‘WATCHERS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Daleks, Milady and Marcel with the Fourth Doctor and Adric

I wondered whether Adric would meet the Daleks at some point in ‘Doctor Who’. 🙂

‘Watchers’ is a ‘Doctor Who’ audio novel by Matthew Waterhouse, who plays Adric in the TV series and the Big Finish audios. The story itself is a Big Finish audio production and is about 426 minutes in total. ‘Watchers’ is divided into six hour-long episodes, which is quite unique even for an audiobook.

Mind you, this isn’t the first time I’ve come across one of Big Finish’s audio novels in ‘Doctor Who’. The closest I’ve listened to a ‘Doctor Who’ audio novel was ‘Terror of the Master’, featuring the Third Doctor, the Brigadier, U.N.I.T. and the Master, which was released as part of the ‘Masterful’ limited special edition box set.

That audio novel was actually three hour-long episodes in total and isn’t a part of ‘The Audio Novels’ range of ‘Doctor Who’ by Big Finish. ‘Watchers’ is longer than ‘Terror of the Master’, and it was very intriguing to check out this audio story with it being performed and penned by the actor playing Adric.

Matthew Waterhouse is someone I have quite a huge admiration for in terms of being an actor and writer in ‘Doctor Who’. Usually, the ‘Doctor Who’ fandom remembers him for being Adric in the classic TV series with Tom Baker and Peter Davison, but it’s very easy to forget his writing credits. 😐

The previous times I’ve come across Matthew Waterhouse as a writer include when he wrote his ‘Doctor Who’ memoirs in ‘Blue Box Boy’. He’s also written a short story for ‘The Target Storybook’ anthology called ‘The Dark River’, featuring Adric and Nyssa, set during ‘Part Four’ of ‘The Visitation’.

As of January 2024, Matthew has written two audio novels of ‘Doctor Who’ for Big Finish, including ‘Watchers’, featuring the Fourth Doctor and Adric, and ‘Prisoners of London’, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. I’m looking forward to checking out ‘Prisoners of London’ very soon.

The director of ‘Watchers’ happens to be Nigel Fairs, who’s contributed significantly to ‘Doctor Who’ over the years as an actor, writer and director. He’s also provided the music and sound design for ‘Watchers’. I distinctly recognised some music cues by Nigel from ‘The Z’nai Trilogy’ featuring Leela.

‘Watchers’ is rather unusual as a ‘Doctor Who’ story by Matthew Waterhouse. For one thing, it’s set between ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Logopolis’ – the final two stories of Season 18 of the classic TV series. This is at the point where the Fourth Doctor and Adric are travelling alone together as a duo.

References are made to the previous departures of Romana and K-9 in ‘Warriors’ Gate’ and Adric first meeting Nyssa in ‘The Keeper of Traken’. I like those references made in the story, especially as it’s clear that Romana, K-9 and Nyssa meant a lot to Adric during his TARDIS travels with the Doctor.

Matthew seems to feel comfortable with writing this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure featuring the Fourth Doctor and Adric, especially as he grew up reading the Target novelizations of ‘Doctor Who’ in the 1960s and 1970s. This is one of his chances to write a full-on ‘Doctor Who’ adventure in prose form.

There’s quite a lot of detail uncovered in ‘Watchers’, as Matthew narrates his story to us on audio. It’s quite a challenge to take some of those details in, but for the most part, I found ‘Watchers’ an engaging story to listen to, especially concerning the Fourth Doctor and Adric meeting with Daleks. 🙂

I’m sure I’ve said it before in other reviews, but I prefer full-cast audio dramas as opposed to audiobook readings in ‘Doctor Who’. It would have been interesting to hear ‘Watchers’ as a full-cast audio drama instead of an audiobook reading featuring Matthew as Adric and Tom Baker’s Doctor. 🙂

It was intriguing to hear from Matthew being interviewed at the end of ‘Watchers’ about the process of writing the story and putting it together for him to read in a Big Finish studio. I’ve not done full-on novels of ‘Doctor Who’ myself, but I imagine the challenge is so daunting compared to short stories.

