“The Awakening” is an adventure of the twentyfirst season of “Doctor Who” classic series, which aired in 1984. It follows “Warriors of the Deep” and it’s a two parts adventure written by Eric Pringle and directed by Michael Owen Morris.
The story
The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) has promised Tegan (Janet Fielding) to bring her to the village of Little Hodcombe, where her grandfather lives. The Tardis is shaken by some turbulence but arrives at its destination, even if within an unstable church. A man dressed in 17th century clothes appears and disappears but the year is really 1984.
Outside the church, the situation is even worse because the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough (Mark Strickson) are captured by Captain Joseph Willow and some men on horseback dressed in 17th century clothes. The travelers are brought to Sir George Hutchinson, who informs them that the village is undergoing a celebration of the Battle of Little Hodcombe and everybody behave like at that time. The game, however, is too realistic.
Extras
This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as production subtitles, the Radio Times Listings, a promo of the “Doctor Who” DVD to be published soon and a gallery of pictures from this adventure.
There are various comments in the adventure alternative audio track by director Michael Owen Morris and script editor Eric Saward moderated by Toby Hadoke.
Return To Little Hodcombe. A documentary nearly 20 minutes long about the production of this adventure in which some of its protagonists go back to the villages used for the filming.
Making The Malus. A short documentary about the creation of the Malus.
Now And Then. The locations used for filming in the villages of Martin, Shapwick and Tarrant Monkton as they are today and as they were at the time.
From The Cutting Room Floor. Some scenes cut in part or completely from the final version and some location action for nearly ten minutes of material.
The Golden Egg Awards. “The Awakening” won a funny prize due to the fact that a horse destroyed a prop. A fun clip that includes Peter Davison’s participation to the award “ceremony”.
Isolated Music. The option to watch this adventure with the music by Peter Howell in an isolated audio track.
Eric Pringle submitted to the production of “Doctor Who” various ideas and eventually script editor Eric Saward commissioned him to write the script of the adventure that became “The Awakening”. However, he realized that his idea couldn’t be developed in four episodes and both Saward and producer John Nathan-Turner shared his concern about that problem. Consequently, it was decided to reduce the length of that adventure to two episodes.
The result is in some ways a prototype of the episodes of the new “Doctor Who” series though of course “The Awakening” is divided into two 25-minute episodes. By the standards of the classic series the pace is really high and the runaround is quite literal. However, if it’s a prototype perhaps it’s not accidental that it took over twenty years to perfect the formula because it also has its flaws.
The Doctor and his companions find themselves in the middle of a re-enactment become far too realistic. Some of the inhabitants of Little Hodcombe are suffering an external influence that drives them to extreme behaviors but others just follow them like sheep. The story unfolds in a fast pace but it’s a little chaotic.
In the new series, various clues about what’s happening and the nature of the danger are given here and there in the course of an episode, often by the Doctor, sometimes while he and his companions are running, sometimes by the villain. In “The Awakening”, the Doctor mentions the Terileptils, a link to “The Visitation“, and psychic energy as a force to be harnessed, but in the end that doesn’t go beyond in identifying the origin and nature of the Malus.
If you just follow the story without asking too many questions you can have fun, in fact there are many fans who appreciate “The Awakening”. However, if you think about it there are too many questions still open, also because the ending seems rushed and therefore does nothing but add more of them.
This adventure is very good from an aesthetic point of view due to the fact that it’s filmed largely on locations and of the 17th century costumes used by the characters are excellent as always in BBC productions. The Malus is really well done so if you’re impressionable itìs possible that it frightens you.
If the plot is sometimes confusing, at least there are some good moments with sharp dialogues and lines, especially by Doctor. Tegan and Turlough don’t have much to do, on the other hand the other characters are generally well played, starting with Will Chandler.
Overall, I think “The Awakening” is a fun adventure but not very successful. The extras on the DVD are pretty good for a product that seems targeted to “Doctor Who” fans.
In Region 2 nations, this DVD is part of the “Earth Story” box set, available on Amazon U.K.
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