The Awakening

I'm being bullied, coerced, forced against my will. I've had enough for one day.

The Awakening is a quick story of only two parts. Given that it doesn't have to fill time, it races along much like a new series story would, with only a few quick moments of exposition between characters. It does fairly well, but I suspect that the story was a bit ambitious for what was capable both in terms of the two episode allotment and the production design.

Plot Summary

The Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are traveling to the town of Little Hodcombe in 1984 to visit Tegan's grandfather, Andrew Verney. At this time the local magistrate, Sir George Hutchinson, is holding a series of war game reenactments celebrating an English Civil War battle that destroyed the town in 1643. However, his men are beginning to take the games too seriously and have began acting too much like their historical counterparts. The lone objector is the local school teacher, Jane Hampden, but Sir George keeps blowing her off.

The Doctor and crew land in the church after encountering a time distortion and pursue a figure who they worry may have been injured in the cave in. Outside they are taken by Sir George's men and taken to Sir George. Sir George is worried both about their presence and the fact that they are looking for Andrew Verney, who disappeared several days ago. Upset at this news, Tegan runs out to look for him and Turlough chases after her.

Stopping outside a barn to orient herself, Tegan's purse is stolen by the one-eyed man who ran away from them earlier. She chases him into the barn but is locked in. In the barn, she begins to see a manifestation of an old man. Frightened, she tries to get out but is only freed when Turlough unbolts the door from outside.

The Doctor vaguely answers Sir George's questions and then bolts out when their guard is down. He heads to the village to look for Tegan and runs into her purse thief. The man blips away towards the church and the Doctor begins to suspect trouble. He arrives in the church to find the man gone but a boy, Will Chandler, breaks out of a crack in the wall convinced that it is still 1643. Tegan and Turlough arrive at the church shortly after and the Doctor informs them that there is a time disruption going on. He tells them to wait in the TARDIS while he sorts things out with Will.

The Doctor and Will first go towards town but are distracted and end up in a crypt. Exploring the legend of the Malus, the Doctor discovers a secret passage from the crypt to Colonel Ben Wolsey's house, which Sir George had been using as headquarters and Jane had been held under guard. She had found the other end of the passage and the three hid from pursing guards in the passage. The Doctor also finds a sample of alien metal, confirming his suspicions.

Tegan and Turlough head to the TARDIS but on seeing another projection, head back to warn him. They encounter more guards and split up. Tegan is captured and brought to Colonel Wolsey's house. There she is ordered to change into a period dress and is subsequently proclaimed the Queen of the May.

The Doctor, Jane and Will emerge back in the church where he fills Jane in that an alien probe ship landed in 1643 and that it picked up the Malus during it's travels. That same Malus was projecting it's time into the current time, blending the two streams. A crack opens further in the church wall and the Doctor is engulfed in smoke emanating from the crack. Jane pulls him back to reveal the statued face of the Malus waking while Will flees in terror.

The Malus manifests the one-eyed man, who then transforms into an old man with a sword. The man attacks but the Doctor and Jane run from him and he disappears. Realizing that the Malus is feeding on Sir George and the war games for psychic energy, the Doctor and Jane head back into the secret passage.

Turlough sneaks up on the preparations for the Queen of the May event but is captured. He is locked in a small house with Andrew Verney. Verney relates how he discovered the Malus and when Sir George was told, Sir George's greed allowed the Malus to feed off of him to the point where the Malus has taken over. With no other options, Turlough and Verney work to smash the door down.

Emerging from the secret passage, the Doctor confronts Sir George, who is having it out with Wolsey about reading Tegan. Sir George becomes angry and threatens to shoot the Doctor but leaves, ordering Wolsey to take care of the Doctor. Wolsey, now convinced that Sir George is mad, refuses to carry out the order and prepares to help Tegan escape.

The Doctor finds Will cowering near a building and asks his help in stopping the Queen of the May festival, which results in the burning of the Queen. The Doctor is captured as he approaches and Sir George decides to force him to watch the ceremony. However, when Wolsey drives up in the Queen's carriage, only a dummy is seen. Sir George is enraged and orders his men after Wolsey, who drives off. Will then runs up and fends off the other guards with a torch, freeing the Doctor.

All parties run back to the church where the Malus is further waking. They head down into the TARDIS and find that as Tegan and Turlough left the doors open, the Malus has manifested in there. The Doctor uses this to his advantage and works to block the link between the Malus and the villagers.

Sensing this danger, two guards enter the church and use fallen stones to try and bash their way into the TARDIS. Turlough and Verney, having broken out of the house, come upon the guards and knock them out. The Doctor then succeeds in isolating the Malus so that it cannot draw energy from the village. The manifestation in the TARDIS then begins to die.

