Written & Directed by: Mark Gatiss
Featuring: Eighth Doctor & Charley
Release Date: January 2002
*Warning: This review contains spoilers.*
Invaders from Mars is available to listen to on Spotify or Audible. It can also be purchased on the Big Finish website through the below link.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-invaders-from-mars-652
Summary (from Big Finish)
Hallowe’en 1938.
A year after a mysterious meteorite lit up the skies of New York state, Martian invaders laid waste to the nation. At least, according to soon-to-be infamous Orson Welles they did. But what if some of the panicked listeners to the legendary War of the Worlds broadcast weren’t just imagining things?
Attempting to deliver Charley to her rendezvous in Singapore 1930, the Doctor overshoots a little, arriving in Manhattan just in time to find a dead private detective. Indulging his gumshoe fantasies, the Doctor is soon embroiled in the hunt for a missing Russian scientist whilst Charley finds herself at the mercy of a very dubious Fifth Columnist.
With some genuinely out of this world ‘merchandise’ at stake, the TARDIS crew are forced into an alliance with a sultry dame called Glory Bee, Orson Welles himself and a mobster with half a nose known as ‘The Phantom’.
And slowly but surely, something is drawing plans against them. Just not very good ones…
Introduction
Invaders from Mars sees the Eighth Doctor and Charley become embroiled in a 1930s detective story. Whilst the first half delivers a fun adventure with some great use of incidental sound, it sadly does not last. The arrival of the abysmal aliens derails the story, turning it into a very generic tale. Orson Welles is also involved in the story, somehow. This isn’t the worst Big Finish audio book I’ve heard, but it never reaches its promised potential.
Plot
“That’s the trouble with cliches.”
– The Doctor
The plot of this adventure held my attention for exactly half of its runtime, until it took a massive 180. Though less happened in the first half, I was vibing with what the story was doing. Landing in New York in 1938, the Doctor and Charley instantly stumble across a dead detective (as you do). The Doctor is then mistaken for the deceased private eye, and is tasked with locating a missing scientist. Mutineer gangsters run around with alien guns, a mysterious creature dwells in a tank and a theatre is being funded. Famed Director Orson Welles is also involved…somehow. Whilst it had a lot of moving parts, I was confident they would all come together. The story had all the ingredients for Doctor Who‘s answer to a 1930s detective story.
Towards the end of the first half, I became acutely aware that the story was veering away from my expectations. Charley got kidnapped, as I guess she needed something to do in this story, and the scientist was found. There was an interesting discussion on the discovery of these guns starting World War II on a couple of occasions. Naturally, I expected that this would have become a war between several factions for the weapons. Sadly, the story decided to go in a less interesting direction. As an aside, part 2 is only around 20 minutes long without the opening and closing credits and the recap. The actual detective work feels very under-baked, which is very disappointing. I expected Paul McGann’s Doctor to engage in far more shenanigans, or discover more clues. I say this because the detective plot pretty much ends in the middle of part 3. Its replacement, when the aliens arrive, is far less compelling.
To be frank, the aliens are a joke. At no point did I consider them to be a legitimate threat. They had this recurring squabble where one of them wanted to destroy everything and the other wanted to preserve things. They are essentially the Dumb and Dumber versions of the aliens in Storm Warning, another Eighth Doctor audio adventure. Their resemblance to giant bats just meant there were a lot of manic flapping sounds. But, the biggest reason why these villains are failures are that they undermine the story’s tone and existing plots. When they arrive, the story drops everything. The detective work and the alien guns plot are gone in favour of these flapping jokers. Also, how they are ultimately defeated raised several questions, which the story never bothers to answer.
The final part also sees Orson Welles finally be a part of the story and not just window dressing. I will say that the moral panic caused by his recording of War of the Worlds is very funny. How he is integrated into vanquishing the aliens is a good conclusion, if this was a separate story. It feels like the writers wanted this historical character in the story, but had no idea how to integrate him. He never meets any of the villains on screen, and only meets The Doctor and Charley in the final part. He spends most of the story in a recording studio, interacting with other characters who are limited to that space. His inclusion sums up my general thoughts on the plot, too many moving parts which aren’t integrated well enough.
Character
“So Ms. Bee, what’s the rumpus? You cracking foxy with me, or is you in trouble with the bricks? They gonna drag you down to the hole cause some guy got shot through the pump with a heater?”
[…]
“Miss Pollard, is Mr Halliday unwell?”
– The Doctor showcasing his ‘patter’ with Glory Bee.
The characters are definitely a mixed bag. Being a story that emulates 20th-century detective serials, I don’t mind two-dimensional characters if they fit the vibe. But, the way most are integrated into the story veers on the clumsy side. Paul McGann’s Doctor is a great example of this. In the first couple of parts, his over-eagerness to satisfy his detective fantasies leads to some very funny moments. He confuses characters with jargon he probably read in a detective novel and is disappointed at the lack of clues. But, when the aliens arrive, I struggle with a couple of his choices. Most egregious was the way he completely trusted Don Chaney, who the listeners heard essentially murder someone. Obviously The Doctor wouldn’t be aware of this, but at the same time he knew Chaney had kidnapped the scientist. Also, Paul McGann’s delivery of the closing part 3 line “there must be 30 of them” elicited unintentional laughs. Other than these issues, this version of The Doctor was generally a good fit for the story.
