6 episodes Running Time: Approx. 143 minutes. Written by: Barry Letts. Directed by: Phil Clarke. Produced by: Phil Clarke.
THE PLOT:
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's Italian great uncle, Mario (Harry Towb), has a problem. That problem's name is Max Vilmio (Stephen Thorne), a New York mobster who is intent on taking possession of Mario's castello on the island of San Stefano Minore, just off the coast of Sicily. This is nothing he'd anticipate having a problem dealing with... until he glimpses a creature flying just outside Mario's window, which his uncle describes as one of several "little fiends from Hell."
The Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Jeremy Fitzoliver come out to the castello, where they soon see apparent ghosts - not only the fiends, but also a "white lady" falling from a cliffside while calling out for her lover. The Doctor realizes that the castello is the site of a tear between the fabric of the normal universe and "N Space," which exists outside the space/time continuum. The Doctor fears that the tear in the barrier is growing and will soon result in catastrophe, with demonic "N Forms" spilling out into their universe.
He lashes up a device that allows him and Sarah to explore N Space to find the source of the damage. They glimpse two time periods, one in the early 19th century and another roughly 300 years prior. They then set off in the TARDIS to try to stop the disaster from occurring.
Meanwhile, Max Vilmio prepares to lay siege to the castello, using powers that should be beyond the ability of any human to advance his goal...
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He is able to quickly ingratiate himself to the castello's residents in both of the past periods. He befriends Paolo (Paul Brooke), the barone in the 19th century, who eventually helps him to figure out the larger scale of what's happening. He attempts to provoke the main villain in the 1300s, only to outsmart himself and end up locked up alongside Sarah Jane. There's a nice moment late in the story when Sarah becomes distraught. Much as he used to do with Jo, he distracts her by telling her stories about his old teacher on Gallifrey, making her laugh before ending with direct reassurance.
Sarah Jane Smith: She somehow was delusional enough to not only submit the events of Death to the Daleks to her editor, but to be surprised at its rejection, in a bit that seems to exist solely to crowbar in an unnecessary continuity placement. She also thinks fast to save the Doctor from some falling masonry at the end of Episode Two. Her most prominent trait in this story is compassion. She befriends Louisa (Deborah Berlin), Paolo's ward, in the 19th century, and also befriends Guido (Jim Sweeney), the son of the duke in the 13th century - the latter of whom ends up being the key to her and the Doctor escaping from that time period.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Though he has no interest in inheriting his great uncle's title, family duty brings him to the castello. When he first comes face to face with Max Vilmio, he stops the mobster from pushing his way into the house, forcefully telling him that Mario is "not at home to you, sir," and he makes clear that he finds Vilmio to be neither impressive nor intimidating. When Vilmio later attempts to lay siege, the Brigadier organizes a defense, showing absolute competence throughout.
Jeremy Fitzoliver: Though I still find the character to be ill advised, he's at least more tolerable than in The Paradise of Death. He speaks more like a human being, and he's wisely kept in the "B" plot, helping the Brigadier, while the Doctor and Sarah are paired for the main story. Also, he actually is helpful at a couple of points, as opposed to the earlier story making him little more than human baggage. Don't get me wrong, he's still annoying - but he's graduated from Jar Jar Binks to second season Wesley Crusher.
Max Vilmio: I'm not sure why writer Barry Letts decided to make him from New York. The story is set in Sicily. Why not just make him a Sicilian mafia boss? It would be simpler, and it would increase the immediate threat of Vilmio if he was operating from what's already a seat of power for him. Stephen Thorne plays two villainous roles, Vilmio and a malicious alchemist in the past. He is much better as the alchemist, speaking in his natural voice, than as the New York mobster with the cartoonish accent.
THOUGHTS:
I don't know for sure if this is true or an exaggeration, but I have read that The Ghosts of N Space exists because of a mistake.
When 1993's The Paradise of Death was rebroadcast the following year, two of its episodes aired out of order. Complaints came in, as expected. What wasn't expected what the sheer volume of complaints, leading to the realization that there had been a much wider audience for the Doctor Who radio serial than expected. Supposedly, this was what led to the commission of a sequel, reteaming writer Barry Letts, producer/director Phil Clarke, and the Season Eleven team of Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, and Nicholas Courtney.
The Ghosts of N Space tends to be poorly regarded within fandom. It certainly gets off to a bad start, with Sarah and Jeremy running into the Brigadier through a dramatically implausible coincidence when it would have been less cumbersome and more internally believable to have them simply accompany the Doctor. Also, the mafia thread, by far the story's worst, is at its most prominent in the first episode, burdening the opening installment with a flood of bad New York accents.
After the first episode, though, the story gets better. The mafia material moves far to the background, with the bulk of the focus going to the Doctor and Sarah and their trip to the past. The action is centered around a single castello across three time periods. Compared to The Paradise of Death, this more controlled setting makes the story more narratively focused and easier to visualize. There's even some structural cleverness, with the Doctor and Sarah witnessing effects in both the present and the 1800s of events from the 1300s - incidents that, from their viewpoint, have yet to occur.
Because the setting is much narrower than in the previous radio serial, there's more time to explore both the place and the guest characters. The friendship Sarah strikes up with young Louisa is charming, and I connected with Sarah's fondness for this naively earnest young woman. Also, all of the shifts among time periods felt well motivated, keeping the pace moving without losing the sense of it being a single, interconnected story.
The climax is overbaked, with the Doctor having two different confrontations with the villain when one really should have been enough. The first of these is quite good, and it would have been a fine note to have wrapped up the plot with. The second climax more or less repeats the same beats and themes, only with an increase in speeches and shouting, and its inclusion is a misstep.
OVERALL:
Though it's marred by a poor first episode and some terrible accents (both American and Italian), I still found myself enjoying The Ghosts of N-Space more than I enjoyed The Paradise of Death. It moves along, with a couple of nicely atmospheric moments, and I enjoyed the way the story spanned three different time periods in the same location.
It certainly doesn't rank among the better Doctor Who audios... but I also wouldn't rate it among the worst. It's a flawed story, but one that I largely enjoyed.
That first episode is genuinely horrible, though. If you're interested in tracking it down (and it's pretty cheap on most audio streaming services), then be prepared to grit your teeth through the entirety of Part One.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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