Next up in the Fourth Doctor / Harry / Naomi run of stories is “The Face in the Storm”, where Big Finish go back to the “person meets their relative in the past and can’t risk damaging their own future” trope, complete with a tragic storyline for good measure. I mean, at least it isn’t Helen this time, I guess! Let’s take a look…
Honestly there isn’t a lot to say for this two-parter. The Doctor (Tom Baker), Harry (Christopher Naylor) and Naomi (Elanor Crooks) have a chat in the TARDIS before arriving on the SS Maycrest in 1916. Naomi is worried because her beloved grandfather Samuel (Kayi Ushe) is on board as a soldier being transported to the frontlines but doesn’t say anything for a long time for dramatic tension reasons. The Captain, Edward Sackville-Smythe (Christopher Weeks) is refusing to let the black soldiers into the crew quarters because its not how things are done despite the fact that they’re freezing in the Atlantic cold by sleeping on deck, and in fact has popular soldier Arnold Dacres (Reece Pantry) thrown in the brig for even asking. Harry and Naomi are soon arrested for being spies, naturally, while The Doctor heads down to the hold and finds an extremely cold storage crate that it ends up is containing an alien species called the “Yukionna”, one of which gets out and starts freezing several of the crew solid, including Samuel.
The Doctor is soon arrested as well and its here in the makeshift holding cells that Naomi reveals everything, though quietly so as not to have Arnold overhear (who for the record was a fun “uncle” of hers growing up) So it becomes something of a race to stop the Yukionna and safely unfreeze Samuel to save Naomi.
Its one of those stories where there’s nothing wrong with it per say, but there nothing even remotely original about it either. The performances are fine, but nothing to write home about either, so it’s just all so… middling, and forgettable.
The Continuity:
At least two-thirds of the cover are based on this story, that’s more than a lot of these boxsets nowadays!
Not much to say here, unless you want me to list every time a companion nearly ruins their own timeline, but for that just see pretty much any Earth-set story featuring Eighth Doctor companion Helen…
Overall Thoughts:
“The Face in the Storm” is a pretty generic story that just came and went without making much of an impression. Familiar storybeats, familiar enemies, familiar resolution, uninspired dialogue and acting… nothing was straight out bad but I definitely won’t be listening to this again.
As The Doctor and co. find a way to stop the Yukionna Naomi finds out that Arnold is actually her grandfather and Samuel will be told the child is his due to his already ailing mental health, or something overly dramatic like that anyway. The Captain is working for a UNIT/Torchwood-like agency who abandon him when things go south and eventually the Yukioanna leave when the second one is released and they become happy that they’ve reunited after being torn apart by the enemy that trapped them. I assume the Captain is now less racist / classist, I guess?
Hogan Reviews 