The Doctor and His Amazing Technicolour Nightmare Coat

Interludes #5

Released: 23 May 2023

Listened: 6/2/23

This is an Interlude, one of the “long short trips” that come as extras with the boxed sets. This one features the Sixth Doctor and Mel, so you can imagine it’s not entirely serious. Although the title says the story concerns the Doctor’s infamous coat, it doesn’t really, except in the loosest sense. The coat has a loose thread, so the Doctor returns to Kolpasha, where he bought it, to have it repaired. As a result, we’re told that the Doctor spends most of the story wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a cat on it. It seems like it’s one of those “comedy of errors” stories, except it immediately jumps forward a month, with Mel having spent that time working as a janitor, the Doctor having accidentally stolen the loot from a criminal otter, and the TARDIS on a different planet altogether. Their quest to get it back only leads to more silliness. It’s written by Gary Russell, a man who admittedly knows how to write a Doctor Who story, but here, he’s fallen into the trap that snares many Doctor Who writers, in which he’s trying to be Douglas Adams. The language is overly clever, the situations are overly absurd, and the descriptions are overly long. Adams spends a lot of time telling you what’s going on in minor characters’ heads, and while that’s amusing, it takes up a lot of narrative space. The story is read by Rosie Baker, Colin Baker’s daughter, and while she doesn’t try to imitate her father, she’s a pretty good narrator. I just wish the story were a little better.