‘Dragonfire’ (TV)

‘DRAGONFIRE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Fire and Ice with the Seventh Doctor, Mel, Ace and Glitz

Tim Bradley’s Blu-ray booklet of ‘Doctor Who- Season 24’ signed by Sylvester McCoy

Sylvester McCoy and Tim Bradley at the ‘London Comic Con Spring 2022’, February 2022

And thus we come to the end of Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’! It’s been a rocky ride and there have been high points and low points as far as I’m concerned. But now we come to what is considered to be the introduction of a new ‘Doctor Who’ companion! Hello Ace and welcome to the TARDIS at last!

In May 2012, a brand-new ‘Doctor Who’ DVD box set was released called ‘Ace Adventures’! It had two stories from the Sylvester McCoy era of ‘Doctor Who’, including ‘Dragonfire’ and ‘The Happiness Patrol’. I was looking forward to checking out these two adventures, featuring Sophie Aldred as Ace.

I purchased the DVD box set from Amazon in that year. Years later, I own ‘Dragonfire’ as part of the Season 24 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’ and there are two versions of the story, including the original three-part TV story and the extended three-part story. Incredible how these things turn out.

I like Ace as a ‘Doctor Who’ companion. I’m very lucky to have met Sophie Aldred at ‘Doctor Who’ conventions and I get on well with her. We even did a sketch together in 2019, which introduced my review for ‘A Life of Crime’ to celebrate 4 years of ‘Bradley’s Basement’. I’m glad we did that sketch.

Tim Bradley with Sophie Aldred at ‘Science of the Time Lords’, National Space Centre, Leciester, January 2016

She mentioned my name in the CD interviews where she talked to Bonnie Langford about the Ace timeline I gave her. I’m pleased she mentioned my name in the CD interviews and I’ve always enjoyed her performances as Ace in the TV tales and the Big Finish audios she’s done over the years.

‘Dragonfire’ is of course Ace’s debut TV tale in ‘Doctor Who’. It’s a three-part adventure by Ian Briggs. Ian is a new writer to ‘Doctor Who’ and the script editor Andrew Cartmel invited him to write a three-part story as Season 24’s season finale. It’s amazing Ian got to write the season’s finale story.

He would write another ‘Doctor Who’ story called ‘The Curse of Fenric’ in Season 26. Both Ian’s stories feature Ace’s character and there are strong connections between the two concerning Ace’s backstory. Ace’s background would be more fleshed out in ‘The Curse of Fenric’ than in ‘Dragonfire’.

‘Dragonfire’s story takes place on a space trading colony called Iceworld, which is on the dark side of the planet Svartos. Essentially it’s like a supermarket. I wonder if the Doctor could get frozen fish fingers for an Ice Warrior in ‘Thin Ice’. Or maybe he got those from Tesco, Sainsbury’s or something. 😀

The Doctor and Mel visit Iceworld as the TARDIS ends up in the freezer centre. Sadly, I feel the freezer centre part of Iceworld is the closest we’ll get to having an icy cold planet. That’s something I’ll get into in more detail when we talk about Iceworld’s set design and how it’s executed on screen.

When on Iceworld, the Doctor and Mel reunite with an old friend of theirs – Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz. It was nice to see Sabalom Glitz back in this ‘Doctor Who’ story after he had been in ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’. I hope the production team legally obtained the rights to use Glitz’s character in this.

The TARDIS duo also makes a new friend as they meet Sophie Aldred as the rebellious teenager called Ace. Very soon, the Doctor, Mel, Ace and Glitz venture into the depths of Iceworld to look for ‘the Dragonfire’. It happens to be a fabled treasure concealed somewhere in the icy planet’s depths.

As the finale to Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Dragonfire’ is considered to be the best story out of the four stories transmitted in 1987 when voted in ‘Doctor Who Magazine’. This is ironic considering that Season 24 is regarded as one of the worst seasons ever made in classic ‘Doctor Who’ by its fans.

Now as I’m sure you’re aware, I have a fondness for Season 24. I’ve made it clear in my updated Blu-ray reviews for Season 24 that I like ‘Paradise Towers’ and ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ very much. I rate ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ as my favourite story out of the four stories featured in Season 24. 🙂

I’m not so keen on ‘Time and the Rani’ as that was a rocky start to begin Sylvester McCoy’s era in ‘Doctor Who’. My feelings on ‘Dragonfire’ – well…I’m afraid I don’t adhere to the viewpoint that ‘Dragonfire’ is the best story out of Season 24 of the classic series. I’m sorry, but I don’t adhere to it.

