Mind of the Hodiac

Lost Stories Special

Released: 30 March 2022

Listened: 4/2/22

This particular story stretches the definition of “Lost Story,” because it’s a script that was written, but never even accepted. The reason it merits recognition is because it was written by Russell T Davies back in the 80s, and he’s declared it the first Doctor Who writing he ever did. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, although there are some distinctly 80s attributes to it. There’s a family who seem to be beset by a poltergeist, so they accept the invitation of a well-funded paranormal researcher to spend the night at her facility. How a paranormal researcher could be well-funded in the 80s is a mystery, as is the fact that she seems to be deeply religious. She’s played by Annette Badland, who’s normally quite good, but here she’s completely over the top. The titular Hodiac seems to be a powerful psychic out in space, who has an elaborate plan to destabilize the galactic financial market, just so he can make enough money to find his “other,” the other half of his gestalt mind. He also talks about himself in the third person – or actually gets his assistant to talk about him in the third person – and he’s obsessed with the Doctor’s coat, even before meeting him. You’d think that would be a plot point, but it isn’t. The Hodiac itself also makes no sense, a bifurcated being continually reborn on separate planets because they’re never supposed to meet. How does that evolve? Or was it created? Nobody’s saying. The Doctor is unusually absent-minded in this one, frequently quoting The Wind in the Willows for, again, no good reason. Mel is quite capable, carrying out a variety of plans, although none of them involve hacking a computer. It feels like there’s a story in there, but it doesn’t quite surface. I can see why it was rejected. I can also see why Big Finish didn’t want to step on the legendary RTD when it came to revising, but I kind of wish they had.