PLOTLINE  

In the dark, uncharted depths of the North Sea it has lurked, growing in strength, growing in size, and striking terror into the hearts of mariners down the untold centuries. Landing near a North Sea gas refinery off the east coast of England, the Tardis crew are immediately accused of sabotage. Several rig crews have mysteriously vanished, strange pressure build-ups have been detected, and in the refinery's pipelines the Doctor can hear the steady, rhythmic beat of - what? Soon the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria will find themselves at the unrelenting mercy of the deadliest and most terrifying foe they have ever encountered...

Read by David Troughton, with music & sound effects provided by Simon Power.

COMMENT

I hate to say it but the anticipation for the start of Matt Smith’s second series in April 2011 failed to garner the same level of eager anticipation that the release of AUDIOGO’s unabridged novelisation reading of a 1960s Patrick Troughton story.

The question is why?

Thankfully, the answer is equally simple.

David Troughton.

Across six discs spanning nearly seven hours, Troughton’s confident and irrepressible performance (yes, it’s slightly more than a plain, off-the-shelf reading) clearly demonstrates – BBC WALES, are you paying attention? - that for a DOCTOR WHO story to grab you assertively around the throat (metaphorically speaking, of course), dragging you deeper within you don’t need a complicated time-defying (read: timey-wimey) plotline that even Professor Stephen Hawking would struggle to be engaged with and a budget of a small Micronesian country.

Approachable in his deliver and avuncular in his timbre, Troughton has, for this reviewer at least, become the preferred choice for all unabridged CLASSIC SERIES releases.

Though the televised six-parter was broadcast in 1968 (with the novel published by TARGET BOOKS in 1986), the story itself feels incredulously fresh and astute (its conceit of the human race raping the environment for its rich yet exhaustible resources that would have consequences from the “bogey man” is more on-topic than it was over 40 years ago), added to which that the BBC TAPE ARCHIVE is devoid of any surviving episodes (albeit a selection of clips and studio footage have been located and restored, presented on the BBC DVD 2004 boxset, DOCTOR WHO – LOST IN TIME) then this reading could be considered as a “brand new DOCTOR WHO story”. If you had not been there (1968) then Victor Pemberton’s FURY FROM THE DEEP self-penned novelisation would be your first encounter with the evasive “weed creature” that has the unnerving ability to control humans. Patronisingly, when compared next to several NEW SERIES episodes, this Second Doctor adventure is more intelligent, driven by character rather than “tick box” comic vignettes and acted with passion & perilous realism.

And, unsurprisingly, an undaunted David Troughton ensures that acting professionalism is transferred to this audiobook.

Effortlessly delineating each character with a deftness of a magician, Troughton enriches Pemberton’s reliable novel as he jaunts from the soft & reassuring lilt of the Second Doctor to a vulnerable Victorian orphan to a sadistic & business-like tones of Mr. Quill and Mr. Oak. Periodically, his delivery is as aurally engrossing as David Tennant’s was as “can’t-take-your-eyes-off” performance in THE END OF TIME.

Remarkable.

However, I should issue a warning for those who already have had their heart broken by a break-up or a loss that you could be again shedding a tear as Troughton concludes the reading with the departure of the TARDIS as Victoria casts a solitary yet significant figure on the windswept beach.

Supporting Troughton’s performance is, once again, Simon Power (MEON PRODUCTIONS), providing a creative eloquence with an incidental music score (cleverly avoiding a 1960s style) and a disturbing, haunting special sound treatment that gathers apace as the unstoppable weed creature and all encompassing foam as it infiltrates seemingly irrevocably the lives of those it touches no matter how briefly.

The ever-present ethereal “heartbeat” of weed creature is particularly effective, hypnotically and dispassionately drawing you against your will.

Predictably, DOCTOR WHO – FURY FROM THE DEEP continues with the highest level of production quality that has become synonymous with this range of unabridged novelisations, but where this release excels is the combination of David Troughton’s accomplished delivery and the obscure nature of the story.

An amalgamation that could be, no, should be explored in forthcoming AUDIOGO releases. Troughton reading the novelisations of POWER OF THE DALEKS or EVIL OF THE DALEKS (supported by Nicholas Briggs) would be most welcome.