Now that’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy ‘Dragonfire’. That’s not it at all. I think Ian Briggs does a good job introducing Ace’s character. Sophie Aldred excels in her debut. This story served as a good introduction to Sophie as Ace in the series. But for the most part, I found the story rather average. 😦

A contributing factor to this is that the TV story feels rather cheap. I know this is down to budget and ‘Dragonfire’ suffered a lot considering it was the last of the season, but I found the ‘Dragonfire’ studio sets pretty unconvincing. I felt less engaged with this TV story whilst I watched it throughout.

An example of this is when Sabalom Glitz gets buried under a giant icicle and the Doctor has to free him. I’m sorry, but even I could see that icicle was made of polystyrene. Couldn’t they have made the icicle shinier? Couldn’t they have made everything appear icy instead of looking like polystyrene?

I know I shouldn’t say this, but I found the set designs for ‘Time-Flight’ more convincing than ‘Dragonfire’s sets. At least I could see our heroes were on a primitive landscape instead of being inside a studio. There isn’t enough open-space for our main leads as they explore the planet Svartos.

This also happens to be the studio story that director Chris Clough directed after directing the location story for Season 24 which was ‘Delta and the Bannermen’. I appreciate Chris Clough made criticisms about the set design featured in ‘Dragonfire’ in the making-of documentary of this story. 🙂

Another aspect of this story I found disappointing was the treasure quest. If this story was a four-parter and maybe if there was a clear idea as to where our characters were going when venturing deeper into Svartos, maybe I would appreciate how dangerous and perilous the treasure quest was.

Instead, I felt like we were going backwards and forwards to various places in the story which we were in before and very often some of the set designs and corridors looked the same (which they probably were) whatever level we were on. I think we as an audience should have been given a map.

It shouldn’t have just been the Doctor and Glitz who were holding the map and we only saw glimpses of what it looked like. I also think that Glitz should have allowed Mel and Ace to accompany him and the Doctor on the quest as it would have been more exciting to see the four on the quest. 🙂

There could have been moments when the Doctor and Glitz separated from Mel and Ace during times of peril in the adventure and you would be anxious for all four heroes to reunite at the end. A shame that wasn’t thought of in the writing process! Again, a four-episode structure could accommodate it.

As I’ve indicated already, Sophie Aldred as Ace is the person and character who stood out for me in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. She makes an impressive ‘Doctor Who’ debut since Ace comes across as a spunky rebellious teenager that happens to be on Iceworld as the Doctor and Mel meet her there. 🙂

I know the spunky rebellious teenager aspects of Ace’s character were taken from meeting three real-life teenagers between Sophie Aldred, writer Ian Briggs and script editor Andrew Cartmel. It’s very good that real life is incorporated into fantasy stories such as this in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series.

It’s unusual how Ace happens to be on Iceworld. She’s a teenager from the 1980s and not from the far future. She comes from Perivale on Earth as she explains to Mel. She was caught in a timestorm which brought her to Iceworld, although it’s not explained how she got caught up in the time storm.

Ace happens to be a café waitress when the Doctor and Mel meet her. Though judging by what that waitress outfit looks like, I’m sure she wasn’t enjoying the job especially when her boss didn’t treat her well. She soon ditches being a waitress, helping the Doctor, Mel and Glitz out with their quest. 🙂

It’s also established that Ace has a love for using Nitro-9 explosives. She happens to enjoy chemistry, but got expelled after blowing up the art room in her school. 😀 The Nitro-9 explosives can be very powerful when Ace utilises them in the story. They also get her and Mel into trouble in the TV story.

As well as featuring Ace’s debut in ‘Doctor Who’, this story also features Bonnie Langford’s last appearance as Mel in the TV show. As it turned out, she was only contracted to appear in two seasons. Once having done her two seasons, she soon went. I’m not surprised Bonnie Langford left the series.

It’s sad to talk about Mel’s character and I must say I found her exit poorly handled here. There was no build-up to her exit and it just feels so sudden when she announced to the Doctor that she was leaving. It’s like how Tegan’s leaving was handled in not being built up and so sudden when she left.

I feel sorry for Bonnie Langford as Mel since she didn’t really have good outings in the TV series. She tended to scream a lot, which tended to grate on my ears at times when watching her in the TV series. I know I’ve said it before in other reviews, but Mel’s appearances in the Big Finish audios are better. 🙂

I wish that Mel had a stronger departure from the TV series and that there was a build-up in how she would leave, whether she was tired of being with the Doctor or whether she wanted a change of scenery. Perhaps having ‘Dragonfire’ as a four-parter instead of a three-parter could have helped. 😐

I like how Mel shares scenes with Ace compared to the Doctor who spends more time with Glitz in the story. Mel hears from Ace that her real name is Dorothy and she hears Ace’s soliloquy which Sophie delivered very well. Mind you, Mel hitting her head on the metal stairs was poorly handled. 😐

I found Sylvester McCoy reasonably good as the Seventh Doctor in this adventure. Throughout Season 24, I feel that Sylvester has managed to find his feet playing the character he wanted to play. Mind you, there are occasions when Sylvester plays the clown in certain scenes of the TV adventure.