The only times I’ve written ‘Doctor Who’ stories in prose form is via short stories on my blog and via the Divergent Wordsmiths. Perhaps at some point, I should try writing a ‘Doctor Who’ adventure featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Billy as a full-length book rather than as a script or short story.

Incidentally, for all the ‘Doctor Who’ audio books by Big Finish, you can only purchase them as downloads via the Big Finish website instead of CD box sets. This I’m fine with, as I enjoy checking out certain ‘Doctor Who’ audio stories by Big Finish via their app as well as checking them out on CD.

In the opening credits for ‘Watchers’ read by Matthew, he dedicates this story to Christopher Hamilton Bidmead, who was the script editor on ‘Doctor Who’ for Season 18. I wonder if Chris Bidmead has ever heard this story by Matthew. Would he like it, I wonder? I’d like to think he would.

The story itself does feel suited to the sombre tone of Season 18, especially with its atmosphere and surreal imagery involving our characters being trapped somewhere in the vortex and there being lots of defunct TARDISes. There’s also something else connected to ‘Logopolis’, which we’ll get onto soon.

In the story, the TARDIS gets dragged into the vortex with the Doctor and Adric aboard. Something immensely powerful is draining time itself from the universe. Our heroes come across the wrecks of other time ships existing in a fused cluster in the vortex. No ship can escape and the crews are dead.

The Doctor tries to free the TARDIS, but he and Adric come across threats from other groups in the fused cluster that are desperate to escape. This includes a hostile reptile species, mechanically enhanced cyborgs, and the Daleks themselves. Can our heroes win the day and escape the vortex? 😐

This isn’t the first time that Matthew has done audiobook readings in ‘Doctor Who’. He’s read the audiobooks for Target novelizations like ‘Full Circle’, ‘Four to Doomsday’ and ‘The Visitation’. He’s also read Short Trips for Big Finish like ‘A Full Life’ and ‘The Ingenious Gentleman Adric of Alzarius’. 🙂

You can tell how much practice he’s had with doing audiobook readings like this, especially in ‘Watchers’, as he does a variety of voices for characters like the Doctor, Milady, Marcel and the Nalgren as well as Adric. They’re not over-the-top, as Matthew gets the tone of Tom Baker quite spot on.

Of course, Matthew isn’t voicing everyone in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. There are the Daleks, voiced by Nicholas Briggs. It was so eerie to hear Nick Briggs read the lines of Daleks in a story penned by the actor playing Adric in ‘Doctor Who’. It’s also very invigorating, since I’ve enjoyed the Daleks’ dialogue.

Nick Briggs, as ever, is able to provide varying layers of Dalek voices in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. This ranges from the Gold Dalek in charge of the Daleks invading the fused cluster of ships as well as the White Daleks, Purple Daleks and Grey Daleks. They also sound new series-like than classic series-like.

I don’t know if this is a ‘Doctor Who’ story that Chris Bidmead would have approved of if it was ever in the production of Season 18 of the classic TV series. But it’s intriguing Chris Bidmead never considered having Daleks or Cybermen in his time as ‘Doctor Who’s script editor whilst working on it.

I mean, okay, the Master returned in ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Logopolis’, but that was at the insistence of producer John Nathan-Turner. Imagine what would have happened if Chris Bidmead stayed on for a second and third season of ‘Doctor Who’, which featured the Daleks and Cybermen. 🙂

Yes, he later did ‘Renaissance of the Daleks’ for Big Finish with Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton, but that ended up being credited as ‘from a story by’ him instead of being by him, since Nick Briggs reworked the scripts for that. What would a Dalek story entirely penned by Chris Bidmead be like? 😐

With the Cybermen being involved with technology and such, surely it would have been irresistible for Chris Bidmead to do a Cybermen story in ‘Doctor Who’. He could have used his knowledge of computers to enhance more of the Cybermen in terms of how they operate as a species in the TV show.

