The Wormery [AUDIO/2003.10.31]

★★★★★

  Oh, yes — now this is sublime stuff. To everyone who's ever doubted Iris Wildthyme's place in "the real Doctor Who canon" (such a phrase... heaven forfend!), open your eyes and ears! This transtemporal adventuress is a character with all the emotional complexities of your favorite companions, and she's an absolute scene-stealer to boot. Plus, does your favorite character have a space-and-time-faring double decker bus? Didn't think so.

  The Wormery comfortably sits in its own corner of the Doctor Who mythos, with an atmosphere and sense of style, comedy and characters unique to its own. As soon as you hit the play button, you pick up vivid scents of cigarette smoke, heady perfumes, cold midnight air mixed with car fumes, and spilled liquor on wooden tables congealing into sweet, sticky puddles that you can faintly see your reflection in. It almost entirely takes place in a seedy and extravagant cabaret, which may or may not be a TARDIS, and its host is the center of attention, but is she a hero or a villain? Is she a tragic protagonist of a sad tale or a heartless amalgamation of all the evil spirits within? Characters in The Wormery, much like host Bianca, are never truly good or bad; they exist in a plane of moral greyness, and Paul Magrs and Stephen Cole take great pleasure in exploring the nature of this difficult concept. What I love about this adventure is that there's no true happy ending for anyone, that no one actually saves the day. In the end, the worms needed to shine, Bianca (the deepest, darkest excesses of Iris's psyche formed into one incarnation) needed to shine, and Henry needed to shine. 

  That's not all, however. The Wormery also delights in showing Iris as not just a character for comic relief, but a much more complicated individual with her own internal struggles. Here she is, having to contact the worms through constant inebriation, and the one man she loves more than anyone else assumes that she can't stop drinking for the sake of it. Katy Manning is pitch-perfect as ever, and she excels at bringing the more emotional side of Iris to the table. Together with Colin Baker's worn-out, post-Trial of a Time Lord Sixth Doctor, they create magic here. Just listen to when Iris teases Sixie about secretly fancying her, or when she breaks down into tears at the prospect of the Doctor — her Doctor — being smitten by wicked ol' Bianca. She thought that if she stuck around long enough, he'd perhaps... one day... look back and realize that she's always been there for him. That's a heartbreaking moment right there, brought to life so beautifully. In your face, Doomsday, this is the romantic tragedy of all romantic tragedies in Doctor Who. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  There are very few stories that fill me with anticipation every single time I revisit it, and The Wormery is one of them. It's a beautiful adventure in my eyes, and no one can convince me otherwise. From the wonderful cabaret music playing in the background as characters lull about their lives in sorrow to the exploration of the Doctor's emotions after the events of the Trial and his true feelings for Iris Wildthyme, there's simply nothing quite like what it does and how it does it. The Sixth Doctor and Iris have never been better, and I don't regret saying this at all. Paul Magrs, I could kiss you. 

(original post)