This includes when he tried to greet a hairy animal of some kind, which is someone’s pet I think, and it barked and snarled at him. Seriously, what was that about? However, there are occasions when he can be dark and manipulative. There’s the moment where he’s telling Belazs about her debt to Kane.

He says to her that he doesn’t think she’ll be able to pay her debt to Kane ever. As mentioned in ‘The Doctor’s Strange Love’ discussion between Simon Guerrier, Joseph Lidster and Josie Long, that’s quite horrible. This is where the Doctor is less jolly as he seemed to be in the earlier Season 24 tales.

Sadly however, that ‘Part One’ cliffhanger! (groans) For no reason, Sylvester’s Doctor climbed down an icy chasm before he hung from a cliff with his question-mark umbrella, about to plummet to his death. Why did he climb down that chasm?! There was no reason for him to climb down that chasm!

He should have known that it would be unsafe to do so. I get it’s a pun for ‘cliffhanger’ (Ha, ha, very funny), but there’s no sense or logic to the whole cliffhanger ending of ‘Part One’. Even Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding criticised it in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ item for this adventure.

I’m pleased that Tony Selby got to return as Sabalom Glitz in this adventure and that he’s not just limited to being in ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’. I suppose the Time Lords did spare him when he escaped from ‘The Ultimate Foe’. I did enjoy Glitz’s reaction to the Doctor who recently regenerated.

Mind you, the reaction wasn’t long enough and there could have been more doubting from Glitz saying that Sylvester McCoy wasn’t the Doctor he knew. Then again, Glitz might have had many dealings with Time Lords before, so he’s probably used to the idea of regeneration in this adventure.

Still, a shame not a big enough deal was made of it. Glitz is still the loveable rogue when the Doctor and Mel reunite with him, though he did sell his own Nosferatu crew to the service of Kane on Svartos. I’m not sure if a thing was going on between Glitz and Ace when watching them in this tale.

This is especially when Ace was antagonistic towards Glitz and called him a ‘bilgebag’ at some points to which Glitz almost throttled her. 😀 Glitz wants to acquire the Dragonfire in order to get off Iceworld and return to his spaceship, the Nosferatu. But it isn’t easy as he thinks when it comes to it.

I enjoyed the scenes Glitz had with the Doctor when they ventured deeper into Svartos itself. That comedy gag with the Doctor swinging his umbrella around and missing Glitz’s head was fun. I wonder where Dibber is though. Glitz got on Ace’s nerves when insisting she and Mel stayed behind.

The story’s villain happens to be Edward Peel as Kane. Edward Peel has been in a couple of ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ episodes from the 1979-1990 TV series. I saw Edward at the ‘Acceptable In The 80s’ convention in Chiswick, London in October 2011 before ‘Dragonfire’ had its DVD release.

I wasn’t able to meet Edward Peel at the convention, but thankfully I had a few pages of a ‘Dragonfire’ script signed by Edward Peel and Stuart Organ (who plays Bazin in the story). I participated in an interactive panel at the convention, using the script pages which you can see here.

I found Edward Peel very good as the villain in this adventure. He delivers an intriguing villainous performance as Kane. It was scary when he killed people with his icy-cold bare hand. There were subtle hints on why he was doing what he was doing, especially in the extended version of the story.

Mind you, I did feel that his backstory was rather rushed. Had ‘Dragonfire’ been a four-part story, we would appreciate more on why he was getting his revenge against the people who exiled him to Svartos for 3,000 years and understand the lover he lost based on the statue the sculptor had made.

There is a pretty horrific scene in ‘Part Three’ where Kane exposed himself to unfiltered sunlight and he melted horribly away. I found that unnecessarily gruesome, even though it was an impressive effect. I know there were quite a number of complaints of that visual effect by viewers for this story.

The story also features Patricia Quinn as Belazs, one of Kane’s workers on Svartos. Patricia Quinn is well-known for starring in the 1975 cult musical film ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’. She’s also been in a Big Finish audio called ‘Bang-Bang-a-Boom’, starring Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford.

Patricia also married Sir Robert Stephens, the actor who voiced Aragorn in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ radio series, earning her the title Lady Stephens. I liked her performance as Belazs in this TV story, especially when she was determined to get out of her debt from Kane after she received his mark. 🙂

In some respects, Belazs is like an alternative version of Ace since she was 16 years old when she came to Iceworld (even though Ace lied and said she was 18. 😀 ). This is emphasised in a scene where Kane tried to tempt Ace with taking his golden sovereign. This is what he had done to Belazs!

