The final two-thirds of “In The Bleak Midwinter” has less of a Christmas focus and more of a horror / sci-fi focus with the stories happening around the festive period. It certainly helps the box feel fresher and both stories are perfectly fine in their own right, even if the second story is a little on the plain side. Let’s take a look and then relax over Christmas… before I quickly try and write the review of the new Christmas special on Boxing Day or thereabouts!
“The Empty Man” sees a lonely old radio personality called Eldridge Brinkwood (Nickolas Grace) end his festive horror story broadcast only to not only find the building empty of his staff but soon spots a ghostly creature that has taken on his image. The Doctor (Paul McGann) soon arrives and helps him escape the nightmarish vision and the two soon escape alongside Charley (India Fisher) and Audacity (Jaye Griffiths) who were waiting outside. As they drive away Charley relates how it got to this point which leads to a flashback where Charley was showing Audacity around the swimming pool only for it to get really cold and a ghost arrive taking the form of Charley, eventually causing the TARDIS to “crash” in late-40s London (around Christmas time, naturally) After a car chase and an on-foot chase they arrive at the house of Eldridge’s old friend, who is also mysteriously absent, and they barricade themselves in…
“Winter of the Demon” has the TARDIS crew land in Victorian Edinburgh around the winter solstice just as industrialist Donald Shaw (David Robb) is about to give the city electric lighting for the first time, if it weren’t for the mysterious burned corpses popping up all over the place. After meeting Shaw and disliking him thoroughly the team splits up, with Charley and local policeman Archie McClellan (John Scougall) who they met at the start of the story heading off to Shaw’s power plant while The Doctor and Audacity visit a nearby archaeological dig headed by young female archaeologist Maggie MacKenzie (Lucy Goldie) all based on a hunch. The hunch turns out to be spot on though as a statue of a Lioness from Roman times comes to life and is after a crown-like artefact it was buried with that is currently in the hands of Shaw. It attacks and kills MacKenzie, much to Audacity’s horror, and then comes after them…
Both stories have their merits, “The Empty Man” is a good little horror story while “Winter of the Demon” is an enjoyable “Doctor Who romp” with little new to offer but still fun to listen to.
The Continuity:
Creepy silhouette in a door frame next to an old timey car is a good sum up of the mental visuals in the second story, it’s a shame the third story is represented by just “Edinburgh picture”…
With the exception of a reference to the classic Charley arc prevalent in her early stories, there isn’t really anything to connect these stories to.
Overall Thoughts:
“The Empty Man” is a fun Christmas spooky ghost story while “Winter of the Demon” is a bit more of a classic Doctor Who story full of corrupt businessmen and demons being summoned that could destroy the Earth. Together they end a set that overall was just a good bit of fun, especially for Christmas time!
“The Empty Man” sees The Doctor, Audacity and Eldridge sent to some sort of ghostly realm when the creature breaks in and find that it is some sort of other-dimensional being from the Time Vortex that feeds on people who are moments away from dying, taking their form while doing so. The Doctor fights it off by over-stuffing it on his own lifeforce and soon they arrive back in the real world but Eldridge now knows that he’s not long for this world and makes peace with that fact before saving everyone at the cost of what little time he has left. The Doctor, as a thank you, takes him to where his “close friend” (in other words male lover at a time when it wasn’t proper to be that way) was, visiting him as something of a ghost one last time. Later on in the TARDIS Audacity questions The Doctor over the ghost’s powers and how it took Charley’s form when it first arrived, but The Doctor tells her to not over-think it. A nod to the “Charley should have died on the R101” story that dominated the first half of their adventures, which I guess now includes these! (but won’t be resolved by these stories…)
“Winter of the Demon” on the other hand has The Doctor trick the Lioness into jumping into the sea and turning back to stone (a fun nod to a real Roman Lioness statue that was found on Edinburgh’s shoreline) just as Charley and Archie arrive to tell them that Shaw had gone mad. You see he plans on putting the crown on just as Winter Solstice happens thus gaining power but in actual fact will summon an extremely powerful demon that will burn the Earth itself to cinders. The Doctor and Audacity head to Shaw and try to distract him while Charley and Archie use Edinburgh’s lighthouse-like canon to aim at the fiery beast once its summoned (though not at the stroke of midnight, so it’s weaker) The Doctor arranges things perfectly and the demon is hit with the cannonball, its iron content being poisonous to it and thus destroying the beast. With everything wrapped up, including the TARDIS constantly taking them to Christmas-y places being because it was trying to get them to this point to stop the demon but messed it up a few times, everyone heads to Archie’s for one last Christmas meal.
Hogan Reviews 