectually clever, adopting, in every line and description, the humanity, the garrulous & wide-eyed enthusiasm that David Tennant has created (and that Christopher Eccleston had initiated).

The Doctor: "Aren't bananas brill-iant".

Writing for Martha Jones, Morris reinforces her independent maturity that was so subtly hinted at during the later stories of SERIES 3, and certainly creating less of a "screaming" damsel in distress and more of a Scully to the Doctor's Mulder (read: THE X-FILES television series). A particularly expedient scene develops in the absence of the Doctor at the Blackwood Falls "diner".

Will Thorp (THE IMPOSSIBLE PLANET and THE SATAN PIT) reads FOREVER AUTUMN in a workman-like manner that diffuses the tension, the threat and the "can I sleep with the light on tonight?" creepiness. I am undecided whether this is a calculated approach by BBC AUDIO so not to cause alarm for (younger listeners) or a misjudgement in casting Thorp as reader. There is little depth or range to the reading that, say, BBC AUDIO reader Geoffrey Beevers or even Tom Baker could have driven forward. It's almost bland in a homogenous way that allows the written word to come to the fore (listen to Mark Morris' precise description of the psychically-challenged children as they are transformed chillingly into adult-hunters).

FOREVER AUTUMN is quintessentially an excellent horror story that, like the green mist that shrouds Blackwood Falls, encompasses the true essence of the genre whilst incorporating the DOCTOR WHO brand suitable for a younger readership.