The
lowdown: 'The Stranger' is a series of direct-to-video
dramas made by BBV featuring the adventures of a
mysterious traveller in
time and space (played by Colin Baker) who is never named in the early
productions but
referred to as The Stranger
in the credits. He is accompanied by a young woman, Miss Brown (Nicola
Bryant,
without the American accent
that Who fans are familiar with). Not much is initially revealed about
the Stranger,
except that he travels in
a never-seen and unnamed time and space vessel, although later films in
the series
reveal that the Stranger
is a former terrorist named Solomon. The early stories bear many similarities
to Doctor
Who, aside from the two
main characters, and the Stranger often encounters foes who are rather
reminiscent
of the Doctor's adversaries.
A total of six episodes were produced between 1992 and 1995, with running
times
ranging from 34 to 85 minutes,
while four audio dramas were also made.
The
episode: 'Summoned by Shadows' is the first of the series,
and it sees the Stranger and Miss Brown on an
alien world, where a mysterious
figure known as the Controller (Michael Wisher) is using mind control to
force the
inhabitants to search for
the missing pieces of his damaged spaceship. A rather depressed Stranger
has decided
to live in exile on this
planet, and shuns the company of Miss Brown, who goes off exploring alone
and soon finds
herself at a strangely out-of-place
country house and a sinister cocktail party where the guests have a tendency
to die. Meanwhile, a deaf
mute named Dane finds the Stranger and seeks his help in rescuing his girlfriend,
Tanya,
who has fallen under the
influence of the Controller, who is in the guise of a sinister clown. The
Stranger eventually
agrees to help, and discovers
that the clown and the host of the party are psychic projections of the
Controller, who
in his true form looks rather
like the Master in 'The Deadly Assassin' (and at times sounds very much
like Davros).
The Stranger agrees to rapair
a machine that will allow the Controller to leave the planet, who promises
to free the
slaves. The Stranger defeats
his foe and releases Tanya, and walks off into the sunset with Miss Brown.
The
verdict:
'The Stranger' is an entertaining series that does a good job of filling
the void left by the cancellation
of
'Doctor Who'. The production values are quite impressive, although don't
expect the standards to be as high as
the
"real" Doctor Who stories (except maybe during the McCoy era...). It was
a real coup for the BBV team to get
Colin
Baker and Nicola Bryant to appear in this series, which is a must-see for
Doctor Who fans.
Video
Clips: Dane
meets the Stranger 5.6mb
The Controller dies
4.3mb |
 |
