It has to be said, Big Finish does try to make their subscriber specials special. Unfortunately, it's also true that none of the subscriber special stories are spectacular. So it is with An Earthly Child, which serves up a soup of entertaining chunks in an unfulfilling broth.
The specialness this time around comes courtesy of Susan's return, and Carole Ann Ford does better than I expected in reprising the role. She remains familiar whilst portraying an older Susan living a much different life. Unfortunately, she's somewhat poorly served by the script, which requires her to be rather naive and easily swayed.
The story doesn't reunite Susan with the Doctor until around the halfway mark, choosing instead to build expectation for the encounter with a slow introduction of the situation, and having the Doctor first encounter Alex, the great-grandson he never knew he had.
Unfortunately, these scenes aren't a highlight, because neither McGann is performing too well. Paul is oddly muted and subdued throughout, failing to sound like he's really excited or caring about meeting his family. Possibly this comes from McGann not actually knowing anything of the background to the story before recording.
Jake McGann, meanwhile, fails to impress at all. His inexperience is quite obviously, as he reads every line in a flat monotone. It's quite evident that he's reading from a script, and not reacting to a character; perhaps with rehearsal he might have been better. As it is, he remains inexpressive throughout, which is a shame, because Platt has tried to do some interesting stuff with the xenophobic character of Alex, putting a ninety degree twist on the expected nature of the Doctor's family reunion. A particular example would be the end of the play, when Alex runs out of the TARDIS, rejecting the Doctor and his family. It's the sort of thing which could have a good deal of emotional impact, but the Jake M's bored reading and Paul's detached response serve to deflate it, leaving Carole Ann Ford doing most of the work.
The same is true when the pair first meet again. Whilst I appreciate the choice of a subtle reunion scene - it sneaks up on you before you even know it, rather than arriving in a fanfare - the fact is the Doctor just doesn't seem that excited. The writing seems to fall down too - Susan doesn't ask the Doctor the questions you'd expect of old friends or family catching up after years apart, after a few brief lines about how the Doctor has changed (and these are quite nice, especially Susan's 'That's just throwing them away!' line), they get down to discussing the story with a focus which belies the exceptional circumstances.
Perhaps because there's no such expectations upon her or her character, or perhaps because she's just really good, it is in fact Leslie Ash who really steals the show. Playing two roles, she conjures up a very sympathetic and realistic teacher and a rather creepy alien. Her scene with the Doctor on the beach is quite sad.
The aforementioned rather creepy alien is one of the more intriguing aspects of the story. A 'conceptual' creature, she is supposedly an incarnation of hope. An intriguing premise for a creature come to offer salvation to a dying world. Of course, she isn't all that she seems, but even when the mask falls away, she doesn't become a characterless villain. She seems oddly conflicted, at once aware that she is trying to manipulate the humans whilst simultaneously believing she is offering them genuine charity. Once again, credit goes to Leslie Ash for realising this.
Like everything else in the play, though, the good stuff is balanced by its weaknesses. In this case, it feels like Platt had rather an excess of ideas. Rather than developing the idea of 'the concept of hope as alien', Platt throws it into the mix and jumps to something else - Hope speaks with a strange verbal tic akin to an internet survey, she flits between a flat and impassive tone and one rich in personality, she's not really hope incarnated at all, or she thinks she is and the Doctor doesn't, or- And so on. It's a mish mash of ideas, and whilst it can at times be rather interesting, it raises more questions than it answers and is ultimately unsatisfying.
In odd contrast to this, the actual story is very straightforward. This probably to its credit, given the tight running time (the story already feels like it needed an extra disc to flourish). Also in its favour, it is well chosen to compliment the character drama between Susan and the Doctor, which is of course the real hook. Unfortunately it's very dry and rather dull. The world is rebuilding, but the situation isn't shown in depth - no time - so we're only given enough information to follow the plot, and that means the rebuilding Earth is indistinguishable from all other post-cataclysm societies in SF. The university protest which introduces Alex and Marion is a notable exception, making economic use of a scene to flesh out the world as well as the two characters.
Much of the problem is the xenophobic hate group, Earth United. For the story to really work they needed to be as interesting and entertaining as Hope and the golreesi. Instead they're a fairly shallow rendition of a nationalist group, with no nuance or unexpected facets to their portrayal. On top of this, very little excitement comes of their plot, and most of the scenes revolve around Alex, and are therefore hindered by Jake McGann's performance. Earth United provides much of the story background to the character drama, and so its weakness leaves the plot feeling rather sparse.
Finally, there's the final confrontation, when events come to a head. It's just not satisfying or exciting. Earth United's scheming essentially amounts to nothing, and the Golreesi show of force is too brief and limited (the sound of jets flying overhead) to thrill. Similarly, there's nothing substantial in the Doctor's day-saving gambit, and there's also a fridge-logic moment when you realise that the call for help he originally came to answer is actually no closer to being answered.
I think a lot of these issues could have been solved with a second disc. In fact, it's testament to how interesting certain aspects of the set up are that I think a full length rendition of the play might have been something rather special, with polticking and relationship drama akin to the fantastic I, Davros series. But at one disc too much is curtailed or shallow, leaving only moments of strength against a less compelling background. Still, it was free, and for its moments I was glad to have it, so a 6/10.
One closing note: There were some really nice touches of sound design in here. It's sparse without sounding empty; music is only occaisional but fitting. Pretty much all the work associated with the Golreesi is great and has a very alien feel, the typewriters are evocative of a black-and-white, 1960s rendition of a post-war future, and the use of William Hartnell's themetune was a great little tidbit.
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