Belazs tries to get away from Kane and Iceworld by stealing Glitz’s ship, the Nosferatu. But even that doesn’t work when she gets outwitted by Glitz and the Doctor aboard the ship. Belazs and Kracauer try to raise the heat levels in Kane’s refrigeration unit, but even that does not seem to go anywhere.

In the end, both Kracauer and Belazs get killed in the story by the touch of Kane’s hands. A shame both got killed off in ‘Part Two’. They could have survived in ‘Part Three’ where they tried to kill off the dragon creature at Kane’s orders instead of the two characters McLuhan and Bazin going after it.

Tony Osoba guest stars as Kracauer, another of Kane’s workers on Svartos. Tony Osoba previously played Lan in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Destiny of the Daleks’ with Tom Baker and he later played Duke in ‘Kill the Moon’ with Peter Capaldi. Amazing he gets around in both classic and new ‘Who’! 🙂

Kracauer is actually a sergeant and the leader of Kane’s forces on Iceworld. He was rather mean to those crewmembers of Glitz’s ship from the Nosferatu. Unfortunately, after Belazs convinces him to try and kill Kane, he ends up getting killed in ‘Part Two’ where he could have survived in ‘Part Three’.

I must say, I didn’t like it when Kane and his workers wore those white uniforms and they had to wear pith helmets. Couldn’t they have worn something a bit darker than that? Like black, brown or dark green? Those white uniforms and pith helmets didn’t feel intimidating whilst I watched the tale.

The story also features a little girl – Miranda Borman as Stellar – with Shirin Taylor as her mother. Stellar could easily be called Sylvie – another variant of Loki perhaps. 😀 I did feel for little Stellar as she walked about in a slightly skimpy blue dress. She must have been cold wearing that on Iceworld.

There’s a sweet and funny moment where Stellar places her teddy bear in Kane’s empty refrigeration unit when she’s walking about the place on her own. She says to her teddy, “Goodnight, teddy!” Did Stellar leave him there to be frozen after her mum picked her up? So sad! 😦

Ian Mackenzie guest stars as Anderson, the manager of Iceworld’s ice cream parlour and Ace’s boss. He’s not nice to Ace, especially when he fires her for pouring a milkshake on Stellar’s mum. It was funny when Ace dumped a milkshake on his head before leaving. I think he got killed in this story. 😐

Stephanie Fayerman guest stars as McLuhan and Stuart Organ guest stars as Bazin, two of Kane’s workers that go out to hunt for the dragon creature which has the treasure. Stuart Organ has also been in the Big Finish audio ‘The Seeds of War’ with Colin Baker. He played four characters in that. 🙂

There’s Sean Blowers as Zed, one of Glitz’s former crewmen who tried to escape from being cryogenically frozen before he got killed by Kane. There’s also Nigel Miles-Thomas as Pudovkin, one of Glitz’s former crewmen who becomes a zombie and angrily tries to kill Glitz for being sold to Kane.

There’s an amusing scene in the story where Sylvester’s Doctor gets to distract one of Kane’s guards, Chris MacDonnell as Arnheim, whilst Glitz gets to slip inside the Nosferatu. Arnheim is delighted to have an intelligent conversation with the Doctor as he asks him a complicated question.

The response Sylvester’s Doctor gives is…”Yes.” I’m sure that’s the answer Sylvester gives to any complicated question a ‘Doctor Who’ fan gives him when he’s at a convention. Perhaps I might ask him that whenever I see him at a convention sometime. He might answer “Yes” in that same way! 😀

The story’s monster happens to be a dragon creature played by Leslie Meadows, though not of the conventional type. It has the Dragonfire treasure in his head. I wasn’t very impressed with the design for the dragon creature, as it did seem to lumber about and the actor couldn’t see where he went. 😐

The crystal-like treasure could have been more impressive if it glowed very brightly inside of sizzling with electricity. I like how the little girl Stellar befriended the creature when it took her to safety. I’m surprised Stellar didn’t scream and wasn’t scared by the creature. Mel was at the end of ‘Part One’.

It was intriguing when Iceworld rose up from the planet Svartos as it turned out to be Kane’s spaceship. I’m not sure it’s as impressive as the castle turning out to be a rocket in ‘State of Decay’. After Kane gets killed off in the story, Glitz becomes the ship’s new captain, calling it the Nosferatu II.

