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 | Reviews for The Suffering |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 30 September 2024 |
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| Rating: |   7 |
The writer of this story contrives for it to be narrated, with interruptions, by the two actors. Thus, there is a bit of dramatic dialogue, but mostly it is storytelling. The story itself is like the transitional historicals of Doctor Who, set in an important historical era, but with a science-fiction component. In this case, writer Jacqueline Rayner has decided to take up feminism as the cause. Thus, the story takes place in the suffragette era, and revolves around the controversies of female emancipation in 1912, with some playing around about the origin of the Piltdown Man hoax thrown in. The villain of the piece fits into the theme by being a powerful alien female with a vendetta against all males. Thus, Rayner tries to cut a middle path, that feminism is just dandy, but it should not be about hating men. It's the kind of simple approach that would have fit well with 1965 Doctor Who and the concept of a "family show" of the period. It just makes the villain rather uninteresting. There are some cute moments of temporally displaced Vickie and Steven making false assumptions and social errors due to unfamiliarity with the time period. It's all entertaining, if rather simplistic.
