Doctor Who Live

And so the Arena Tour is over. Will it prove to be a one-off, or will there be a follow up? While we contemplate this, and many other imponderables, here's a review from regular contributor Alison Jacobs.

We saw Doctor Who Live at the Nottingham Trent FM Arena, a building more usually associated with Torvill and Dean. It still houses an ice skating rink but the other half of the building was given over for two days to Doctor Who.

I had two niggles, so I’ll get them out of the way to begin with. One was probably down to the arena administration or the ticket booking system. At least three lots of people in our immediate area seemed to have duplicate tickets. I think everyone got a seat in the end but it caused a fair amount of chaos and worry in the minutes leading up to the show. The other was the price of the souvenirs and in particular the programmes. I would certainly have paid five pounds and probably more but having paid for the ticket, ten pounds was just too much. You can get a very informative and well-presented programme from the RSC for about £3.50. There were no reasonably priced souvenirs that I could see which was something of a disappointment.

The show, however, was not. Although the band was considerably smaller than is usual for the modern Doctor Who music, they were enthusiastically led by Ben Foster and made a thunderous noise. You could feel the theme tune straight through the concrete. Making the show a loose sequel to Carnival of Monsters gave a good opportunity to bring out all kinds of recent creatures who roamed the auditorium at various points, interspersed with montages of clips on the big screen. The main thrust of the plot also linked in to the Pertwee story. Nigel Planer’s character, the exuberant Vorgensen, has gone one better than his father Vorg by creating a machine that allows the monsters out. But then he kidnaps Churchill (an excellent Nick Briggs) on D-Day and it emerges that Vorgenson is an even bigger fan of the Doctor than the audience. That’s fan as in obsessive stalker. He wants him all to himself.

As he traps the Doctor inside the Minimiser, the next part turns into a battle of wills as Vorgenson tries to keep the show going and play with his prize, while the Doctor is having none of it. He insists someone else is behind it and it isn’t hard for the audience to work out who, the only major monster not to have appeared. In the meantime chaos ensues as the monsters are on the verge of escaping and a “member of the audience” is turned into a Cyberman, a very effective moment.

The Daleks do eventually turn up, boasting of their plan, and the recordings of Matt Smith move from the big screen into a kind of cubicle at the side of the stage. This makes it look much more like he is present, almost as if he is about to step onto the stage. And just when he thinks he has defeated them the final challenge appears, as in any good story.

Part panto, part rock concert, part Doctor Who episode, this was enjoyable, well-staged and intriguing. There was plenty thrown in for the older fan – the rather cynical row behind us were completely absorbed by the end. But it was also simple and lively enough that the many kids in the audience could enjoy it at least as much. If they ever stage another such event, I would certainly want to go.