All the King’s horses and all the King’s men aren’t going to be much use to Shokhra right now…
The Seventh Doctor
Synopsis
In a run-down asylum, screams echo in the halls as mysterious creatures roam, terrorizing the staff. Patients complain of betrayal rather than illness, and no-one is quite what they seem.
Mel knows that the Doctor is the best person to find the answers – but she is stranded on Earth, and the TARDIS has returned without him…
Why does a medical facility need to be under armed guard? What procedures are the staff carrying out, and to what purpose? What is the price that must be paid for making an agreement with those who run the asylum?
As the answers begin to be uncovered, the Doctor finds that the past may yet come back to haunt him…
Review
I must admit that I have found this run of Seventh Doctor stories a bit of a struggle. There have been highlights, like The Fearmonger, but there have also been lows like Bang-Bang-a-Boom! and Dreamtime. So, does Unregenerate! see these stories turn a corner?
Well, partially. McIntee’s story has some good ideas, and the sound design, certainly within the Institute, is definitely amongst the best in the Main Range so far. The dirty tricks brigade that is the Celestial Intervention Agency trying to fuse alien races with the consciences of TARDISes in order to essentially control those races’ access to time travel is an interesting idea, and shows what massive hypocrites the Time Lords are. Putting TARDIS consciences into living beings is something that we have seen since this story’s release in The Doctor’s Wife. It is certainly a strong idea. There are some good cliffhangers in here too, like the end of part two, which sees our lead characters in a decompressing air lock, or part 3, where we learn that the Time Lords are involved.
There are some odd decisions though. Having the Doctor become insane is one of them, but I’ll touch on that a bit further down. The other part that confused me was the flashback in the third part that shows how the Doctor came to be in the Institute to start to begin with. It does rather disrupt the pace of the second half of the story, and I can’t see why this wasn’t included in the first part instead. Obviously, some of the reveal could be held back so that there is still a mystery for Mel to investigate, and this could have potentially made some of the scenes a little bit more tolerable.
Part of the problem with Unregenerate! is that the Doctor is incapacitated and insane for a lot of this story. That’s something that definitely didn’t land with me in this story – it is something that didn’t work in Minuet in Hell with the Eighth Doctor, and it doesn’t work here with the Seventh Doctor. I have seen some other reviews state that Sylvester McCoy is overacting in those scenes, but I don’t think that he’s helped by having to babble nonsense for around three-quarters of the story. I think that the writer, David A. McIntee, and director, John Ainsworth, perhaps have to share the blame with McCoy for making those scenes quite so difficult to listen to. When the Doctor is back in his right mind, McCoy’s performance is perfectly adequate, and it is almost a relief when this does happen in the third part. The Seventh Doctor is shown to be scheming even at this early point in this incarnation’s lifetime, despite his outward appearance of being a clown in Time and the Rani.
Whilst the Doctor is sidelined, this gives Mel a chance to shine, and Bonnie Langford does seize that opportunity with both hands. Having the TARDIS find her, she quickly sets out on her investigation to try and find her way to the Doctor and what is going on. Uniting quickly with the rather resourceful Cabbie, she is able to track down the Time Lords and find herself in the midst of the action. This is the sixth release to feature Mel, and whilst I haven’t heard her stories with the Sixth Doctor yet, the ones with her and the Seventh Doctor have been very strong. She gets a chance to show off her skills here in infiltrating the Institute.
Among the guest cast, Toby Longworth shines as Mel’s unnamed taxi driver, who seemingly takes being transported into outer space relatively within their stride. With Mel being the main character for a lot of the story, the Cabbie takes on the role of the companion. Longworth manages to make him charming and I genuinely wanted more of his character. Equally impressive is the performance of Sam Peter Jackson as the composite alien Shokhra. Whilst I struggled to understand the character’s dialogue at first, the multiple voices do settle down and I really liked the effect by the end of the story. On the other hand, Rigan is a very one dimensional villain who shoots first and asks questions later. There’s nothing really for Gail Clayton to work with.
Verdict: Unregenerate! is a mixed bag with some good ideas but odd choices. 5/10
Cast: Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), John Aston (Louis #2), Gail Clayton (Rigan), Hugh Hemmings (Johannes Rausch), Sam Peter Jackson (Shokhra), Jennie Linden (Professor Klyst), Toby Longworth (The Cabbie) & Jamie Sandford (Louis).
Writer: David A. McIntee
Director: John Ainsworth
Music and Sound: Ian Potter
Main Range Release Number: 70
Release Date: 1 July 2005
Behind the Scenes
- This is the audio story that takes place the earliest in the Seventh Doctor’s timeline.
Cast Notes
- Jennie Linden played Barbara Who in the film Doctor Who and the Daleks.
- Toby Longworth has played numerous roles for Big Finish, most notably Josiah W. Dogbolter in The Maltese Penguin and The Quantum Possibility Engine.
- Jamie Sandford would also play Hoodeye in Spring and Andrew in Autumn (both parts of Circular Time).
Best Quote
I’m where I belong, among the stars; among the stars but separated from them. Oh, to feel the hard radiation, the solar winds brushing across me…
The Seventh Doctor
Previous Seventh Doctor review: Dreamtime
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Other Episodes cited:
The Impossible Blog 