After the TV Movie, most fans had given up hope of Doctor Who returning to television. A revival had been attempted and hadn’t been a success so the chances of another crack at it were slim. There were other avenues of continuing the Doctor’s adventures across time and space though such as the Big Finish audio adventures which started in 1999. However, the Scream of the Shalka animation featuring Richard E Grant as the Ninth Doctor was originally meant to be an official continuation and meant to be where the future of Doctor Who would lie. The announcement of the show’s return under Russell T Davies meant this was retconned and put to bed. Being the animation’s 20th Anniversary this year I thought I would have a look at how well this singular story and alternative version of the Doctor’s adventures holds up.
The plot of Scream of the Shalka involves the Doctor landing in the village of Lannet in Lancashire which has become totally isolated, with the villagers living in fear. It turns out to be the result of an alien being called the Shalka preparing for an invasion. They plan on using humans as their slaves who they have trained in projecting their Shalka screams to convert the atmosphere of the planet as something more fitting to them. This is so they can link the earth to the rest of their empire through wormholes converted from blackholes, as they have from their conquest of many planets. It’s the job of the Doctor, his new companion Alison and the military taskforce to put a stop to the Shalka.
The story is written by Paul Cornell who is well known for his Virgin New Adventure Novels and going on to write Father’s Day and Human Nature/The Family of Blood during the modern series. I think what works about Scream of the Shalka though is that it is effectively a relaunch and an introductory story. You could have very easily aimed the story at fans and brought in loads of recognisable elements that would interest the dedicated viewers of the original show, but there is an attempt to have more of a draw which is admirable. It’s trying to bring in the casual audience with its casting and the interest of a broader audience to not purely appeal to long-term fans and I do think that makes it a much stronger final product as a result.
You can see from right from the start of Scream of the Shalka, Paul Cornell captures that mysterious and atmospheric vibe and the strong scare factor and frightful menace that Doctor Who is so well known for. It certainly is a much stronger reflection of Doctor Who as a series than anything which the TV Movie presented. The idea and concept of an abandoned and isolated village where the villagers are all terrified is an idea and formula that has been used before and it works so effectively to create a mysterious sense of menace and the unknown and works well in Scream of the Shalka. It’s a timeless formula that ends up being incredibly powerful. The story has a good sense of obscurity and a strong sense of suspicion and mystery which helpfully draws you in and keeps you asking questions. It’s compelling as you want to see where it leads and what gets unveiled.
It’s a setting, location, and environment that often defines and enhances a villain and I think that’s exactly what happens with the Shalka, who just fit the creepiness of the village and the nature of the tone. The whole thing has an incredibly gothic feel that just sums up Doctor Who.
I like the variety in the Shalka’s design with different forms of the species. It creates a strong sense of flexibility and variety in the look of the species with still a recognisably similar design that makes logical sense for them. It feels truthful to the nature of species and biology to have certain offshoots and subspecies and I like that. There is a creativity and strong imagination in the Shalka as a race and a heightened sense of horror that just works.
I think the primary concept of having these creatures living underneath the ground is an unnerving and quite horrible one which has a good sinister sense of apprehension running through the story. It’s essential to the scary atmosphere of that first episode and what makes the dangerous nature of the environment succeed. The idea of lava-like creatures suited and accumulated to the temperature and gases under the ground is a fascinating idea and a memorable one that sticks inside your head. Therefore, their motivations of conquest in trying to convert the earth’s atmosphere into something suited to them makes a great deal of sense and creates a powerful sense of stakes. Yet I also like the idea of creatures with high-pitched voices and screams, as they use sound as a weapon. The idea of the Shalka very cleverly takes real truths of nature and scientific ideas we understand and integrates them into an interesting villain to create a properly memorable baddie. It means you have a strong locked-down concept with the idea of the Shalka which provides good opportunities for expansion and growth, as they are mined and developed very successfully across the story to extract all of what makes them interesting. Controlling and training humans with their screams gives the Shalka a powerful and incredibly effective sense of scope and scale and is a very frightful idea. The way they use humans as their puppets is suitably horrifying and a very impactful and memorable aspect of the story. Stripping people of their ability to act and make decisions and simply turning them into devices and pawns is always a terrifying idea. It’s a concept and theme that has a scary irony to it. There is such a simplicity to the Shalka but their concepts and menace do carry the story. There is something mysterious and unusual about them; they operate differently and oppositely to humanity which gives them both an appealing and scary quality.
The Shalka Prime is voiced by Diana Quick who gives the Shalka a good sinister sense of menace and a character for the Doctor to converse with, but I don’t think she has a strong enough presence across the story to really make enough of an impact. You do however, get more of an insight into the main motivations of the Shalka which is good. My complaint with the Shalka is how easily they are defeated and how convenient the solution of the story is; it feels too rushed through, too obvious, and too simple and it feels like more creative injection was needed to create a more surprising and satisfying solution. The last episode loses a lot of its energy and falls into this settled and predictable feel. The 15-minute episode slots don’t work too badly on the whole as it means the story is always moving forward with a lot of variety, but it does hurt the conclusion I think and the whole nature of the ending feels a little too absurd if I’m honest.
In Scream of the Shalka, you have Richard E Grant playing a version of the Ninth Doctor before Christopher Eccelston was cast. He was an ideal choice for the role and in my opinion just perfect casting for the Doctor. It’s a shame he never got a proper chance as the character but you can tell that he is having a great deal of fun and just inhabits it in his performance. I like the moodiness and the tetchiness of his character and the cold alien quality that Richard E Grant brings to the Doctor, and yet he balances it with a natural sense of oddity and a lively eccentric quality that just feels natural to the actor’s personality. There is a good interest in science and a want to help people and a sense of justice that naturally emerges and the character arc that the Doctor goes on across the story makes a good deal of sense for the story, character, and incarnation. He simply bottles his sense of care and it’s satisfying to see it emerge.
