Horror of Glam Rock review [Paul Magrs]

A creature lurks in the snow around Bramlington services, where prospective pop stars the Tomorrow Twins have stopped with their manager. The Doctor and Lucie arrive after aiming for Lucie's time. Can the time-travelling duo save the Tomorrow Twins and, more importantly (in manager Arnold's opinion), their career?

When and Where?: This story takes place at the Nadir Motorway Service Station in Bramlington in 1974. For both the Doctor and Lucie, this is after Blood of the Daleks and before Immortal Beloved.

The Doctor's Case:

• A Good Quotation:
• "I like a bit of handbag, don't you, Doctor?" / "Not a great deal, no." / "Oh, you surprise me."
• "We will be with you, Tommy."
• So the Doctor's mission this series is to get Lucie home, just as was the case with Ian and Barbara in season 1 and season 2. If this was made apparent from Blood of the Daleks, it would have sounded like an idea doomed to fail. Listening to the Doctor try to get rid of a young woman that he doesn't like for at least eight discs isn't a great pitch and doesn't make for a fun time. When the Doctor and Lucie exit the TARDIS and discuss the '70s like friends complete with Lucie subtly trying to find out if the Doctor is gay, it's not unlike the moment at the beginning of The Mysterious Planet where Sixth and Peri are suddenly getting along. It's a relief. It almost wouldn't be surprising if a number of new stories were released between Blood of the Daleks and this story because the relationship between the two is so much more pleasant. At the end, the Doctor and Lucie fly off as companions to explore the cosmos, which is a lot more fun than the Tegan-Heathrow sort of series.
• After the darkness and seriousness of Blood of the Daleks, it makes sense to have a lighter and more comic story to follow, especially since the Eighth Doctor Adventures aired on the radio and were geared towards the wider audience introduced by the 2005 revival. The story is a love letter and nostalgia trip to the '70s and to glam rock, which is something that's never been touched on in Doctor Who even when it was airing in that decade. There is, however, a certain sorrow that's subtly woven through the story - Flo has worked at the services for years and probably always will, Arnold knows very well the feeling of failure in the music industry and that's what Tommy Tomorrow and Pat (as Lucie informs her) will feel. Glam rock doesn't survive past the '80s and there will be very few survivors.
• A services on the M62 in 1974 is the perfect place for your modern base-under-siege story. It's a quaint, normal and boring location that makes it the ideal place for Doctor Who.
• Bernard Cribbins (who would go on to play Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott) does a great job as Arnold, as expected.

The Valeyard's Case:

• A Bad Quotation:
• The story is wrapped up very quickly, with the Doctor trapping the Only Ones in Lucie's iPod as a track that she should never play. It's a satisfying way to defeat them, but it comes out of nowhere and, once they've been trapped, the story's over. There should have been some mourning over Trisha by Arnold or some more talk between Lucie and Pat, with Lucie assuring her that she isn't nothing in the future.
• Why did the writer bring back Arnold? He was an unlikeable man (made somewhat likeable by the warm tones of the great Bernard Cribbins) who sacrificed himself, but then we find out that he survived. Being selfless redeemed the usually selfish character who only cares about success and he should have died in that moment rather than showing up at the end.
• Although the change in the Doctor and Lucie's demeanour towards one another is a welcome one, it's somewhat out of the blue and there should perhaps have been an Edge of Destruction before this story. (The good bits, that is. No scissors.)

Witness Protection: The Headhunter arrives at the services just after the Doctor and Lucie have left.

His Constant Companion: A drunk man gets mauled outside of the services by the Old Ones, as is Trisha after Arnold takes her and Tommy outside. The Only Ones aren't killed but trapped on Lucie's iPod by the Doctor.

This Reminds Me...:

• Creatures made out of soundwaves also appear in Whispers of Terror and Criss-Cross.
• A rock version of the Doctor Who theme song will later be played by the Twelfth Doctor during the opening titles of Before the Flood.
• The Only Ones are beautiful and wraith-like, sort of like the Gelth in The Unquiet Dead.
• Lucie isn't the only companion who meets a family member in the past. Ace met her mother and grandmother in The Curse of Fenric, Helen visits her brother in Absent Friends and Rose met her father in Father's Day.

The Inquisitor's Judgement: This is a solid story with a much friendlier Doctor and more genial Lucie who's now more of a Donna than a Tegan. The story's a lot of fun and well-paced but the ending is far too quick and easy with little in the way of an epilogue and no reflection on the terrible things that have happened. However, Horror of Glam Rock is a good story, and that earns it a B.

Eighth Doctor Adventures

Blood of the Daleks  |  Horror of Glam Rock  |  Immortal Beloved