6 episodes. Approx. 150 minutes. Written by: Douglas Adams, Gary Russell (uncredited). Directed by: Nicholas Pegg. Produced by: Gary Russell.
THE PLOT
When the Doctor receives a message from his old friend, Professor Chronotis (James Fox), a retired Time Lord living on Earth as a Cambridge professor, he remembers something long forgotten. Four lifetimes ago, he had visited Cambridge with Romana (Lalla Ward) and K-9 (John Leeson) in response to a summons from the Professor - a summons that went unfulfilled when they were snatched out of time and space. Now it's time to finish old business, sending all three of them "back to Cambridge, 1979."
Chronotis has called them to retrieve an artifact he brought back from Gallifrey. A book that isn't a book, but which has powers that could be devastating in the wrong hands. Trouble is, Chronotis has inadverdantly lent the book out to a student, and the wrong hands are already searching for it: Skagra (Andrew Sachs), a brilliant but unstable scientist who plots to use the book as a key. The Doctor doesn't know what Skagra plans to do with it when he has it. But he knows enough to realize that the consequences might spell the end of the universe as he knows it!
"Beware the sphere..."
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Paul McGann steps into Tom Baker's shoes in this remake (or should that be second attempt? For purposes of the review, I'll refer to it as a remake) of the half-finished, strike-aborted 1979 story. I know opinions on this are divided, but mine is that the shoes fit perfectly. McGann has a laid-back, deadpan line delivery which is perfectly suited to Douglas Adams' dialogue. He has a knack of delivering lines about how taking the universe makes no sense because "it's useless as a piece of real estate because, by definition, there's nobody to sell it to," all while sounding perfectly conversational... which makes these lines much funnier than if he was trying to "sell" them. McGann is particularly good opposite Andrew Sachs' Skagra, his calm demeanor the perfect foil to his increasingly agitated and excitable foe.
Romana: Lalla Ward returns to the role of Romana, the Doctor's former companion and now President of Gallifrey. That Ward has no problem settling back into the role is no surprise, given that she had already reprised it multiple times by the time this was recorded. The main body of the story is almost exactly what Douglas Adams wrote for Season 17 (with some material apparently pilfered from earlier drafts), so the relationship between Romana and the Doctor quickly settles into being the traditional one. This works in the story's favor to the extent that Ward actually plays quite well opposite McGann, seeming far more relaxed here than in most of her Big Finish outings. Within the story's continuity, though, there is no sense of Romana's position having changed after the opening prologue. She defers constantly to the Doctor, allows the Doctor to chide her in one scene... which makes it all the more jarring when the story remembers to nod at her being Gallifrey's President once or twice thereafter.
K-9: The robot dog is amusingly utilized by Adams' scripts. The invisible spaceship is particularly enjoyable, as the Doctor and Romana bump straight into it while K-9 makes no warning because he assumes that they can see it. The story takes the mickey out of K-9 multiple times. Repeated replies of "Insufficient data" are played on to good effect, as is his overly-literal response to a cry of, "Blast it!" John Leeson is terrific, capturing the bits of character that made K-9 work when he probably shouldn't have.
Villain of the Week: Andrew Sachs is Skagra, a brilliant and stability-challenged scientist who has devised a plan for universal domination using a big ball, an invisible spaceship, and a bunch of silicon-and-lava derived thugs. My recollection of the 1979 version is that Christopher Neame's Skagra came across as rather weak and wooden (a surprise, given how good Neame is generally). This is one area in which this new version definitely works better. Sachs is terrific as Skagra, sneering out his every line delivery. He has just enough fun with the part to be enjoyable, but reigns it in before it crosses the line into camp. He also gets many of the story's best exchanges, particularly opposite the Doctor and Romana in the story's latter half. I loved the Doctor's final punishment of Skagra, which is far more satisfying than simply killing him would have been.
Befuddled Time Lord Guest Star of the Week: Though I think Sachs' Skagra works far better than Neame's did, I'm afraid that James Fox's Chronotis just isn't as effective as Denis Carey's was in the 1979 version. This is easier to judge, given that most of Carey's scenes were actually filmed. It is also rather disappointing, given what a good actor James Fox is. Unfortunately, though almost certainly a better actor than Carey, Fox... just isn't as good at comedy. He doesn't seem to have the knack of playing Chronotis' befuddlement in the kind of straight-faced and off-hand manner that Carey had. He also delivers some of the dialogue in the early episodes a touch too rapidly, when certain lines ("It could be green!") would be funnier if allowed a second or two to sink in. He's better in the later episodes, when Chronotis is a bit less scattered and more focused, but this is very far from Fox's best work.
THOUGHTS
Shada is famous as Season 17's half-finished season finale, what should have been the valedictory bow of the Graham Williams era, and particularly of the Graham Williams/Douglas Adams season. Depending on who you listen to, this story would either have been a sparkling epic of wit and high concept that would have redeemed that controversial season, or would have been a lugubrious mess that would have been a nail in the coffin lid of the season's reputation. It is worth noting that Douglas Adams later professed to have been relieved that the story was cancelled, as he wrote it in a hurry when the story he really wanted to make was rejected as being too silly.
My own opinion falls somewhere between the two poles. I'm rather fond of what was shot of the 1979 Shada, as presented on home video, and I think it would have been the second-best story of a season that I admittedly don't much like. On the other hand, it is not exactly Adams' best work, and it's not hard to see why he was dissatisfied. There's much that is funny in Shada, there are a handful of wonderfully clever moments, and the villain's plot is both ingenious and unlike anything Doctor Who had done prior to that point. It's lesser Douglas Adams, but it's still a pretty good story.
Unfortunately, it is very slow and structurally rather messy. It is equally true of both versions that the first episode could be described by the phrase, "Nothing happens," and that the second episode is only marginally better. The story doesn't really seem to start until Part Three, and doesn't take off until Part Four. Had it been completed in 1979, I doubt it would be regarded as any kind of classic.
These problems hamper the 2003 version. A clever prologue by Gary Russell provides a "grabber" that helps ease listeners over Adams' slow opening, and puts the story in context as having first "happened" (1979), then "un-happened" (The Five Doctors), so that it is reasonable for it to "happen again" for the 8th Doctor. But since there are only very tiny tweaks to Douglas Adams' actual script, there is no sense of urgency in the 8th Doctor and Romana's visit. There is even one point at which Romana refers to this visit as a "social call," something which is flatly contradicted by the new prologue!
This audio version is extremely well-produced, and Nicholas Pegg has gathered together a strong cast. Most of the story's failings lie in the original script: The structural problems, the lack of momentum, the weak cliffhangers. These were as much a problem with the 1979 version as with this one.
That said, the story's one really good cliffhanger - "Dead men don't need oxygen" - is destroyed by a bad production decision. This is triply disappointing, because: (1) It's a very audio-friendly cliffhanger; (2) This was one of the scenes never shot for the original version; and (3) Since director Nicholas Pegg bungles the cliffhanger by repeating the line over and over before bringing in the credits, that means that there is no good version of what should have been an all-time classic cliffhanger.
With that exception, the direction is generally well-judged. The soundscape feels convincing for both Cambridge and the outer space settings, and I never had any trouble following the action even in the most visual sequences. The score is effective, the performances are good (even James Fox is generally pretty good, just not up to the level of his predecessor in the part). The story takes too long to get going, but when it does finally kick into gear, there's plenty of Douglas Adams wit and loopiness to enjoy.
Rating: 7/10. Too many flaws to rate higher, but too enjoyable to rate lower.
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