Review: Doctor Who: The Queen of Time
By Matthew Kresal.
As much in storytelling as in life, timing is everything. Stories that arrive at the wrong moment, either too early or arriving too late and lose their luster in the process, serving to tread over old ground. In reviewing the various Lost Stories released by Big Finish Productions, it’s clear that was sometimes the case with Doctor Who throughout its original 20th century run. Few examples of that stand out more prominently than The Queen of Time, pitched during Patrick Troughton’s time in the TARDIS.
The exact origins of The Queen of Time are seemingly lost in the midst of time, though there are context clues from the original pitch that allow a rough dating of when it was penned. Brian Hayles, who had written originally for William Hartnell’s Doctor and later created the Ice Warriors from Mars during Troughton’s tenure, appears to have pitched it around the same period as The Ice Warriors based on the appearance of the character of Victoria Waterfield. Featuring Hecuba, the titular monarch of time would trap the Doctor and his companions in her realm outside of time, facing them with a series of games and challenges with their very lives at stake all centered around themes of time.
If you’re a Doctor Who fan, a god-like being outside of time and space playing games with the TARDIS travelers brings to mind 1966's The Celestial Toymaker, which Hayles had written before it underwent extensive rewrites by successive script editors. When the pitch resurfaced and was republished in Nothing at the End of the Lane’s third issue in January 2012 alongside nine other unmade Hayles pitches for Doctor Who, Toby Hadoke noted in his commentary that it “read pretty much like a rerun of The Celestial Toymaker.” That simple fact alone might well be why it might not have been met with the approval of the Doctor Who production office.
Someone who did take an interest in it was Big Finish. In 2008, they begun a new range of releases under the banner of Doctor Who – The Lost Stories. A number of Hayles’ unmade serials for the first two Doctors would find life as part of the range, with three consecutive monthly releases from September to November 2013, with The Queen of Time being the October release.
Adapted by writer and actress Catherine Harvey from Hayles original pitch, the Big Finish version is a curious thing to hear. It is remarkably faithful to much of what Hayles pitched even down to specific incidents and two of the three cliffhangers (episode two’s cliffhanger is shifted forward of where Hayles intended but is arguably even more effective as a result). Most of the changes are minor, such as substituting Marie Antoinette for Queen Victoria for one particular moment where a historical figure was necessary. The biggest change that Harvey and Big Finish made was with the choice of female companion with Wendy Padbury’s Zoe swapped in place of Deborah Watling’s Victoria. Given when it seems that Hayles put The Queen of Time to the production office, it’s likely that with Watling having left the series they would have asked for such a change. Reading over Hayles original pitch, Zoe’s inclusion makes more sense given the puzzle solving involved, though the possibility that this was pitched for what became Troughton’s final season might well explain why it went unproduced (more on that below).
Between Hayles pitch and the script from Harvey, The Queen of Time is an engaging story that straddles the fantasy genre. As Hadoke noted in 2012, “the similarities with events in the Celestial Toyroom are inescapable,” with the games that Hecuba plays with the Doctor and his companions. The Doctor’s life is linked to a random clock which Jamie and Zoe have to locate at one point, for example, and there’s a surrealistic sequence where the two find themselves inside a giant hourglass. The challenges Hecuba forces them to engage with last either a few minutes or straddle episodes, leading to the various cliffhangers. Coming from a being with godlike powers, however, the solutions for most of them feel obvious even on a first listen. Indeed, “childish” is a word that comes to mind describing them, perhaps indicating where Hayles thinking was, though Harvey does a fine job trying to bring what is very much an atypical Doctor Who story to life.
Harvey also accomplished it with a very atypical format. Produced at a time before Big Finish had begun to embrace re-casting roles played by deceased performers, Harvey's adaptation is presented instead as an enhanced audiobook akin to the proceeding Troughton era Lost Stories release The Prison in Space boxset. Frazer Hines (who played companion Jamie McCrimmon) and Padbury reprised their TV roles while serving as narrators, with Hines also voicing Troughton’s Doctor. The format meant that Harvey not only had to expand a two-page outline into a wider work but then novelize it. It’s something of a remarkable feat, allowing her to fill in details that would have been left to set dressing or on-screen details (such as the many courses that Hecuba tries to feed the Doctor, including a stomach turning description of meat at once over and under-cooked). The prose Harvey uses feels more descriptive than most of the enhanced audiobook Lost Stories, something which helps to make it stand out among entries in the range.
So does the cast. Hines and Padbury, having done similar jobs elsewhere for the Companion Chronicles range, were well versed in the semi-dramatic/semi-narrated format, with Hines having a well-earned reputation among fans for his, at times, uncanny recreation of Troughton. The skills of both performers is on display throughout, with Hines seamlessly moving between roles, making them each each distinguishable from one another. His take on Troughton is an utter delight to hear, especially in scenes where the Doctor has awkward moments with Hecuba where Hines is able to fill in on audio what the visual performer that Troughton was might have accomplished on-screen.
Hines chemistry with Padbury is also apparent from their many scenes together. Padbury likewise shines as both Zoe and as a narrator, capturing not only her performances as a young actress decades earlier but also bringing a fair chunk of the story to life in the scenes around Zoe, capturing moments of relief and frustration that often go hand in hand with one another. The pair of them (and Troughton’s Doctor, of course) made for one of Classic Who’s best teams and The Queen of Time shows why that was the case.
They’re not alone, however. Much like the other enhanced audiobook Lost Stories, there’s a third voice here in the form of Hecuba. Described by Hayles in his original pitch as “a combination of Lady Bracknell, Titania, and Gracie Allen – regal, romantic, and shrewdly scatty,” Hecuba offered what Hadoke in 2012 rightfully called “a showpiece part for a gifted actress.” Caroline Faber stepped before the microphone and proved how right Hadoke was with her performance. There’s the right edge of both madness and menace from Faber, something which makes the sometimes absurd feel legitimately dangerous. There’s also just a hint of camp in places, including a laugh that feel rightfully villainous and fitting for the mid-late 1960s. There aren’t many foes who make Troughton’s Doctor squirm in his seat like Hecuba does, something that Faber plays well alongside Hines as the Time Lord when she’s all but flirting with him. That this has been Faber’s sole contribution to Big Finish is a surprise given the strength of her performance, offering a glimpse of what the right actress at the time might have accomplished with the role had this been made for TV (and fun to consider who might well have played the part).
Is it a shame that it wasn’t? To some degree, yes, as it’s a fun listen and features some wonderful imagery. That Hayles was essentially retreading territory he’d already covered in The Celestial Toymaker doesn’t do this any favors and audiences familiar with that serial would likely have called it out for such. That imagery, though, might offer another part of the puzzle. The dream like logic and images also call to mind the Troughton era serial The Mind Robber which featured Jamie and Zoe trapped between pages of a book at one point and various fictional characters come to life amid a sea of wordplay. If Hayles did indeed pitch The Queen of Time after writing The Ice Warriors, then Peter Ling would already have been commissioned to write The Mind Robber by the time that Hayles pitch arrived. Given a choice between the two, and how much Hayles was revisiting old territory, it’s perhaps no wonder why Hecuba would have to wait more than forty years to face off against Troughton’s Doctor.
Proof, perhaps, that even a Queen of Time can be defeated by poor timing.
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Matthew Kresal is, among other things, the author of the SLP book Our Man on the Hill and short stories in the anthologies AlloAmericana, The Emerald Isles, and The Scottish Anthology.
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