Doctor Who: An Ordinary Life

The fourth in the series of retro-adventures moves on to a story set between episodes of The Dalek Masterplan during the third season of the TV show. This means that Vicki is replaced by Sara Kingdom as companion, although, this time round, Peter Purves (Steven) performs all the narration.

The story sees the TARDIS crew arriving in 1950s London, while still on the run from the Daleks. They soon become stranded there, and, for much of the story we have what appears to be a straight historical. This part is relatively sedate, exploring the lives of a family of Jamaican immigrants struggling to get by while Steven and Sara are equally fish out of water in what, for them, is dimly remembered history. Ram John Holder, who played “Porkpie” in the sitcom Desmond's, is particularly good in this part, as the head of the household.

Aliens do finally turn up at around the half way point (it's a 2-hour story), and from then on we're in a pastiche of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Quite a good pastiche, it has to be said, and with a different explanation behind the fine details, but the parallels are still undeniably strong. In this half, there is some genuine menace, as well as a fair bit of action, especially from Sara, who gets to do some of the ‘Mrs Peel' style hi-jinks that she was originally written for.

As always with these releases, I have to point out the inevitable downside of the actors' real ages being apparent from their voices - this is particularly noticeable with Marsh. Some may also be disappointed to discover that the Doctor is really only in the last 30 minutes or so, and then largely to deliver exposition. I, however, found this to be a benefit, since it greatly strengthens the first half, making it a more personal examination of the characters involved.

Presumably, those who feel that the current TV series shouldn't be addressing issues like race won't be too keen on the first half for that reason, either. But if you like a good bit of character interaction and historical atmosphere in your alien invasion stories, this should work for you.