Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Rebecca Root, Tom Price, Tom Baker, Aurora Burghart, Jeremy Clyde, Alan Cox, Joel James Davison, Raj Ghatak, Robert Portal, David Shaw-Parker, Clive Wood, Amina Zia.
You may love somewhere and proudly call it a home from home, a favourite place to be, an affinity with the locals, a connection with its history; but if you find that you have become Stranded, marooned upon its beaches because your mode of transport has given up the ghost and no sign of rescue is forthcoming; then your paradise, that one place you like to visit and catch up with its inhabitants can suddenly turn into a world of dull routine, your visit now a land of disagreeable anecdotes as you understand the point of view by those always trapped in the grey where once you saw colour.
The echo of a past incarnation perhaps looms over the Doctor as he along with faithful companions and friends Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair find themselves stuck, stranded on Earth as the Tardis lays still, seemingly dead after the events of Ravenous, and finding that even a safe space, a house he owned on Baker Street, had been invaded by strangers and complaints that drag them down from the stars to the monotony of the predictable every day.
To find the Doctor in such circumstances is effectively one of praise, a first four-part series from Big Finish that incorporates the writing of seasoned regulars Matt Fitton and John Dorney alongside the effective and intense ideas of Lisa McMullin and David K. Barnes, and one that captures succinctly what it means to be bored and without access to that which you love on a world you saved on numerous occasions.
The four tales, Lost Property, Wild Animals, Must-See TV, and Divine Intervention deal with loss and the unexpected delivery of new situations, not since the third Doctor’s time on Earth has the Timelord stood still enough to contemplate what being forced into a state of inertia actually feels like; yes there are mysteries to solve, yes there are enemies that can find him, but without the Tardis, without the means to explore, The Doctor may as well find himself accepting apathy as a means of getting through each tedious Earth day.
What Stranded does well is bring elements together and attach threads that the listener and fan wasn’t expecting, the glorious Tom Baker’s return as The Curator, the welcome romantic angle for Liv in the form of Rebecca Root’s Tania Bell, the appearance of Torchwood, and the addition of a household filled with a disparate group of people all struggling to survive in the wake of rising costs and a home that has not been updated since forever.
Inertia and entropy do not require a bell to sound the alarm of coming lethargy, and for a bright enquiring mind, being forced to give way to the randomness of still life is its own decay, one that the makers of Stranded have pulled with genius out of the unexpected bag.
Ian D. Hall