February 02, 2010

Unregenerate! (2005)

Unregenerate is the fourth release to feature Mel. A character which was derided on TV but has undergone a change and it’s hard to believe that it’s the same character. Bonnie Langford has silenced me and other people who thought that she was a terrible companion. Despite only coming a few months after Catch 1782 this story is a fine story for Mel. Written by David A McIntee the story sees Mel take the lead. The opening few minutes sets up the story very well. The Doctor is in a mental hospital but obviously we don’t know why he’s their (what caused it) and how long he has been there.

The people running the hospital are typically played to be sinister and there is an interesting story behind them. It then turns out that the Timelords are involved in the hospital. They take people out of time just before they are due to die. They are then taken to be hosts for TARDIS consciousness. They want to do this to control the use of time travel of other worlds. Mel is the one that moves the story forward at the beginning and immediately forms a partnership with a cab driver. It’s a character that doesn’t really seem like anything but soon becomes quite an impressive person.

Whilst Bonnie Langford drives the story it’s at a price. Sylvester McCoy takes a back seat in this story which is ok at the beginning but after a while I just wanted him to take over from Langford. Sadly McCoy doesn’t get the chance to show why he is such as good Doctor. Hopefully this is just a one off. Of the guest cast I found Jennie Linden to be very good as Professor Klyst. Linden for long time fans of the show will know she played Barbara in the 1965 Dalek film with Peter Cushing.

Unregenerate is a brilliant adventure. Very dark but it is the Doctor and Mel that are what I like the most about this story. It seems that Big Finish have got a firm grasp of Mel as this another strong story for the character. If Bonnie Langford could find time to record more then I think that she would become one of the best companions on the Big Finish/Doctor Who range.

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