It’s intriguing how Adric comes across the Daleks for the first time in ‘Doctor Who’. He sadly doesn’t get to have any scenes with a Dalek, but it’s fascinating to hear his reaction to them when Matthew read the story. I wonder whether having scenes between Adric and the Daleks would’ve been better.

In the TV series, Adric never encountered the Daleks, as he came across the Master and the Cybermen in his time in ‘Doctor Who’. It’s ironic that Adric survived his encounter with the Daleks in this story, considering he would be killed during his encounter with the Cybermen in ‘Earthshock’. 😐

Years ago, when I was on the Big Finish forum before it was closed down in 2015, I had the idea of the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric encountering the Daleks in ‘Doctor Who’. In hindsight, that probably isn’t such a good idea, as it would complicate things in terms of the TV series’ continuity. 😐

But back then, I was keen on the idea, since the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric only encountered the Master and the Cybermen in the TV series and not the Daleks. I’m glad Matthew had this Fourth Doctor and Adric story feature the Daleks. It’s like a half a dream come true for me. 🙂

Apparently, it was producer David Richardson who suggested that Adric include more of the Daleks in ‘Watchers’, as I believe they were only going to appear in the sequence in ‘Part One’ where the Daleks are invading Paris on Earth in the 22nd century. I’ll share more on this aspect of the story shortly.

I’m pleased Matthew took David Richardson’s suggestion to heart, since I would have been disappointed if the Daleks only appeared in ‘Part One’ of the story and didn’t appear again. The Daleks appear towards the end of ‘Part Three’ and far more prominently in ‘Parts Four, Five and Six’.

Going back to the Daleks invading 22nd century Earth aspect of the story, it’s intriguing that Matthew Waterhouse specifies that the Dalek invasion of Earth took place in 2164. This confused me, as I assumed the Daleks’ invasion of Earth in the 22nd century began in the 2150s or something like that.

That’s the assumption I got from listening to audio stories like ‘The Mutant Phase’ and ‘Masters of Earth’. I also assumed the Dalek occupation of Earth ended in 2164, though that could have been an old calendar the First Doctor and Ian found when searching that warehouse in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’.

Whether it’s a continuity error on Matthew’s part or that the Dalek invasion and occupation of Earth in the 22nd century is complicated enough in terms of dating, I don’t know. Either way, it’s intriguing Matthew decided to date it like that when depicting Paris in the 22nd century being attacked by Daleks. 😐

This story introduces us to Marcel Chaudhry, who was supposed to die during the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth. He ends up being saved by Milady, who happens to be one of the Watchers from Gallifrey with her own TARDIS and such. Marcel ends up becoming Milady’s companion here. 🙂

Marcel has an intriguing journey in the story, as he finds himself in this strange situation where he’s saved by Milady and he’s told he can’t go back to the life he once had since he’s supposed to be dead. 😐 He also has a lover back on Earth and he happens to be a gay character, which is fascinating.

In real-life, Matthew is gay and married to someone called Tim (No, not me. Another Tim 😀 ). I enjoyed how Matthew developed Marcel’s character in the story, especially with him being gay; wanting to get back to his lover on Earth and wanting to exact revenge on the Daleks for ruining his life.

In ‘Part Six’, Marcel tries to go back to Earth ten minutes before the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Paris happened. But he finds himself unable to do anything to change what’s already happened and he soon ends up back in Milady’s TARDIS where he agrees to continue travelling with her for a while.

Milady is intriguing as a ‘Doctor Who’ character in this adventure. She’s described as a dark-skinned woman in African garb and happens to be a Watcher. The only other time a Watcher is introduced in ‘Doctor Who‘ was in Tom Baker’s final story ‘Logopolis’. The Watcher was mostly covered up in that. 😀

I found it extraordinary how Matthew developed Milady as a Watcher character, since she behaves like a Gallifreyan character would behave when travelling about in a TARDIS. She doesn’t call herself a Time Lord, which is fascinating, and her interaction with the Doctor was equally intriguing to hear.

