Pier Pressure

Main Range #78

Released: 11 January 2006

Listened: 6/20/20

This is another rather dark one, as the TARDIS lands in Brighton, 1936, where an alien with mind-control tendencies has been living at the end of the pier for some time. I have a strong feeling this one will make more sense to the English fans, particularly ones who can picture Brighton, and in particular comedian Max Miller, who is an active character in the story. I didn’t know anything about him, but the type wasn’t hard to envision. (There’s also a young actor named Billy who is apparently intended to be William Hartnell.) The plot, though, is rather slow and meandering, spending nearly an entire episode before it gets going, and even after seems to spend a lot of time going back and forth between locations rather slowly. The Doctor is more maudlin and given to speechifying than usual, but Evelyn pretty much tells him that she’s not having any of it, which is her role in these stories. A forgettable episode on the whole.