Emerging from TARDIS, the group heads upstairs with Turlough and Verney to see if the Malus is dying there as well. It calls upon reserves of energy to manifest three swordsmen who advance on the party. However, one of the soldiers knocked out outside the TARDIS awakes and goes to see what is happening. The swordsmen turn on him, killing him. This uses too much energy and the soldiers fade from existence.

Sir George enters the church and threatens to attack them. Wolsey appeals to him and Sir George begins to crack, resisting the Malus' direction. Will then attacks Sir George, knocking him through the wall and into the void of the Malus. The loss of Sir George destroys the last remnants of energy available to the Malus and it begins to self destruct, pulling down the church with it.

The whole group runs into the TARDIS and the Doctor takes off as the church and the Malus are destroyed. The Doctor is then coerced into heading back and staying for a bit of a holiday in the village. He does promise to take Will back to 1643 when it is all over as well.

Analysis

In the two previous 5th Doctor seasons, a random two-part story was commissioned to fill the allotment of required episodes. This gave us Black Orchid in Season 19, The King's Demons in Season 20 and The Awakening in Season 21. It is a good story but someone should have probably told Eric Pringle a little sooner because this story reads like something intended for four parts. It doesn't suffer too badly from it's paring, but I have a feeling that it would have reached it's ideal state in three parts.

Still, I wouldn't say this is a bad thing. I would rather have too much story crammed into too small a space than the other way around. What's more, unlike Ghost Light or The Curse of Fenric, there is not so much story cut out that you feel lost and confused. Here you just have things packed very tightly. About the only thing that is noted as evidence to cut story is the Doctor's throw away line about needing to research why the aliens never invaded after sending the scout probe. But even here, that's not really that important to the overall story. It's a hint to a larger backstory that is simply undisturbed.

I did find it interesting that even with the shifting of companions to Tegan and Turlough, the Fifth Doctor is still doing most of his work with the pseudo-companions of Jane and Will. Will even gives a heavy Adric vibe, although it is an understandable fear that drives him rather than Adric's smugness. Jane on the other hand is more of the traditional companion. Someone who doesn't know what is going on and has to ask questions to get the Doctor to explain the plot.

Tegan is the contrivance to get the Doctor here and then becomes the damsel. Her status in this story is close to useless, much to her detriment. Turlough is also fairly useless as he runs around and gets locked up until the end as well. Arguably he has a slightly better arc as he actually finds Verney and knocks out the guards attacking the TARDIS, although I'm not sure they were ever seen as a credible threat given what the TARDIS has endured up to now.

I enjoyed the Doctor in this story. He was compassionate and intuitive. He was also to the point which is something rather lacking in the drawn out Fifth Doctor stories. I do like the fact that there was no negotiating or waffling. It was simply a declaration that the Malus was evil and must be stopped. Likewise it was try to appeal to Sir George and once that failed, thwart him. There was no mourning for him when Will killed him either. It was just a matter of pragmatism with Will even giving the line about how Sir George was better off in death than to be a slave to the Malus.

One other thing that amused me was the fact that the whole story was set in 1984, yet if it hadn't been for the paved roads and slightly later construction of the village, you could have easily pegged this story as a period piece. Sir George and his men never take off their period clothes. Likewise, they never switch to cars or modern firearms although those would have been available to him. In the church, Sir George threatens the Doctor with two flintlock guns. Yet there are six people standing in front of them, one of whom (Wolsey) is wearing a breastplate. Sir George is not in a position of authority. At best, he would shoot two of them, but the others would take him quickly. I suppose it is a sign of how much control the Malus had and how the Malus had to maintain the tie to 1643, but the juxtaposition of events just amused me.

The two great offenders of this story are the compression of the story and the special effects. I didn't have any trouble following the story as a whole, but there were a number of details that were rattled off very quickly that I'm not sure I got. I'm still unclear if the original probe was sent by the Terileptils or some other race. I also am a little unclear as to whether the Malus was part of the whole plan or if it just latched on to the probe and started it's own little party. These points are not critical to the overall enjoyment of the story, but a little more breathing space would have allowed these details to be presented better or at least in a more spread out manner.

The period special effects are pretty good and I also thought the psychic manifestations brought out by the Malus were done fairly well, although a little too deliberate when the swordsmen were used. However, the face in the wall is just dumb looking. It looks like a bad prop used on a kids adventure show and at no point does it look scary or threatening. The lizard/human manifestation in the TARDIS was better, but it still just sat there and didn't do anything. I'm sure the production folks were limited but there had to have been a better way to show the Malus and make him appear more threatening. A man in a mask or makeup hidden in the wall a la The Cask of Amontillado would have been so much more threatening and realistic looking. This was a big whiff in my opinion.

Overall, the good outweighs the bad in this story. At only two episodes, it is a quick watch and will keep you engaged. It also won't lose you too much as the various extra details are glossed over. It could have been better with a little more time and dedication, but it is still an enjoyable time.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5