“Unexpected aura for a quiet English village.”
The Awakening, with its two episodes of unexpected aura, is
the perfect story to follow up Warriors of the Deep to help us forget.
The quiet English village of Little Hodcombe is in the
middle of a rather nasty war game, and the tension is set up nicely from the
beginning as the local school teacher Jane Hampden is menaced by costumed men
on horseback. These men who are harassing her are known to her; some of them
are her friends. That is what makes this so disturbing.
“Just a bit of fun,” Ben Wolsey assures her. But the fun is
starting to get out of hand. The boys next door are caught up in the frenzy of
the gang just having “a bit of fun” and, human nature being what it is, not all
are tempering their actions like Ben Wolsey. Evil will out, regardless of the
Malus.
“We’re in the wrong century,” Tegan moans when they step out
of the TARDIS in the midst of this reenactment of a 1643 civil war. Given the
TARDIS’ history, this isn’t an unreasonable doubt, but for once the TARDIS has
materialized in the exact time and place requested.
The time and place is at the request of Tegan, who has been
calling the shots in the TARDIS of late; first they go to 2084 Earth because
Tegan wants to see some of her planet’s future, and now they arrive in Little
Hodcombe to visit her grandfather. And I have to take a moment here, Gary, to
comment on the Fifth Doctor and his companions. Initially he was a father
figure with a bunch of unruly kids he had to keep in line; now, with Tegan and
Turlough, he has turned into a reluctant tour guide. With the exception at
times of Nyssa, Peter Davison’s Doctor has not had a companion that he doesn’t
seem to resent.
With Tegan the Doctor has never tried to hide his irritation;
with Turlough he is more subtle. “What was that?” Turlough asks as they explore
a church that is falling down around them. “A ghost,” the Doctor replies. The
Doctor knows it isn’t a ghost; he doesn’t believe in ghosts; he prefers playing
games with Turlough’s mind at the expense of explanations and investigation.
“Behave yourselves; we have company.” And the Doctor is
still the playground monitor.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Tegan, informed that her
grandfather has disappeared from Little Hodcombe and nobody has done anything
about it, runs out on the gang of play actors who are taking their roles too
seriously. The Doctor sends Turlough after her while he remains behind at
gunpoint. (Kamelion, meanwhile, is shunted into a back room of the TARDIS and
forgotten.)
Divested of his regulars (big sigh from the Doctor), the
Doctor takes on two temporary companions in the school teacher Jane Hampden and
in the 17th Century urchin Will Chandler who has been brought forth
through time by the Malus.
“I’ve escaped from one madman to find another,” Jane says as
the Doctor tries to explain the presence of tinclavic metal off a space ship
from another world, the Malus, and psychic projections, all of which are linked
up to Sir George and his war games going on in the village. “It pains me to say
it,” she ultimately admits when confronted with evidence of all three, “but I’m
sorry I ever doubted you,” to which the Doctor responds, “We all learn by our
mistakes.” This Doctor has a much more comfortable rapport with strangers than
he does with his own companions.
Meantime, Turlough has been captured and locked up (the
perpetual fate of Turlough) along with Tegan’s grandfather, and Tegan has been
forced to dress up as the town’s Queen of the May. Being as this is July, I’m
not sure what this has to do with the town’s battle reenactment. Seems these
Little Hodcombites are mixing their celebrations.
The Malus is also mixed up, mingling 1643 and 1984, possibly
a few other years as well (that ancient robed mystic apparition who appears to
Tegan looks to be from another time if not another place). I’m not always sure
why the Malus needs all of the psychic projections it calls forth. I mean, why
waste the energy just to steal Tegan’s purse? But then it has been dormant for
over 300 years, perhaps it is still a bit groggy. And why exactly did it fall
asleep after that original battle in 1643?
Asleep it has been, however, just waiting for the mad Sir
George to awaken it and feed it with all of the psychic energy generated by his
war games. Again I have to say that it is the villagers, at least the handful
of villagers who have flung themselves into their roles, who provide the
scariest element to The Awakening and not the Malus. Willow forcing Tegan to
dress as the May Queen and then taking her discarded dress away is especially
creepy. Sir George is the only one who can legitimately use the excuse of an
alien influence. The others can hide behind, “just obeying orders,” but then as
Ben observes, “that’s what they all say.” In the end when Ben and Jane offer
the hand of friendship to Willow with a promise of no recriminations, I have to
cringe and wonder if there aren’t some wronged villagers out there who would
beg to differ.
I have to say that the Malus takes failure rather hard,
preferring to destroy himself once the Doctor severs his link to his merry band
of psychic energy. Although in doing so the Malus conveniently tidies up after
himself. Those couple of dead bodies (one being Sir George) can easily be blamed
on the obliterated church. It would otherwise be difficult to explain to the
authorities how a peasant from 1643 pushed the local magistrate into a giant
stone alien head (“It better he be dead”).
It’s a short little story that is packed with action and
suspense and played out by a good cast of extras in some wonderful locations
and costumes. There are even touches of humor and some sparkling dialogue,
something that has been missing from quite a few scripts of late. In addition,
Peter Davison seems particularly on his game in this one. “You speak treason,”
Sir George accuses the Doctor at one point. “Frequently,” the Doctor replies. He
is sharp and quick witted throughout.
My favorite moments, however, go back to the Doctor’s
frustration with his fellow travelers.
“You didn’t close the doors,” the Doctor exclaims to Tegan
when he returns to find the TARDIS wide open. I have been noticing of late that
this Fifth Doctor and his companions are particularly lax when it comes to
TARDIS security. They continually leave the doors open and all manner of people
and aliens have wandered in. I therefore applaud this scene acknowledging their
carelessness, and I love Tegan’s come back: “There was no point. Something was
already inside it.” (And how did that something get inside to begin with,
Tegan?) Sticking with the TARDIS door theme, I love the tiny little exchanges
between the Doctor and Jane as they vie for the controls.
Finally we have a delightful parting scene of the TARDIS
cluttered with people. I can’t help feeling that this closing is appropriate as
well as a deliberate nod to the crowded nature of the Console Room during
Davison’s run. And with seven characters to choose from, it is fitting that it
is Tegan who speaks up with, “Aren’t you forgetting something?” Tegan just gets
under the Doctor’s skin, and his annoyance shows as he replies, “Probably. It
isn’t unusual. I’ve had a very hard day.” Ultimately it is seven against one: “I’m
being bullied; coerced; forced against my will.” It is very much like a tea
party taking place right there in the TARDIS, which perhaps is why Turlough
thinks of it, prompting this description supplied by the Doctor: “A noxious
infusion of oriental leaves containing a high percentage of toxic acid.” And
Will’s reaction to it: “Sounds an evil brew, don’t it?”
And so I raise a cup of the evil brew and send this out,
Gary, wondering if that crowded Console Room has room for one more . . .
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