In the end, Mel goes off with Sabalom Glitz to keep him out of mischief. I’m curious as to how exactly Mel will keep Glitz out of mischief. Hopefully this will be explained in a ‘Doctor Who’ book or something as well as a Big Finish audio story that I may have heard/reviewed on my blog already. 😀

Meanwhile, after saying goodbye to Mel, the Doctor invites Ace to join him on his travels in time and space in the TARDIS. Ace is overjoyed; declaring “Ace!” as she happily agrees to join the Doctor. But Ace mustn’t keep calling him ‘the Professor’ and she must accept that he’s in charge of their travels.

I don’t mind Ace calling the Doctor ‘the Professor’ as that’s an affectionate nickname she gives him in the series. Regarding the third rule the Doctor decides not to give Ace until they get back to Perivale, I’m not sure what that rule was even when we got to ‘Survival’. Perhaps he didn’t have one.

The story’s music was composed by Dominic Glynn, who previously composed music for ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ and provided the ‘Doctor Who’ theme music for Colin Baker’s era in 1986. I’m pleased Dominic Glynn still got to work for ‘Doctor Who’ in the late 1980s, despite his theme music not used.

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was the making-of documentary called ‘Fire and Ice’, featuring behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There were deleted and extended scenes from the story; ‘The Doctor’s Strange Love’ discussion on ‘Dragonfire’ with Simon Guerrier, Joseph Lidster and Josie Long; ‘The Big Bang Theory’ with new series special effects supervisor Danny Hargreaves; and a photo gallery of the story. There was a mono sound audio mix option for the story and a DVD audio commentary with Sophie Aldred, Edward Peel, writer Ian Briggs, script editor Andrew Cartmel, composer Dominic Glynn and director Chris Clough, moderated by Mark Ayres. There was also an isolated music option by Dominic Glynn; an info-text commentary option to enjoy; PDF materials including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story; and there was a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘Death to the Daleks’ with Jon Pertwee and Elisabeth Sladen.

On Disc 7 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 24’ Blu-ray, the original three-part TV version of the story, the ‘Fire and Ice’ making-of documentary, the deleted and extended scenes from the story, ‘The Doctor’s Strange Love’ discussion on ‘Dragonfire’, the mono sound audio mix option, the DVD audio commentary and the ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF can be found on there. The photo gallery, the isolated music option by Dominic Glynn and the info-text commentary option for ‘Dragonfire’ have been updated for 2021 on the Blu-ray.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘Dragonfire’ with Sylvester McCoy (The Seventh Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel) and Sophie Aldred (Ace) as well as Peter Davison (The Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan) as well as Colin Baker (The Sixth Doctor) and Michael Jayston (The Valeyard). There’s a ‘Patricia Quinn: An Audience with Lady Stephens’ interview, a ‘Hartbeat’ item with Sylvester McCoy as the Pied Piper, a ‘Corners’ item with Sophie Aldred and composer Keff McCulloch, ‘The Lowdown: Desperate to Act’ item with Sylvester McCoy as the Pied Piper, BBC trailers and continuity announcements for the story, and studio tapes footage of the story. There’s also a brand-new 5.1 surround sound audio mix option for the story to enjoy.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, there are production documents; Mike Tucker’s visual effects design drawings; and scripts for the story including three rehearsal scripts and three transmission camera scripts. Sadly, the ‘Big Bang Theory’ with Danny Hargreaves isn’t included in the Season 24 Blu-ray box set.

On Disc 8 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 24’ Blu-ray, there’s the extended version of ‘Dragonfire’ to enjoy. There’s also the ‘Here’s to the Future’ documentary on Season 24, the ‘Sylvester McCoy: In Conversation’ interview conducted by Matthew Sweet, and the ’24 Carat’ Season 24 Blu-ray trailer, which can be viewed in mono and 5.1 audio options. There’s also a mono sound audio mix option and a 5.1 surround sound audio mix option for the extended version of ‘Dragonfire’.

‘Dragonfire’ is a good introduction to Sophie Aldred as Ace, the next ‘Doctor Who’ companion for the Seventh Doctor. It’s a shame that Bonnie Langford as Mel didn’t get a good exit, but I’m very happy her character has developed significantly in the Big Finish audios compared to the TV series. 🙂

I can’t rate ‘Dragonfire’ highly as a ‘Doctor Who’ story like other fans can, but I did enjoy what I saw of it. Had this been a four-part adventure and had the treasure quest theme been clearer with the Doctor, Mel, Ace and Glitz searching for the Dragonfire, then maybe I could appreciate it more here.

On the whole, Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’ has been a fascinating season to discover on DVD and rediscover on Blu-ray. I know it divides ‘Doctor Who’ fans, but I find the stories fascinating to watch, even if they are let down by an overdose of humour, over-the-top acting and poorly realised effects.

