Doctor Who: Son of the Dragon
Starring: Peter Davison as the Doctor, Nicola Bryant as Peri, and Caroline Morris as Erimem
Format: Two full-cast CDs (or download) of four half-CD episodes
Silly? The antagonist gets a little campy at times, but no more so than many Doctor Who antagonists
Standalone? Yes, although it also has a role in Erimem's character arc
Recommended? Yes
My reactions to this story contain spoilers for it and possibly mild spoilers for The Kingmaker.
Before listening
I've recently been playing through various Castlevania games, so this is an amusing selection. Vampires are real in Doctor Who, established as ancient enemies of the Time Lords in the fourth Doctor serial State of Decay. While vampires originally come from space, it is possible for humans to be turned into vampires in much the standard horror-story fashion. However, Son of the Dragon makes an interesting move by deciding that the historical Dracula, Vlad III of Wallachia, was unambiguously not a vampire, and plays this straight rather than saving it as a twist. As played here, he was monstrous, but in an entirely human way, and at least some aspect of his monstrousness stems from the common Doctor Who source of being desperate to ensure his peoples' survival at any cost. There is some similarity between this Vlad and Richard III as presented in The Kingmaker, possibly not coincidentally as both stories involve the same companions.I think I might have only heard Son of the Dragon once, and I don't remember what occupied most of its running length, but I do remember Vlad's characterization. I also remember Erimem considering leaving the TARDIS to enter into a purely political marriage with him, which is an interesting twist on past companions departing due to falling in love and which provides very interesting characterization for Erimem.
This was, to the best of my recollection, a very very good Doctor Who and I am looking forward to relistening.
After listening to part 1 of 4
This story goes from a very strong cold opening to further strength. Peri is the ignorant American who doesn't know the name "Dracula" comes from a historical figure, but she is portrayed with intelligence. She doesn't continue to think he's an actual vampire after the Doctor's initial explanation that he isn't one.As described in this story by the Doctor, legends of Dracula's cruelty are real, and that real cruelty is the reason why there are also legends of him being a literal blood-drinking monster. A particular anecdote is cited as an example of a real event becoming part of the vampire myth, with no questioning of the anecdote's origin or accuracy. I recall that later in the story some of Vlad's motivations are explored sympathetically, but as of this episode there is no attempt to claim he was anything but a villain or to deconstruct that villainy.
The Turkish army Wallachia is at war with is portrayed as possibly better, but not a lot better. The sultan wants to keep the Doctor as a fool and Peri and Erimem as concubines, so escaping from the Turks is the initial objective of the story.
The ending cliffhanger is structured a little weirdly. Erimem rescues a helpless Wallachian from an attacking Turk, and that Wallachian then introduces himself. The introduction is unambiguous from the start about him being Vlad III, but phrased so as to put the sentence "I am Dracula" at the end just so the ending theme music can kick in there even though there's nothing surprising about the line.
This is off to a good start as a historical adventure. From what I'm understanding of it, it is presuming that biased historical accounts of Vlad's cruelty are true, but it is treating that cruelty as exceptional for its time only as a matter of scale, rather than treating it as fundamentally qualitatively different from what other rulers in the region did. I am looking forward to the next part, and I am going on to the next part today since I'm eager to hear it and I've recently missed listening days.
After listening to part 2 of 4
The usual format in what I've heard of Big Finish's monthly Doctor Who is for episode 2's opening theme to come directly after episode 1's closing theme, and then for a short replay of episode 1 to occur. The format here was quite different: After episode 1's close, episode 2 started with a cold open that was not a replay, then episode 2's opening played, then episode 2 continued, with no replay at all. The mp3 file listings are misnamed, with episode 2's cold open listed as the last track of episode 1 instead of the first of episode 2; perhaps whoever was naming the files listened for the start of the theme music as the mark of where episode 2 started.Vlad calls himself Dracula a lot, sometimes speaking in the third person. This doesn't seem likely to be historically accurate to me, but it's definitely a part of what Son of the Dragon is going for; the idea of Dracula as a pop-cultural supernatural monster is very prominent in the story despite being an unambiguously fictional concept in-story. This resembles The Kingmaker's contrasting of the fictional and real Richard III too much for me to think it coincidental, although Son of the Dragon has far fewer science-fiction gimmicks involved and a much more serious tone.
Erimem is much more accepting of cruelty to people she doesn't know than the Doctor or Peri are, but is loyal to her friends. She doesn't see the prospect of staying in Wallachia to marry Dracula as unthinkable, and accedes to his request for marriage in order to ensure the Doctor and Peri's freedom. This character-driven moment of drama is followed by Vlad shouting "Behold, the bride of Dracula!" to cue the closing theme, which strikes me as unnecessary and not in the right mood. Still, it's a good cliffhanger and I look forward to continuing.
After listening to part 3 of 4
Dracula's portrayal seems less sympathetic than I was remembering from previous listening: Erimem finds him sympathetic, or at least claims to, but the script is not particularly pushing the idea that Erimem is right in doing so, and it's possible she's even just faking it so the Doctor and Peri will leave her behind to save themselves.The main Doctor Who action of this episode is just Erimem living with Vlad, seemingly growing comfortable with him, while the Doctor and Peri stay nearby hoping for a chance to escape with her. Another substantial piece of the running time is a growing rebellion against Vlad, which is forcing him to leave the capital for a more secure location; at the end of this episode he is doing so, taking Erimem with him. There is a subplot in which the Doctor is stabbed by a mysterious assailant and then recovers, with little drama about his survival but much about the assailant's identity.
The cliffhanger this time around isn't a speech ending in the word "Dracula"; instead, it's the Doctor relaying a historical account to Peri. While the Doctor took historical accounts of Dracula's evil at mostly face value (and the script is agreeing with him), he's considering accounts of the details of Dracula's downfall to be unclear. One such account portends the death of Erimem, and the cliffhanger moment is Peri finding this out.
The idea of ordinary Wallachian peasants doing anything significant, whether leaving accurate eyewitness accounts or taking any meaningful part in a rebellion, seems to be taken as inherently improbable by the script, in what strikes me a casually implicit way rather than a way that invites the listener to consider the realities of the class structure involved. I think this could have been done better, but it's more a matter of emphasis than of plot events.
This episode didn't have as much going on as the first two, and I don't like how selective the script is being about which historical records are trustworthy and which ones are unreliable, but Son of the Dragon is still interesting and I'm looking forward to the conclusion.
After listening to part 4 of 4
No one in the Doctor's party has any expectation of changing the course of historical battles, so the issues to be resolved in this episode are at a personal scale: will everyone survive, and will Erimem leave Wallachia or stay behind with Dracula? The question of Erimem's fate has multiple prongs, as her decision and her ability to carry out her decision are both in question. Vlad's characterization gets some extra complexity at the end, closing the story with the tone that he has done terrible things but is not defined only by them.Peri is portrayed as a bit of a liability in this episode, although she doesn't do anything outside of what the Doctor's expecting of her and her heart's in the right place. Erimem is portrayed in a way which effectively highlights the way her values contrast those of the Doctor and Peri. Not much is done with the Doctor's characterization; he's basically just competent at doing the things the Doctor usually does. This is not atypical of how the fifth Doctor works in multi-companion stories, and it's sufficient for the plot.
While the finale of Son of the Dragon isn't as epic in scope as its earlier episodes, it does nicely close all of the thematic threads and character arcs. Overall, Son of the Dragon is a good Doctor Who audio adventure and worth listening to by anyone interested in Big Finish Doctor Who.
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