[Content
Warning: I'm going to discuss in pretty horrible and potentially
triggering detail a fictional portrayal of child sexual abuse and its
psychological aftermath. Please read the following post with care.]
Audio
Adventures In Time And Space was a range of unathorised Doctor Who
spin-offs produced by BBV in the late-90s and early-2000s. Long out
of print they're mostly forgotten except as the range where the
Faction Paradox audios began and being the reason Big Finish didn't
use the Sontarans or Zygons for about half a decade due to a
gentlefan's agreement between the two companies not to pursue the
same third party monster rights. Plus, they were a mail order thing
before internet purchase was reliable or entirely trustworthy so they
were hard to get hold of and not many secondhand copies circulate.
I stumbled
across a few at a local charity shop and last night I slipped Only
Human into the player... and...
… good
grief, I was not expecting what I got.
Let's
be clear about one thing before we start: Sophie Aldred is playing
Ace, the character she played in Doctor Who from 1987 to 1989 and
reprises to this day for Big Finish. “The Time Travellers” were
originally billed as “The Professor & Ace” until the BBC got
a bit cross about it. After that, BBV rebranded the Professor as the
Dominie (a terrible name almost never used in the audios) and
revealed Ace's birth name as Alice.
So,
once again, Alice is 100% absolutely meant to be Ace McShane. That is
something the listener is meant to actively assume.
Ace,
every version of Ace, has significant issues surrounding her family.
Usually, these issues revolve around her mother and is portrayed as a
sort of generalised neglect. In some versions they reconcile, in
others they don't but usually Ace finds a way to deal with those
feelings with or without a confrontation with the woman herself (both
of which are, of course, perfectly valid approaches).
Only
Human decides to go in a rather
different direction. Through a complicated set of events involving a
telepathic shapeshifter, Ace is confronted by a perfect replica of
her stepfather who, it turns out, repeatedly sexually abused her
starting when she was seven years old. He accuses her off enjoying
it, tells her that her mother knew it was happening, continues to
call her pet names even as she screams at him.
It
is absolutely chilling and I can't fault the actors for how they play
it, the impact of the scene is undeniable. It has immense power.
And
no resolution. Its not the point of the story, neither thematically
nor in terms of the story. The story surrounding it isn;t bad,
either, in fact its one of the most interesting and varied stories
the Audio Adventures told. The two sides of it just never marry up
and it leads me to wonder if this powerful, disturbing scene is just
there for shock value.
Also,
whilst it doesn't come out of nowhere (there's a precursor scene
close to the beginning of the audio that pretty well signposts where
its all going) it is a shocking place for an unlicensed audio based
on a 1980s kids show to go. I don't know if that's a good thing.
I
strongly believe these are issues that need to be discussed both in
fact and in fiction. The last couple of years have proven very
powerfully that these things have to be brought into the light. My
only question is whether or not this does that or if it just offers a
sly opportunity to trigger people who were just expecting a
run-of-the-mill Doctor Who by any other name audio drama, which seems
to me the most textbook definition of escapism.
Sometimes,
I think, it is possible to challenge your audience too much.
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