Doctor Who - The Eternal Summer - Review

Crikey, that was a bit good. I heartily enjoyed Colin's preceding season, but this took things up to an even higher level. I think it's my favourite since the Angel of Scutari, which I consider a classic. Jonny Morris really does have a great range of styles; I look forward to his Jago and Litefoot story immensely. This is another of his more time-bending scripts, in the vein of Flip-Flop and Brewster, and it hangs together very well, only becoming a bit tongue-tied in explaining the fourth-part resolution. It also succesfully avoids becoming an excercise in style-over-substance, providing some really juicy themes of nostalgia, the richness of a lifetime, and the afterlife. Plus there's some rather amusing witticisms to round things off.

Morris's ability to write characters has grown to rival his ability to weave innovative structures now, and Eternal Summer is populated with a great cast of very realistic villagers. The insights into moments of their lives, and the way they relate to one another has the ring of truth and creates a strong empathy. In particular I found Dudley to be quite tragic, and I loved how we were shown the flashback distorting depending on how he felt.

The villainous characters are a little less well drawn, and their secret quite easily predicted, but still a good pair. They veer between a fairly standard moustache-twirling and something a bit more creepy, and when they fall into the latter half they're very effective.

Morris doesn't feel the need to rush the early parts, and this pacing really helps the story. The steady build up and introduction of the villagers and the situation is a real strength of the play. The second half pacing is a bit more rushed, but ultimately quite effective - the gathering pace of the plot echoes the dilemma in the story. As I mentioned above, things do get somewhat garbled in part four, leading to a bit of a headache at the end, and this is the only major flaw in the story. That said, I do actually think it's coherent, just not too well explained. It may also be that there's a bit more exposition to come in Plague of the Daleks.

On the production side, Barnaby Edwards has done a fantastic job of directing the story. His cast is perfectly chosen and they excel in their roles. Mark Williams is very likable as Max, giving me an urge to read the Stars Fell on Stockbridge (I've never followed the comics). Nick Brimble's performance matches the excellent writing of Dudley, and, in fact, every performance is really at the same level. This is possibly the best cast and performed audio I've heard. Davison and Sarah Sutton are absolutely on their A game throughout, and it's a great story for them. If I had to nitpick, I'd say there were some weaker moments when they played their other characters, but it's nothing that detracts.

The sound design is absolutely glorious, too. I've been quite complementary of it in a lot of plays of late, but this is really as good as it gets. Some beautiful and fitting music that I'd actually rather like to get seperately lifts the scenes, and a really rich soundscape not only renders the action with clarity, but creates an utterly pervasive atmosphere. The eternal, glorious summer is nicely evoked, and indeed, nicely evocative of personal nostalgia.

It's a beautiful play, a new classic for Davison, and a fantastic ensemble cast. It has a bit of a sci-fi 'Archers' feel at times, which is perfect for Stockbridge, I think. 9/10