As uneven as The Doctor’s portrayal was, I think I was more disappointed in Charley’s role in this story. This is the first story set close to her home time, so I expected her to have a leading role. There was an interesting conversation with The Doctor in the first part, where she expressed interest in heading home. But then she is kidnapped, first by the human villain and then by the aliens, so this goes no further. There isn’t even a conversation at the story’s close which circles back to this, which was definitely needed. India Fisher does well with the more comic moments during the detective plot (“That’s a dead man’s desk you’ve got your feet on, Doctor”). But, the story should have given Charley far more to do than just being a victim of kidnap.
The secondary characters can be put into two camps: those who belong to the detective story, and those who don’t. The former are more developed generally, but it took me a couple of listens to grasp each of them. The biggest obstacle to this is that there are quite a few similar sounding male characters. In the first part, we are introduced to Ellis, Bix Biro, Cosmo Devine, Don Chaney, John Houseman and Orson Welles. There are only minor differences in voice between them, which created some problems on first listen. There was a moment when The Doctor and the Jessica Rabbit-esque Glory Bee are confronted by Ellis. Only, he says just a few words and is not identified until the next scene. The story isn’t the easiest to visualise, but it is made worse by the lack of easily identifiable characters. I’d argue that Bix Biro should have been taken out of the story, as his subplot didn’t add much. A couple of annoying inclusions aside (the aliens), the characters do generally suit the period and tone of the story.
Listening Experience
“The Martians are coming… the Martians are coming…they’re coming…”
“They’re here already lady! Jersey’s being bombed!
– Panic on the streets of New York City
The incidental sounds really play into both setting and tone. The first couple of minutes perfectly encapsulates the use of sound. The story opens to a segment of Orson Welles’ radio play, followed by car horns and a window smashing. Later in the scene, we hear the first of many uses of incidental music which evoke 1930s detective stories. This includes a dramatic transition piece which the editors clearly loved. It evokes the period perfectly; my brain also went to the 1960s Batman series. Whilst a very fun inclusion, it becomes tiresome after a while. Its use feels out of place when the aliens arrive and we move away from the detective vibes. The second half does have some good uses of sound, notably the moral panic from The War of the Worlds. Overall, the use of sound is unique to and elevates this story, but it should have been even more daring.
I’ll admit, I was interested in what accents would await me in this story. Past Doctor Who audio adventures set in the United States tended to have distracting caricatures. There are a few accents here which are on the more cartoon side. But, I think these actually compliment the detective fiction vibes this story is a twist on. The characters are cliched, but they suit this more self-aware tone and story. There were a few actors I was familiar with from other things, and they all delivered. Simon Pegg is quiet yet menacing as Don Chaney, and I loved Jessica Stevenson’s sultry Glory Bee. I only discovered when writing this that Mark Benton voiced Ellis, and he did a great job. The biggest surprise was that they brought in Katy Manning, Jo Grant herself, for one scene as a uncredited extra. Of course, she was brilliant as a wealthy party guest. There was the odd grating performance but, generally, these complimented the story’s tone and setting.
Final Thoughts
Invaders from Mars is a missed opportunity and a rare misstep in Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio adventure series. The first half creates a lot of potential for a twist on the detective fiction story. I was happy to vibe with The Doctor and Charley as they investigated a missing scientist and alien weaponry. Unfortunately, the arrival of the aliens in the second half marked a large dip in my interest. I also was not a fan of how the story used Orson Welles for the most part. This wasn’t the worst listen in this series to date, but is one of the more disappointing.
Ratings
Plot: 2.5/5
Character: 3/5
Listening Experience: 3/5
Overall: 3/5
Next Time – The Chimes of Midnight
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house not a creature was stirring…
But something must be stirring. Something hidden in the shadows. Something which kills the servants of an old Edwardian mansion in the most brutal and macabre manner possible. Exactly on the chiming of the hour, every hour, as the grandfather clock ticks on towards midnight.
Trapped and afraid, the Doctor and Charley are forced to play detective to murders with no motive, where even the victims don’t stay dead. Time is running out.
And time itself might well be the killer…
Thank you for taking the time to read my review of Doctor Who: Invaders from Mars. If you enjoyed reading this review, please do leave a like.
If you would like to be notified when new posts are published, please feel free to subscribe. I am currently working on this and my Walking Abandoned Railways projects, with other ad-hoc posts planned for the near future.
All of my Doctor Who reviews can be found on the dedicated page, which you can access here.
What did you make of Invaders from Mars? Did you enjoy Doctor Who‘s take on a detective story, or did you find this story lacking?
Please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts. Alternatively, you can send an email to editor@thebloggingdj.com.
The Blogging DJ 