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THE BATTERED SUITCASE
THEATRE COMPANY |
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Performed |
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Doctor Who:
Hellblossom |
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on |
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Wednesday 26th to
Saturday 29th January 2000 |
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at the |
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NEW THEATRE ROYAL
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Guildhall Walk,
Portsmouth |
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 Set
in Victorian London, this adventure sees The Doctor and his assistant
Sha'attara
attempting to solve a series of brutal murders.
How is The Doctor's exiled friend and mentor Professor Gardener involved,
and just who is the
Spring-Heeled Jack, the unknown alien sighted
at the scene of every murder?
"Doctor Who: Hellblossom" is a science fiction gothic horror in the
vein of the classic "The
Talons of Weng-Chiang".
The following
review was published in Issue 289 of The Doctor Who Magazine:
Two years of planning and two months of rehearsal
came together in January to produce 75 minutes of new Doctor Who - albeit for
four nights only - when "Doctor Who: Hellblossom" was presented by The Battered
Suitcase Theatre Company on stage at the New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth.
In "Hellblossom" we meet the Ninth Doctor (played by Mark
Wright), a fellow with long, scraped-back hair who favours the 'crushed velvet'
look of his Third incarnation. This Doctor retains voluminous pockets and a
talent for improvisation, with a nice line in deductive reasoning, too. Whether
confronting villains or playing chess his current motto appears to be, "Fortune
favours the sneaky."
Sha'atara, The Doctor's companion (played by
Alexia Daniels) is a Valkyrie warrior from the New Asgard colony. Described by
writer/director Ian Wheeler as "Leela cranked up three notches", she has been
travelling with The Doctor for four years ("Four years sharing this space with
you!") because she owes him a blood-debt after he saved her life. She is
constantly hoping to even the score (currently 27 to 18 in The Doctor's favour)
and free herself from "This annoying egotistical little man!"
The story
begins when The Doctor and Sha'atara visit Professor Gardener, The Doctor's old
Xenobotany teacher, now living in exile in Victorian London. The Professor,
assisted by his masked manservant Thorne, is helping Chief Inspector Potts with
his investigation into a series of murders in the East End. A strange creature
is responsible for the murders - and, when it kills, a
anachronistically-dressed man is seen near the scene of the crime, whose
incredible get-aways have earned him the nick-name 'Spring-heeled
Jack'.
Finding traces of chlorophyll in one victim's body, The Doctor deduces that the murders are the result of a feeding process - and, his
suspicions aroused, he and Sha'atara break into the Professor's TARDIS, where
they find a gene resequencer and various samples, including a Krynoid/Blood
Orchid hybrid. 'Jack' is revealed to be Karnak, an old acquaintance of The Doctor's who is hunting the Krynoid hybrid - which is about to scatter its
spores across London.
The
production largely succeeded in its attempt to recreate the style and
atmosphere of the mid-1970s television series. An ingenious script dispensed
with any need for complex special effects, concentrating instead on character
interaction and motivation.
With just a handful of sets, a few sound effects
and a dry ice machine, Hellblossom traversed Victorian London with a confident
style and an enthusiastic pace. The reprise of the cliffhanger ending to Act
One at the start of Act Two was a very nice touch; while essential to the
format of Doctor Who, it's a device hardly ever used in the theatre.
The only real flaw was at the climax,
where The Doctor challenges Gardener to
play 'Rassilon's Gambit', described as the
closest Gallifreyan equivalent to chess.
The duel is highly reminiscent of the
mind-bending contest in The
Brain of Morbius,
being a telepathic battle where each player
attacks his opponent with pieces of his
own memory; this denouement included references
to Adric,
"Genesis
of the Daleks", Susan and speculated on the circumstances of The
Doctor's original departure from Gallifrey,
too: "I
remember leaving escorted by guards who
wouldn't speak my name because it had been
stripped from me... My wife's face as they
took her away and she realised it was I
who had betrayed her." After
recreating Doctor Who's Saturday teatime
style so successfully it was a shame
that the ending was so confusing and full
of continuity references.
This
aside, Doctor Who: Hellblossom was a good evening's entertainment. Its limited
exposure made it all the more special to the small number who got to see
it.
The Battered Suitcase Company is already planning the Ninth
Doctor's next adventure, set in the mid-1980s and featuring the Soviet arm of
UNIT. This next production is scheduled for January 2001 and further
information can be found at: www.batteredsuitcase.mcmail.com
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DISCLAIMER:
The
above article, and it's related photographs, has been put together with the
kind permission of Writer/Director Ian Wheeler from The Battered Suitcase
Theatre Company.
However the article from Issue 289 of The Doctor Who
Magazine, and it's related photographs, has not. An attempt has been made to
seek permission, from Marvel Comics, to reproduce their article but to date no
reply has been received. At Whotopia, we fully understand that the team at
Marvel Comics are extremely busy and may have simply not had the time to give
their approval. Therefore if any offence is taken by the reproduction of their
article without permission, it will be removed without delay.
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