Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Hattie Morahan, Rebecca Root, Tom Price, Tom Baker, Oscar Batterham, Stewart Clarke, Jeremy Clyde, Jon Culshaw, Joel James Davison, Annabelle Dowler, Ewan Goddard, Avita Jay, Anjli Shaw-Parker, Homer Todiwala, Venice Van Someren, Amina Zia.
Time and memory are not always compatible bed follows. Quite often the two fight each other for the supremacy of the human experience, one taking from the other without a second thought, almost at war in terms of progression.
When we lose one, we are cast adrift in the unknown, but to lose them both whilst still living is a tragedy that we accept with aging, but not one when we believe there is still so much to offer the world. Time and memory two disjointed effects on the mind but which we require to hold everything we are together.
In the second boxset of tales of the Eighth Doctor’s Stranded series, written by Roy Gill, Lisa McMullin, and John Dorney, the marooned team of the Timelord, Liv, and Helen, and their oddly acquired collection of Baker Street renters, start to bond and let their respective guards down as Time and memory appear to begin to make them comfortable, but in which in one respect is effecting, that which tethers them to the here and now, the sense that the future and past is not always what it was meant to be.
The four concurrent tales of Dead Time, UNIT Dating, Baker Street Irregulars, and The Long Way Round, continue the insightful exuberance of dealing with the mundane and the resilience of boredom, and whilst the Doctor is making headway in reviving, resurrecting the Tardis, he is still prone to dealing with the effects of Time’s wrath with him stuck to one particular place.
Whilst Jon Pertwee’s period at the helm was dominated initially by his exile to Earth, it didn’t quite capture the feelings of despondency and the glimmer of hope that comes from a small fragment of memory and time resurfacing, jointly working together to reclaim positive action.
It could be argued that this comes together in the sweet and progressive tale that features two of the Doctor’s tenants, the former soldier and science officer working for Unit in the period under Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, portrayed with a fantastic amount of love and respect by the venerable Jon Culshaw, in Roy Gill’s Unit Dating.
In a tale that uses the misuse of Time to its full effect, the progressive nature of Tony Clare and Ron Winters’ relationship is feel the warmth of being loved, but also the despair of when the person you are with starts to forget everything that you ever meant to them.
With a superb set up in the offering, and with a tremendous performance by Annabelle Dowler in her role as the mysterious Houlbrooke, Stranded 2 is a terrifically enjoyable boxset, 4 tales that deal with the magic of time and memory in the healing process; one that gives every marooned traveller a sese of hope.Ian D. Hall