Joel Fry-days
Kinvar, Doctor Who: Quicksilver
Before Joel Fry-days started, I of course knew about Joel Fry’s appearance on new Who in the “Joy to the World” Christmas special (ah, Trev!) But it wasn’t until I was getting well acquainted with his IMDb that I discovered it wasn’t his only connection to the Whoniverse. This is the first of two audio adventures he recorded for Big Finish—not only is it a pretty great story, but Joel plays quite an important character within it, which is neat!
This is a story involving two warring races, spy intrigue during and after WWII, and alien technology in human hands. It features the Sixth Doctor and his companion Constance, along with his former companion Flip getting pulled into the action.
I’ve only listened to a few of Six’s audio stories before this one, and I hadn’t met either Constance or Flip before, both of whom are audio-only companions. But this story does a nice job of selling me on them—prim, intelligent Constance working out of Bletchley Park and plain-spoken, pragmatic retail clerk Flip from the 21st century. Listening to their interactions here, I’m reminded of the Tenth Doctor episode “School Reunion”—much like Rose and Sarah Jane, Constance and Flip immediately get off on the wrong foot, then gradually start to learn how much there is to like about one another. And every Six audio story I do listen to reminds me that I need to check out more. Not to mention, as a person who will always cape for aspec Doctor coding, we get this splendid exchange, where the Doctor offers condolences to Constance over some upsetting news about her husband:
The DOCTOR: “Oh Constance, I’m sorry. I had no idea.”
CONSTANCE: “I know you have no idea when it comes to certain things, Doctor.”
FLIP: “Oh, you can say that again.”
Love!!!
Kinvar is a young alien who throws himself on the Doctor’s mercy as he runs from an army of warriors called the Vilal. He’s been in 1944 for several months and has learned enough about the Doctor and the TARDIS to hope that he can help. So he’s able to do the old, “Please, Doctor, you have to help me!” without the Doctor knowing who he is. Kinvar is terrified of being caught, and that fear leads to self-serving actions that don’t consider the consequences. For instance, he’s very casual about trading alien technology to British intelligence operatives in the hope of learning more about the Doctor, unwittingly causing the potential for a big timeline-disrupting mess.
This is a nice voice acting performance from Joel Fry. Kinvar is timid and frightened, frequently pleading with the Doctor, “Don’t let them take me!” But at the same time, he gets to do a bit more than just cower. Despite his apprehensions, he’s enlisted to help the Doctor fixed the problems caused by his errant technology. Joel gets plenty of good scenes with Colin Baker, which is cool, and he interacts with both companions as well—he has an especially lovely scene with Flip.
According to the credits, Joel Fry plays a second character in this story, a British soldier named Rogers who only appears in one short scene. If this really is him, well-done, because I listened to that scene twice and it doesn’t sound like him at all. While I can easily recognize Kinvar as Joel's voice, I can’t say the same for Rogers, and it’s more than just a different accent. Is it honestly him? That’s what the credits say, but it’d surprise me if it were true.
