Review: ‘The Tenth Doctor Adventures: Volume 2 – The Sword of the Chevalier’ (audio)
By James Aggas
The Tenth Doctor and Rose meet an incredible historical figure, but they also meet very dangerous alien slavers in eighteenth century England in ‘The Sword of the Chevalier’!
The second episode in the new set of Tenth Doctor stories is just pure fun. In case you can’t tell from the title, The Sword of the Chevalier is a bit of a swashbuckling adventure. Like a lot of historical episodes in the New Series, it also features a real-life character: the Chevalier d’Éon.
I must admit, I had never heard of this person before listening to the episode. Fortunately, she’s explained quite nicely in the story by the Doctor. Someone who had been a spy, a soldier and, at first, a man, in her later years, she identified and dressed as a woman.
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It’s incredible to think someone who had been all of these things in the eighteenth century actually existed in real life. It’s not surprising that writer Guy Adams wanted to feature her in a Doctor Who story.
The Chevalier is portrayed really well, too. Talented, but also far too aware of her talents and successes, she’s a woman who knows exactly how important and extraordinary she is. Nickolas Grace portrays her exactly right. He avoids coming across as either camp or over-the-top. Instead, he instead portrays her with the right amount of class and arrogance that the role requires.
Joxer and Hempel
The monsters in this story are also really interesting characters. Joxer and Hempel are slavers who see humans as nothing more than stock. The better the quality, the more interested they are in taking and selling the stock.
They work well in the story for several reasons. One, their rather unusual identity make them a good match against the Chevalier. Two, the fact that they are slavers makes the period of history they’re in very appropriate. After all, slavery was still rather common in this time.
And three, they’re villains who are absolutely loathsome from the start. For a story that’s just fifty minutes long, that’s a good quality to have in a villain. It also fits other monsters of series 2 quite nicely. The Sycorax, the Krillitanes and the Abzorbaloff were very clear-cut villains with no moral ambiguity. Joxer and Hempel of the Consortium of the Obsidian Asp match that description very nicely.
The Sword of the Chevalier is a really fun episode. It avoids including too much plot, and instead focuses on evil aliens, costume parties, sword fights, and quite possibly one of the most extraordinary individuals who ever lived. A really fun listen.
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