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In Light City, names are forbidden, as are questions, and
undesirable personalities are "revised" for the greater good.
The viewing of visual broadcasts is more than a privilege:
it is compulsory. One of the more popular series concerns
the fictional adventures of travellers known as the Doctor,
Charley and C'rizz. But these accounts seem oddly familiar
to one member of the population...
It's hard to know what to say about this story without giving
the game away. Even the synopsis on the back of the CD case,
which takes the form of a copyright notice regarding the unauthorised
duplication of personalities and memories, keeps the actual
events of the narrative a closely guarded secret. The cast
list on the inner sleeve names only the performers, rather
than the characters they play, but this also reflects to the
fact that the people of Light City aren't permitted to have
names.
Big
Finish has built up a reputation for its "repertory" approach
to casting, repeatedly reusing a relatively small group of
actors in numerous roles and productions, a practice that
is not unusual in audio drama. Here the repertory approach
is taken a step further, as the regular and guest cast alike
play a variety of characters in this one production. Rather
than being a cost-cutting venture, this practice helps to
realise Light City's policy of personality revision. For example,
a person that we hear in Part One might be heard in an entirely
different guise in Part Two, while the familiar words of a
previous personality might be voiced by an entirely pair of
lips. There are shades of the repetitive nature of Flip-Flop
in Jim Mortimore's script, as we hear certain phrases reprised
in a new context.
Light City's presentation of the Doctor's adventures involves
some witty allusions to the actual BBC television series.
The stories are divided into eight eras, some of them are
sadly missing while others were commissioned but never made,
and a Restoration Group is responsible for making the material
suitable for transmission to the masses.
The
Natural History of Fear is clever and well realised, with
some excellent performances, particularly from Conrad Westmass
and Paul McGann, though the production does go on for rather
longer than is entirely welcome. Nevertheless, this is easily
the strongest story in the Eighth Doctor's "new universe"
season so far.
Richard
McGinlay
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