Doctor Who: 1963: Fanfare For The Common Men Review

Released in September 2013, 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men was the 178th Doctor Who audio drama to be released in Big Finish's main range. It stars Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor and Sarah Sutton as companion Nyssa. It is written by Eddie Robson and directed by Barnaby Edwards. It is the first part of the 1963 trilogy.

Big Finish's synopsis:

"If you remember the Sixties, they say, then you can’t have been there.

The Doctor remembers the Sixties. That’s why he’s taking Nyssa on a trip back to November 1963. Back to where it all began. Back to the birth of the biggest band in the history of British music. Back to see those cheeky lads from Liverpool...

Mark, James and Korky. The Common Men. The boys who made the Sixties swing with songs like Oh, Won’t You Please Love Me?, Just Count To Three and Who Is That Man.

The Doctor remembers the Sixties. And there’s something very wrong with the Sixties, if the Beatles no longer exist…"

After listening to the amazing 1-part story Urgent Calls (also by Eddie Robson and available free of charge on Big Finish's Soundcloud), I was expecting a lot from this. Does it disappoint? No. It's absolutely brilliant. Best main range release this year. Crazily creative and a great idea overall.

If I were to tell someone about this story, I'd say something along the lines of "A thrilling adventure where The Doctor and Nyssa go to England in 1963 to see the Beatles, but when they arrive they find out that the Beatles don't exist and they're going to be seeing the Common Men instead. Somehow, Nyssa ends up in Germany and The Doctor soon realises that someone is messing with time. I'll let you find out the rest for yourself."

I can't say a bad word about the cast - full of amazing actors, especially Peter Davison. I'm starting to like the Fifth Doctor more and more which surprises me as, in the past, he's always been my least favourite Doctor! And of course, most of us will recognize Lenny's voice actor, Ryan Sampson, as young genius Luke Rattigan from Series 4's The Sontaran Stratagem / The Poison Sky.

The various settings are all very similar and they're all brilliant. I wasn't around back in the 60's, but this gives me a feel of what I imagine they'd be like. Great to see The Doctor go back to 1963 and the few seconds we heard of 1940 were good too.

My favourite character featured in this story other than the main two is probably the mysterious-for-a-couple-of-minutes Paravatar. I found him to be very interesting.

There are quite a few good lines - some funny, some powerful and some just sound good:
"Kids like pop music, job done, there you go."
"An alien? Hahahaha, I think I'd know if I were an alien, Nyssa!"
"Kids don't want to go to church anymore to feel bigger, they go to our gigs."
"I don't want to be helped, I want to burn everything that refuses to be mine... And I'm gonna start with you!"

Some more things I like about 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men are: It's nice to see The Doctor up against a time travelling villain and the reference to Susan and her music.

One thing I don't like about the story is that Lenny's voice sounds extremely generic for a villain but maybe that's just my brain. Other than that, I can't really fault it.

Overall, an incredibly creative idea of mixing Doctor Who with 60's music and it works very nicely. Not something I'd want to hear every month, but it makes a very good one-off and it's certainly an enjoyable two hours. I think it would make quite a good first audio for most people and I hope it isn't forgotten when it's as old as stories like Phantasmagoria and Winter for the Adept. As I said before, it's the best Doctor Who audio of 2013... So far.

Definitely worth the money and hopefully The Space Race, The Assassination Games and The Light at the End are just as good!

Overall Rating: 9/10

  

You can buy 1963: Fanfare for the Common Men for £12.99 download or £14.99 CD here.