The Exaltation

The Quin Dilemma #1

Released: 22 March 2024

Listened: 4/21/26

This is the opening piece of "The Quin Dilemma," rather obviously a reference to "The Twin Dilemma," and a story that isn't taking itself seriously at all. The story opens in the middle, with the Doctor and Mel on the planet Arunopal, where they've met a young woman named Zeta. Every 40 years, the King of Arunopal abdicates to his eldest child. Unfortunately, the king has five identical quintuplets, all played by Jonnie Broadbent. Because their mother supposedly died in childbirth, no one knows who's the eldest. Worse, they're all complete morons. So their father sets them a quest, to track down the person responsible for their mother's death...the Doctor. However, to make a cliched story more interesting, they're each sent after the Doctor on a different planet, at a different point in the Sixth Doctor's life. (Except the fifth brother, who has to tag along with the fourth, for some reason.) This is the shortest of the stories, and it's clearly all set-up, not terribly interesting on its own. For this Doctor and Mel, the story continues directly to the next one.