There’s a further explanation provided on the circumstances surrounding the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration. In the story, there’s a God TARDIS where the Doctor meets another character called the Mechanic. He passes through a field of dense time, which causes him to age rapidly in the story.

He also becomes significantly weaker. Once he’s brought back to his TARDIS, he’s restored to full strength without having a regeneration. This is a surprise to the Doctor. I admit, I was intrigued by this development. Usually, a regeneration happens after what the Doctor had seemed to go through.

Despite that, the Doctor is still greatly weakened, and it seems doubtful that he’ll be able to regenerate again should the need arise. In her TARDIS, Milady puts in a request with the Department of the Watchers to help prepare for the moment of the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration should it occur.

This further explanation does provide a little more sense in terms of the way the Fourth Doctor behaved in ‘Logopolis’ with being so moody and such. I don’t know how this ties up to the other Fourth Doctor and Adric stories, especially the ‘Doctor Who Annual’ stories, provided Matthew has read them. 😐

Regardless, it does make ‘Watchers’ a fascinating audio adventure to listen to in being a bridge between ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Logopolis’. It’s not necessarily a story I needed or wanted to hear in that time during Season 18, but I’m very happy that Matthew provided it in ‘Watchers’ itself.

The Doctor’s weakened state at the end of ‘Watchers’ could also be the reason behind why he needed to regenerate after falling from the radio telescope in ‘Logopolis’. After all, the Fourth Doctor’s regeneration seems to be quicker than the Tenth Doctor’s regeneration in ‘The End of Time’.

I liked the references made to the Daleks’ records of the Doctor’s previous regenerations as well as highlighting his encounters with Davros. This also includes the Doctor’s attempt to destroy them in ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ and there’s Sarah Jane’s “You can’t doubt it?” quoted twice in the audio story.

There are scenes featuring Adric being a slave on a long boat-like part of the spaceship fused cluster. He’s made to pull the oars of the long boat-part of the ship by the Nalgren, who I believe are vicious reptile-like aliens that worship an entity that turns out to be the God TARDIS featured in the story. 😐

Those scenes are pretty intense to listen to, especially when Adric is separated from the Doctor for most of ‘Parts Two, Three and Four’ of the story. I can only imagine how grueling those scenes would be to record in a BBC studio, should ‘Watchers’ have ever been made as a six-part story in the TV show.

Regarding the Mechanic as a character, it’s not clear how she acquired the God TARDIS and who her supposed beloved one is meant to be. Whether that’s something to be explored in a future story by Matthew Waterhouse, I’m not sure. Either way, I feel the Mechanic was quite wasted as a character.

The story concludes with Adric looking after the Doctor’s TARDIS, with the Doctor putting his hat and scarf on the boy before he goes off deeper into the ship – the cloister room, presumably. There’s also Milady and Marcel continuing their travels in their TARDIS as well as being Watchers in their universe. 🙂

Like I said, at the end of ‘Watchers’, there’s a behind-the-scenes interview with Matthew Waterhouse who talks about writing the story as well as reading it. A shame Nicholas Briggs wasn’t interviewed, as it would’ve been intriguing to hear his thoughts on this story as well as voicing the Daleks.

‘Watchers’ has been a very enjoyable ‘Doctor Who’ story to listen to. I enjoyed Matthew’s take on doing a full-on audio novel featuring the Fourth Doctor and Adric that’s set between ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Logopolis’ in Season 18. It was also terrific to hear the Daleks appearing in this audio adventure.

I’m looking forward to checking out ‘Prisoners of London’ by Matthew Waterhouse next, featuring the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. I wonder what his take on the Season 19 TARDIS team will be like. Would it be very exciting and reassuring? Will I feel satisfied from listening to that story? 😐

‘Watchers’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fourth Doctor was ‘Farewells’ (YB) For Adric was ‘Just a Small Problem…’ (Annual)	The next story For the Fourth Doctor is ‘Logopolis’ (TV) For Adric is ‘Logopolis’ (TV)
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