I missed this one on release and waited for a sale, so this is BF history now, but I wanted to get my thoughts down before Vol 2 appears so here goes...
Three things I wondered about this release:
1. How would I like the unusual format?
2. How would the stories work with the focus on Churchill, and the Doctor as a more peripheral character?
3. How authentic would they be to the real-world Churchill and his times?
Well, the short answer is: I got used to the format, loved the set (the new series title music was a bonus!) and am greatly looking forward to Vol 2 this month.
The longer answer (and it IS long, too long - sorry about that!) is:
The 'mixed' format surprised me by how well it worked - after a while. I struggled in 'The Oncoming Storm' because every time the Ninth Doctor 'appeared', the switch in "Churchill's" narrating accent to somewhere on 'a planet with a North' threw the pace of the story off for me, and it took a short while to recover. I preferred the approach used in the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor stories where changes in tempo and pattern, but not accent, were used - it seemed much more the way in which Churchill would have told the story - in his own distinctive voice.
And Ian McNeice is absolutely
brilliant as that voice - a very specific 'Churchill' voice, which I'll come to later.
The amount that the Doctor 'appears' in a story didn't have any bearing on how much I enjoyed them, once I got used to the format. He's in 1 & 4 quite a lot, heavily in 2 and almost absent from 3, but the focus is on Churchill of course and his companions were all well played and the four stories all very successful imo.
1.
The Oncoming Storm (picking up on 'The Gathering Storm', Vol 1 of Churchill's WWII memoirs): a very good story during Churchill's time at the Admiralty in 1939-40. I liked the idea of Time Lord technology turning up from the Time War and the Doctor not there to defeat the aliens, but to save them from the aftermath of his own people's war. And the idea that Churchill was prepared to try using the device, supremely confident that he could cope with it, was very well imagined.
2.
Hounded: Superb, gripping story of the now Prime Minister's famous 'Black Dog' appearing to him for real, not as a metaphor. And of course it's much more complex than that. I liked the references back to Malakand (his first campaign as a very young Lancer) and the Holmesian nods were great fun. The high-energy Tenth Doctor is in this one a lot and for me it worked perfectly. My favourite of the set.
3.
Living History: An exciting, almost Doctor-free story in Roman Britain. Churchill, Caesar, a queen of the Britons - and a Dalek! What's not to like? I very much enjoyed Caesar and Churchill in tactical discussions (though in truth, Caesar was the tactical genius), the typically ruthless Dalek plot and the way Churchill defeats it, and that the queen of the British tribe has what we now call a Welsh accent, as she presumably would have done. And I enjoyed hearing Danny Horn back as Kazran (though I know there are issues with how he might be separated from the very specific plot of 'A Christmas Carol'.) It seems perfectly reasonable to me that someone from an Earth colony (which I always assumed he was) would know of Julius Caesar and Churchill as key figures in the history of the colony's 'mother planet', even if other aspects were forgotten. And he made a very good companion for Churchill here.
4.
The Chartwell Metamorphosis: a creepy 'horror story' of alien body takeovers in the gardens of Churchill's country estate. I hadn't a clue who Lily Arwell was (having never seen TD,TW&TW) but the older Lily was a fine companion for the older Winston. One thing that seemed curious to begin with was how Churchill was old enough to need assistance in walking at the start, but by the end he was charging about with a pitchfork levelled at alien invaders. Presumably some of the metamorphic energy did transfer to him after all.
Finally, the 'authenticity'. How 'real' were this Churchill and his world (leaving aside the fantastical 'Doctor Who' elements.) I've read a reasonable amount about the great man and his times and I thought the background authenticity was excellent, in the facts about his own life and also the times he lived in. Except once: little chance of finding 'a plate of chocolate eclairs' in a wartime cafe, when sugar was very strictly rationed and chocolate was unobtainable!
These stories can't show us the complexity of the real man of course, politician and statesman for over 60 years, but I think they do show us two aspects very well. Firstly, Churchill the Adventurous, who in his youth as an army officer travelled the Empire in search of battles to fight in and write about, who chose to serve on the Western Front for a period in one World War and who, as Prime Minister, wanted to cross to France with the Allied forces
on D-Day itself in the next. (He was only stopped by the personal intervention of the King!) Such a man
would be thrilled by meeting the Doctor and his amazing universe!
And secondly, the set is excellent at depicting Churchill the Writer, which he was for all his long adult life. What we've been hearing is Churchill reading us his (unpublished and sensational!) diaries of his meetings with the Doctor. So of course the Churchill we meet here
is different from the real man - just as the Churchill we meet in his own published works is somewhat different. This is the considered, literary voice of Churchill we're hearing rather than the spontaneous day-to-day voice - and all four authors are excellent at tapping into the unmistakable style of his actual writings.
Winston Churchill wrote himself into history, literally as well as figuratively, and would no doubt be delighted to now find himself a hero of popular drama too!
Highly recommended to admirers of the Doctor
and of Churchill; an excellent set of stories.
(And thanks if you made it to the end of this overlong post
)