The Angel of Scutari (Paul Sutton)

 The final story in this mini-series of back-to-back adventures for the Seventh Doctor, in June 2009 - "The Angel of Scutari" by Paul Sutton, author of adventures including "Exotron" and "No More Lies" - sees the TARDIS arriving at the scene of one of history’s greatest military disasters - the Crimean War.

Separated from his friends in time and space, Hex has to deal with the horrors of life in a Crimean field hospital - as an assistant to Florence Nightingale!

In this historical tale The Doctor is played by Sylvester McCoy, Ace by Sophie Aldred and Hex by Philip Olivier. They are joined by guest stars Jeany Spark (Wallander, Tess of the D’Urbervelles) as Florence Nightingale, while Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill, Five Days. Lost in Austen) plays Sir Sidney Herbert. Also starring are: John Paul Connolly, Alex Lowe, John Albasiny and Sean Brosnan.

"The Angel of Scutari" has been directed by Ken Bentley and was recorded on the 16th and 17th January 2009.

Arriving in the middle of the Crimean War after whizzing through time and space is one thing - discovering that you’ve already been there is quite another. This is what happens to the Seventh Doctor and his companions in "The Angel of Scutori". As revealed by director Ken Bentley ‘The lovely thing about this story is that it’s one of those rare opportunities in Doctor Who where the story itself plays with time. Normally, The Doctor turns up in an unusual time and place, and the story follows through chronologically. This time, The Doctor turns up. and the first thing he discovers is that he’s already been here, and has to go back in time a little bit further in order to ensure the continuity of the timeline. Writer Paul Sutton has really grabbed time by the ears, and done something interesting with it’.

Seventh Doctor

 Big Finish Productions it seems found that the structure of the story caused some logistical problems during recording. ‘We never record in order anyway,’ director Ken Bentley has explained. ‘If you’ve got to take a story that’s out of sequence, and record it out of sequence, you can just end up not really knowing where you are! You have to work hard to keep on top of where everyone is in the story, so you can absolutely pin the scenes down, and make all the actors feel comfortable. It’s not an enormous challenge, but it is a little bit trickier’.

Jeany Spark, who plays The Lady with the Lamp herself, Florence Nightingale sums-up this story: ‘It explores a lot of different alleyways, like love, and a relationship to God, and loyalties, and what it means to be in war. It’s actually quite complex, but I think it’s a really brilliant historical war drama’. As to the part she plays: ‘Florence is not written as a sympathetic character. She’s a pioneer, who stands alone. She’s a bit prim, and a bit godly. She’s actually a much more interesting person than I thought she would be’.

On the Back Cover:

October 1854: As the British Army charges into catastrophe in the Crimea, the Minister for War sends Miss Florence Nightingale to take charge of the field hospital at Scutari. But there's already an angel of mercy working with the wounded at Scutari. A first-rate fellow who's turned up out of the blue. Goes by the name of Schofield; Thomas Hector Schofield...

With the Doctor and Ace lost in the siege of Sebastopol, Hex has rediscovered his calling. But there's cannon to the left of him, cannon to the right of him - and a deranged spycatcher-in-chief on his case.

The Angel of Scutari could have been about Daleks. Around May 2008 I was asked to pitch a Dalek story. I didn’t get the slot but I was then asked to submit any other ideas I may have had. We went through a few - a Western, a Hungarian historical, a present-day mad-computer thing - and then Alan Barnes and Nick Briggs suggested I look at the Crimean War. I started researching and was hooked immediately.

Working titles included ‘War and Penitence’, and ‘The Siege of Sevastopol’ (with a ‘v’). Angel of Scutari emerged in its final form with the help of Alan and Nick, who dug me out of the structural problems I’d buried myself in.


Directors Notes: Ken Bentley

It may not have escaped your notice that our hero and his companions have been on a journey. With this, the final story in the Seventh Doctor’s 2009 season, we reach that journey’s end.

One of the most exciting things about Sutton’s play is that he juggles with the nature of time itself, a rarely tackled treat for fans of the eponymous time-travelling hero. In this moving tribute to the Doctor and his companions, all three find themselves scattered across time and Eastern Europe, left to fend far themselves.

But it’s to Alan Barnes that I doff my cap. He’s been steering this ship for months and he drops anchor in a place none of us would visit willingly. He knows what makes a good ending and he delivers in spades. But it’s far from easy listening.

The big question is: what happens next? Who knows...