You can see that this season was made in a rush as the producer John Nathan-Turner had to get his new Doctor of Sylvester McCoy in as well as his new script editor of Andrew Cartmel in. But considering the circumstances this season went through, I believe all concerned did quite a decent job.

‘Paradise Towers’ and ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ are definitely highlights for me from watching Season 24, especially with Richard Briers in ‘Paradise Towers’ and the sunny Welsh location in ‘Delta and the Bannermen’. Whilst ‘Dragonfire’ isn’t exactly my cup of tea, I do like how it introduced Ace.

‘Time and the Rani’ is my least favourite of the season here. It’s clear though that Season 24 set the groundwork for what was to come in later seasons with Andrew Cartmel being the script editor and Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. It would be a very fascinating ride for the next two seasons.

It has been nice to re-watch the Season 24 stories on Blu-ray in chronological order. It was also great to watch the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items with Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Sophie Aldred, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Colin Baker and Michael Jayston as they reacted to the stories.

With Mel now joining Sabalom Glitz aboard his Nosferatu II ship and with Ace now joining the Doctor in his TARDIS, hopefully things will get better as the ‘Doctor Who’ series progressed in the latter 1980s. This was hoped to be the case when the TV show was about to celebrate its 25th anniversary.

As of September 2022, I’ve had the Blu-ray booklet of Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’ signed by Sylvester McCoy at the ‘Collectormania 27 – Film & Comic Con Birmingham’ in September 2022.

‘Dragonfire’ rating – 6/10

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‘DOCTOR WHO – DRAGONFIRE’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

In Search for the Dragonfire

Is the Target novelization/audiobook of ‘Dragonfire’ better than the TV version of the story?

I’m sure that’s a question I often ask when it comes to dealing with Target novelizations/audiobooks of ‘Doctor Who’ based upon certain TV episodes I’ve seen. Some vary in terms of quality. I rate ‘The Witchfinders’ novelization highly compared to what I have read in ‘Dalek’ and ‘The Crimson Horror’.

But to answer the question – yes! The ‘Dragonfire’ novelization by Ian Briggs seems to delve more into the story and characters set up in the world of Dragonfire compared to what I’ve seen in the TV story both on DVD and recently on Blu-ray. I do like how Ian Briggs handled novelizing ‘Dragonfire’. 🙂

Does that change my mind in whether I consider ‘Dragonfire’ to be the best story out of Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’ as many fans have claimed it to be? I wouldn’t go that far. Whilst the ‘Dragonfire’ novelization is an improvement on the TV story for me, I rate other stories in Season 24 more highly.

Truth be told, I wish I tackled the novelizations/audiobooks of ‘Paradise Towers’ and ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ first since I regard those stories highly compared to others. Also, I find ‘Paradise Towers’ and ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ more exciting than ‘Dragonfire’ in terms of storytelling and budget. 🙂

But I decided to tackle ‘Dragonfire’ first out of the Target novelizations/audiobooks of Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’ so that I can endeavour to find out whether the story is better being a four-parter as opposed to a three-parter on TV. I still believe the story would work well being a four-parter anyway.

The Target novelization of ‘Dragonfire’ was published in 1989, two years after the TV story was transmitted in 1987. I’ve come across Ian Brigg’s prose writing before as he later novelized ‘The Curse of Fenric’ in 1990. Intriguing how Ian novelized ‘Dragonfire’ compared to ‘The Curse of Fenric’.

The ‘Dragonfire’ novelization is more straight-forward compared to ‘The Curse of Fenric’. In ‘The Curse of Fenric’ novelization, the story was divided into chronicles and documents containing backstories as well as a prologue at the start. ‘Dragonfire’ is divided into straight-forward chapters. 🙂

It’s more on the lines of how a novelization by Terrance Dicks would be handled, although the story is divided into 16 chapters. Some of the chapters vary in length depending on how much time you spend playing the audiobook in the background. Some chapters tend to be shorter or longer at best.

The audiobook is read by Bonnie Langford who played Mel in the TV series and still plays Mel in the Big Finish audios. I purchased the audiobook as a download to listen to on Audible. This is also the first time I’ve come across Bonnie Langford as a narrator for a ‘Doctor Who’ audiobook which is nice.

I was actually expecting Sophie Aldred to be the narrator of the ‘Dragonfire’ audiobook considering that this is Ace’s debut in ‘Doctor Who’. But then again, this is also Bonnie Langford’s swansong from ‘Doctor Who’ as Mel, so I suppose it’s good she should be reading the audiobook instead of Sophie.

It’s also fitting since Bonnie has been the narrator for all four audiobooks of the Target novelizations of Season 24 of ‘Doctor Who’ including ‘Paradise Towers’, ‘Delta and the Bannermen’ and ‘Dragonfire’. Bonnie’s reading for the ‘Time and the Rani’ audiobook is to come out in January 2022.