Paul Cornell brings a good deal of mystery to the character of the Doctor in the way he writes him, that fits him at this stage. The Doctor has obviously been impacted by the trauma of some past event that is left in the shadows which adds a compelling doubt and sense of uncertainty, vulnerability, and a fulfilling scarred nature to them and creates a captivating morally grey character. It helps restore some level of mystery to the Doctor, by trying to unveil the scars of their past. It also justifies and satisfyingly explains the distant and isolated nature of Richard E Grant’s Doctor and his somewhat dismissive nature, and the compelling root of his fear. Richard E Grant has a dominant and captivating presence and personality and the way he mocks the Shalka and makes fun of them in such a charismatic way is gloriously entertaining to watch. His arc of rediscovering who he is and reluctantly stepping back into the role of a hero is fitting for a re-introductory story and creates a refreshing way to bring in the Doctor as someone fearful of his actions and their consequences.
Alison Cheney is the companion of the story played by Sophie Okonedo who I think is rather good. You can see the modern influences of a companion in her character with more of a focus on her family life which is very reflective of the modern version of the series. I think what makes Alison work as a character is her blunt and incredibly curious nature, being uneasy and asking questions about the situation at the village. There is something powerfully relentless, straightforward, and very confident about Alison as a character that makes her a good driving presence and a strong fit for the role of a companion with her sense of justice. Sophie Okonedo brings a positive sceptical nature to the character and her very aggressively firm vibe and sense of reason and expectations work well with Richard E Grant’s Doctor. There are good, firm, and clear external factors resulting in Alison’s unhappiness and dissatisfaction in her personal life with the compromises she has made that allow us to understand her and make her relatable. Her life position is firmly displayed, and you can relate to Alison’s craving for adventure, and the Tardis is her chance to prioritise and focus on what she wants and you root for her. Alison is well-established as a companion and it’s a shame we never got any further adventures with her because she is a very strong, likeable but relatable figure.
You have Derek Jacobi playing the Master who would later play the role in the main series during Utopia in 2007. I think Derek Jacobi does bring a good sense of charm, and generosity but an underlying sinister menace to the character of the Master in Scream of the Shalka that succeeds, and I strongly enjoy that you are never sure of his intentions. However, his inclusion and place are a little odd, the Master here is actually a robot traveling with the Doctor which I don’t understand the point of. His character strongly adds to the mystery of the past of the Doctor which would have been further developed, I’m sure. I do see the potential in the Doctor offering the Master salvation and I enjoy the way the story subverts several Master tropes and your expectations of him across the story very well but his place in the story and the reasoning for him being a robot feels strange and confusing. I simply feel there needed to be more space for him and as a standalone animation that wasn’t yet part of an ongoing set of adventures, I think it should have been less reliant on future instalments and put more energy into the Master in this story if they wanted to use him to justify the creative decisions.
Alison’s boyfriend Joe is played by Craig Kelly and in total honesty he is a rather dull character and totally lifeless in personality. He serves his purpose in terms of plot but I have no idea what defines or drives him as a person and as a result it’s very difficult to be invested in his character, feel sympathy for him, or root for him in any shape or form because he feels like a wooden plank. He is an attempt to draw in relatable elements but unlike later during the Russell T Davies era with Jackie and Mickey, I don’t think Joe is a very interesting person.
Major Kennet is the leader of the military taskforce which help out the Doctor and he does have a fairly firm and relentless personality that works well with Richard E Grant’s Doctor, but the two could have had a little more conflict within the story as their relationship does lack something and it would have made more sense if the military taskforce was a modern version of UNIT. Sergeant Greaves does add to the dynamic though with his frustration and anger at the Doctor.
Scream of the Shalka is directed by Wilson Milam who was known mainly as a theatre director and animated by Cosgrove Hall who did a lot of very good work on different animated series and films and other Doctor Who projects also. The animation is limited in Scream of the Shalka but I think everything is strongly presented to fit the limitations of the animation. It makes up for the restricted nature of the movement with very characterful and distinctive designs for the people and environments. All the characters have a very memorable and recognisable look and feel to them which I like. The darkness of the atmosphere of the streets and the dire look of it is incredibly effective within that first episode with a very striking visual design and imagery that fits the gothic horror feel. The clever use of silhouettes and shadows and the way characters consume the frame is a very creative way of using the limitations of the animation to create a powerful visual and standout look to the story that fits the atmosphere and feel of the script.
So overall, how do I feel about Scream of the Shalka? I think it’s a rather good story and very well put together as you have a good writer at the helm with Paul Cornell. It’s interesting watching it because it presents an alternative version of Doctor Who’s future that never happened, and it’s fascinating thinking about what that could have been. I think Richard E Grant is brilliant in the role of the Ninth Doctor and he just assumes that part immediately, and Alison as a companion works rather well with him as a rather strong character and the Shalka is a menacing villain with a solid overall goal. It’s the concepts and ideas explored that push the story along with all the great potential that is done through a very simple idea, with the Shalka and a very defined concept. It does have considerable flaws though that hold it back in some parts, like the way the Master is used is poorly justified and feels confusing. The relatable elements with Joe feel like they have mixed results as he is such a dull character, and the ending feels too rushed; the story could have done with a more out of the box creative solution but it’s fairly enjoyable on the whole. It’s certainly interesting how the story introduces and puts things in place to modernise Doctor Who which the revived series would do more with, which is rewarding to witness.
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