It was a scorching hot day. I walked down to the village, where the high street was sectioned off by coloured flags and an extraordinarily larger-than-usual number of kids wandered about with ice cream. I viewed all the activity with interest as I made my way through the graveyard (the one-time location of a certain Harpi produced Doctor Who adventure!), past the church and towards the very few shops. I was there partly to escape the humidity in the house and partly to try and get my head round "Jubilee".

It was the CD that couldn't help but be a disappointment. Even as a BF sceptic, a sad ambassador of awkward feelings that Doctor Who made by fans couldn't ever touch the garment of anything "proper" on TV, I had cheerfully ranked "The Chimes of Midnight" among my Top 10 stories. Ever. It was just great wasn't it? Classics seem to mostly come out of the blue, when approached running, freak unexpected strikes where everything just happens to come together at once. Combined with the collective intake of breath that "The Holy Terror" had similarly evoked (Big Finish knock out first classic, read the headlines) I had decided that Rob Shearman was our next "big hope". Our new Robert Holmes. Someone who seemed to at last be a "proper writer" above a fan writer. So when "Jubilee" wasn't perfect, there seemed to appear a chink in his armour.

Silly, really. It's not like his two earlier plays betrayed someone who had a complete foot on the genius pedal. A few toes, certainly. But I'll cough and remember their endings, neither of which were perfect. But, well, he was different enough to be the closest we had. "Jubilee" has many faults, and also lots (perhaps too much) to say. There is way too much Dalek dialogue, for one. Used relatively sparingly in the whole of TV Who, here it begins to feel too much like the end of an afternoon spent with a friend who has acquired a ring modulator. There was a thrill for the first few hours as he barked "EXTERMINATE!" and "Eveeeeeeeelyn Smyyyyyth!" and even "The Daleks do not sing!" (the wag). But by tea-time he's still rattling on and somehow the terrifying voice not only sounds less thrilling, but is also beginning to give you a bit of a headache. And whilst "Jubilee" is the work of a mind with a million truths to impart, it wants to tell you them all at once, without really making any of them clear. The humans have become the Daleks. History returns to sleigh you if you glorify it. And there's something profound and terribly clever to do with feminism going on there too.

But does it mess with your head! I found the scene where Rochester slices off the arm of a dwarf to get him to fit inside a toy Dalek something else. It just can't be quantified. It's beyond weird, above surreal and out of the reach of psychedelic. It's just... crazy. And possibly brilliant. But, just maybe, too brilliant for me to handle, which is why I had to go for my long walk in the sun. I needed a good dose of normality...

CD Facts

Part 1 - Tracks 1-12

Part 2 - Tracks 13-23

Part 3 - Tracks 1-12

Part 4 - Tracks 13-21