I’m also very lucky to have met Bonnie Langford in real life at the ‘Bournemouth Film and Comic Con’ in August 2015. It would be nice to meet her again at a convention, although I know she can be a busy person in terms of acting and performing. It’s good she still does ‘Doctor Who’-related stuff. 😀

I like how Bonnie does the reading for the ‘Dragonfire’ novelization and how she voices characters like the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Sabalom Glitz from working with the actors who played them in the TV series. I think she’s managed to get the tones of characters like Ace and Sabalom Glitz quite well.

They’re not exact matches to Sophie Aldred and Tony Selby’s voices for the characters, but I could imagine them inside my head when Bonnie performed their dialogue. I also enjoyed how Bonnie voiced Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor and how she utilises a good Scottish accent to perform his character.

At times, I did wonder if Bonnie’s Sylvester McCoy sounded like Laura Main’s character from ‘Call the Midwife’. 😀 The fact Bonnie can hear Sylvester’s voice in her head when she performs his Doctor on audio is a testament to how she can prove to listeners that she can be a very good actress.

The book contains a dedication to the producer John Nathan-Turner. Apparently, JNT provided helpful comments and suggestions on Ian Briggs’ original scripts, which is intriguing considering JNT didn’t have a scripting background. There’s also a dedication given to script editor Andrew Cartmel.

There’s also a dedication given to the children and teenagers in Ealing who inspired the ‘Dragonfire’ story, including Annamarie, Joanne and Juno. I assume these are the three teenage girls that inspired the character of Ace when she was being developed in the early stages of her creation for ‘Doctor Who’.

When I started reading/hearing the Target novelization/audiobook of ‘Dragonfire’, it was a week before I revisited the TV story on Blu-ray in the Season 24 Blu-ray box set. My memories of the TV tale weren’t fresh enough in coming to reading/hearing the novelization/audiobook’s early chapters.

My perception of how ‘Dragonfire’ is presented as a story in the novelization is different compared to how I saw it on DVD and Blu-ray. For one thing, you aren’t distracted by any dodgy set designs and special effects that would have ruined somebody’s perception to see how cheap they ended up.

An example of this is when the Doctor helped Glitz out from ice that had fallen onto him when they initiated journey to find the Dragonfire inside Svartos. Now I read that scene before revisiting the TV story and I imagined the ice that had fallen on Glitz to be actual ice and that it was actually dangerous.

I was disappointed by how that scene ended up in the TV story as the icicle Glitz was buried under clearly looked like cardboard. It’s a relief that Ian Briggs can get away with not having any dodgy set designs and special effects spoiling how he wants the ice to be perceived by the readers of his book.

In the book, Ace apparently has a toy dog called Wayne added into the story. There’s also some graffiti text on a wall for Ace to track back to her quarters on Iceworld which is ACE 4 WAYNE. It’s intriguing that Ace brought along a toy dog called Wayne to Iceworld once swept in the timestorm. 🙂

It put me in mind of the cuddly childhood friend Sophie Aldred had called Big Ted when she was interviewed by Nicholas Briggs for her ‘Myth Makers’ interview, which I saw on ‘The Doctors: The Sylvester McCoy Years’ DVD. I do wonder if that was a tongue-in-cheek joke in connection to that. 😀

Speaking of which, there’s a new scene featured in the novelization which was included in the early drafts of ‘Dragonfire’. Some of it is in the extended version of the story on Blu-ray. It’s when Stellar meets Kane in his refrigeration unit and she holds out her teddy bear to him to which he ignores her.

Most of that’s in the extended version of ‘Dragonfire’ on Blu-ray, although the little girl had more dialogue in the novelization compared to the TV story. What isn’t in the TV version but is in the novelization is when Stellar’s teddy bear gets shattered after he’s been frozen inside Kane’s cabinet.

That’s horrible to imagine and I’m glad we were spared that in the TV version of the story. That would have been horrifying for kids to witness. I hope to never put my cuddly toy dog Cuddles in a refrigeration unit where he becomes frozen and he gets shattered to pieces. Never will that happen!

Cuddles: Thank you, Master. You’re so kind to me.

No problem, Cuddles.

Actually, Stellar’s story in the novelization is more interesting compared to how we see her in the TV version. Ian Briggs goes to the trouble of exploring her reactions to certain events in the story, especially when she’s separated from her mother, which I don’t think was executed well on the TV.

