The Great White Hurricane is a somewhat fascinating First Doctor historical, as it takes place relatively recently in Earth's history. Around the same timeframe as The Gunfighters, admittedly, though that story was a western and thus immediately much more mythological and less approachable to us.
WRITTEN BY
Guy Adams, a man with whom I have no experience whatsoever, but has written many Torchwood and Class novels, not to mention Big Finish audios. Judging from this, he's a bit preachy, but competent.
PLOT
Landing in 1888 New York, the TARDIS crew are immediately separated by in the midst of dangerous gangs, who kidnap Susan and wound Ian. Scattered throughout the city, they have to survive and assist the hapless Americans as the snow slowly descends upon them all...
ANALYSIS
As was common in the Hartnell era, the story is split between multiple narratives, but they build up our understanding of the environment and the people in it. Rather refreshingly, this isn't a good vs evil parable or even a case of alien interference, but happenstance and conflict between the morally grey.
That being said, it does lead to a lot of moralizing and draining monologues from characters(particularly from Rosalita, who spends like five minutes proudly standing up to her abusive husband), but at least in concept, it's something different. It's not a celebrity historical, which might restrict the freedom to write, but rather a story about the common folk surviving during the hurricane and has a pleasing simplicity about it.
I don't know if it's just me, but I was also heavily reminded of West Side Story. Partially because of the focus on the New York gangs, but also because of those terrible and wonderfully Hartnellian American accents(I saw the play in Estonia, and the actors were about as equally convincing).
CHARACTERS
David Bradley again reprises the role of the First Doctor. Whilst I was mostly happy with him in The Destination Wars, here his peculiar, jittery cadence once again reared its ugly head or at least was more noticeable to me. I can't get over it. I don't know if it's a bizarre attempt to emulate Hartnell's speech pattern(though from his comments, I wouldn't think so), but in audio form, it makes him sound like a forgetful old man trying to read his lines without glasses. Bradley's talent as an actor very narrowly keeps me from entirely suspending my disbelief, but it's a terrible performance choice.
Jamie Glover and Jemma Powell aren't William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, but they are good performers and at least evoke the same characters well enough, which is all I can ask for. I was very impressed with Claudia Grant though, whose Susan comes across as rather more competent and independent than the original, even if she lacks Carole Ann Ford's alien touch.
Christopher Naylor was terrible. In all of his roles. As a policeman, he comes across as cliched, and as the abusive husband, Henry, he's downright ridiculous with that mumbling voice, and completely unintimidating. To be fair to Naylor, all of his characters were poorly written too.
Carolina Valdes plays Rosalita, who was apparently from Puerto Rico, but I thought her accent sounded more Russian than anything else. She had a wonderfully tough, but caring attitude regardless. The Ellis Bros(Jackson Milner and Cory English) are little more than walking funny accents too, though I did at least like English's rapport with Bradley. Watching the First Doctor travel with a late 19th century American companion would be a blast.
Point goes to Ronan Summers's growling, spiteful O'Connell, who does come across as genuinely threatening, with a sharp tongue and a menacing, reserved tone.
NOTES
*"She's a strong girl, she knows what she's doing." Clearly Barbara and Susan haven't chilled out in that Parisian jail where she screamed at rats yet.
*It's a shame the Doctor's stay in jail was so brief, his complaining was hilarious.
*I think the score for this story was also evocative of West Side Story, very bouncy and reminiscent of the "Jets Are Gonna Have Their Way, Toniiiight" song.
*I like the continued use of the cliffhanger between stories, even between box sets. In this case, we get a hook where the Doctor supposedly figures out a way to return Ian and Barbara to their own time.
CONTINUITY ADVISOR
1) As the Doctor is dragged off to jail, he shouts out that he's played backgammon with the Emperor of China, which was depicted in the serial Marco Polo. Classic.
BEST QUOTE
"Take your hands off me, I haven't done anything! Much like you idiots!" - I love the First Doctor's verbal venom.
CONCLUSION
Kinda cheesy, but I love the setting and some of the dynamics. The characters were likable and distinct. It's fun enough and goes by fast.
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