The One Doctor

Main Range #27

Released: 17 December 2001

Listened: 9/11/20

Not only does Mel not get a proper introduction story, in her first recorded story, they go straight for the absurd. (Mel had already appeared in a Seventh Doctor story in recording order, but this is her first with the Sixth.) This is the first of Big Finish’s Christmas specials, with a distinctly silly panto theme. The high concept is that the Doctor and Mel have arrived at the far end of time, where a con man named Banto Zame is passing himself off as the Doctor, along with his assistant Sally-Anne. However, the listener is almost immediately clued in to the con, and even the assumption that the real Doctor may be a fake is dispensed with by the end of episode one. The four then go on a quest for three valuable items that are needed to save the system, each of which is quite silly and requires some absurd shenanigans to obtain. As often happens in these very early recordings, Colin Baker’s voice sounds much younger than recent recordings, almost to the point of being distracting. This story was written before all of his Big Finish character growth, so although he’s kinder with Mel than he was with Peri, he’s still prone to exasperation. In trivial matters, the third episode uses the “Delaware theme” for no reason I can determine. A couple of aliens are also played by Matt Lucas, many years before his time as Nardole, but his voice is so altered you’ll never recognize him. Finally, there are a couple of bonus tracks at the end of the last episode. If you don’t mind occasional silliness in your Doctor Who stories, this one isn’t bad.