In the TV version, Stellar comes across as happy and giddy. It seems to be how the little girl Miranda Borman portrayed her. In the novelization, Ian Briggs delves into how scared Stellar can be when zombies attack as well as how funny she finds it when Ace pours a milkshake on her mum’s head. 😀

Stellar is also given a few more background details. She’s referred to as a Starchild and there are mentions made about her adventures with her best friend Mith-mind and that her father’s living with another woman. Interesting how Ian Briggs adds in those details that weren’t in the TV version.

The ‘Part One’ cliffhanger thankfully doesn’t end up as a cliffhanger in the novelization and it’s elaborated more in explaining how and why the Doctor was suspended from an icy cliff. I don’t know if it improves over the TV version of the ‘Part One’ cliffhanger, but it’s far better reading it in prose. 🙂

In terms of the build-up to Mel’s departure from the TARDIS in ‘Doctor Who’, the first TARDIS scene does open differently with Mel standing on her head (for exercise I believe) and the Doctor deliberately causing turbulence so she falls over. Mel is annoyed by the Doctor causing that to her. 😐

Some people may interpret that differently from me, but from reading it, it could show a sign of Mel getting fed up of having to go on constant adventures with the Doctor as she wants to find a place where she can belong. It’s also reflected in the last TARDIS scene as Mel says goodbye to the Doctor.

Speaking of which, the farewell scene between the Doctor and Mel is truncated in novelization form compared to the TV version. I know Ian Briggs and Andrew Cartmel had issues regarding Sylvester’s ‘crazy paving’ line, but I think those pieces of dialogue should have been included for Mel’s farewell.

The manager of Iceworld’s ice cream parlour gets renamed Eisenstein in the book instead of Anderson as was the case in the TV story. Ace also doesn’t pour a milksake over his head once she’s sacked. Ace also pleads more desperately to keep her job compared to how she did it in the TV tale.

In the book, there’s an extended sequence of Mel and Ace scaling the ice face. Ace nearly gets knocked out by leaking nitro fumes and Mel has to help her. I think that’s a new scene for the novelization. I don’t recall it being in the extended version of the TV tale upon revisiting it on Blu-ray.

Belazs and Kracauer’s deaths are handled differently in the book compared to the TV version. Kane strangles Kracauer instead of using his icy touch once having woken up from his refrigeration unit. Kane also shakes Belazs by the hand without her realising he removed his glove, which is disturbing.

McLuhan and Bazin are also given more depth as characters when sent to hunt the Creature. Bazin seems to be a stickler for the rules and McLuhan recalls being dared to climb a rock face as a child and realising another girl was going to fall. Interesting how they interact with each other in the book.

The book has reinstated scripted material about Glitz reminiscing about his voyages. It’s intriguing how Ian Briggs’ original draft scripts for ‘Dragonfire’ had a similar character under a different name (Razorback apparently) before JNT decided it had to be Glitz from ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’ in this. 🙂

There’s also a moment when Mel and Ace tried to follow Glitz when he left them among the Singing Trees, only for him to turn around and snarl at them. I wonder how that would have looked if they filmed that in the TV story and whether it would have accommodated that in being a four-parter. 😀

Kane hides in the fridge-freezer of Ace’s quarters to surprise her when she comes in to get some more Nitro-9. The Doctor also expresses sympathy at the deaths of Bazin and McLuhan, which surprises Mel considering they killed the dragon-like Creature. Intriguing Ian Briggs amended those elements.

The book ends the way you expect it in the TV version with Mel joining Sabalom Glitz aboard his Nosferatu II ship and Ace joining the Doctor aboard his TARDIS. Stellar reunites with her mother who manages to find her and the Starchild watches and smiles as the TARDIS departs the Freezer Centre.

The ‘Dragonfire’ Target novelization by Ian Briggs has been enjoyable to read. I like how Ian Briggs has been able to enhance his story with new additions in terms of story and character development. It helps with Bonnie Langford reading the story in the audiobook, which has been equally enjoyable.

I can’t say though that I’m won over by ‘Dragonfire’ as a ‘Doctor Who’ story, even from reading/hearing the Target novelization/audiobook. Despite that, I’m pleased I’ve been able to explore this story more in prose/audio form, especially as I revisited Season 24 in its Blu-ray box set.

‘Doctor Who – Dragonfire’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Seventh Doctor was ‘The Ribos Inheritance’ (Audio) ‘The Name of the Doctor’ (TV) For Mel was ‘The Ribos Inheritance’ (Audio) For Ace was ‘Ace of Hearts’ (ST)	The next story For the Seventh Doctor is ‘The Name of the Doctor’ (TV) ‘The Forgotten’ (Comic) For Mel is ‘Head Games’ (Book)/‘Missing’ (ST)/‘A Life of Crime’ (Audio)/‘The Thirteen+ Doctors’ For Ace is ‘The Forgotten’ (Comic)
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