Catch-1782 (#68)

    Big Finish Main Range


Okay, first question is… is Mel always this helpless and unable to cope and I just missed it?  Conceptually, I like this adventure.  Mel is accidentally catapulted into the past and becomes part of her own history—or does she?  The people in the past are just a bit too easily swayed by the Doctor but that could be his time lordy “trust me” powers coming into play.  However, that sort of “trust me” power seems to have missed Colin Baker’s Doctor in general—usually he’s greeted with prison or guns.  Here there’s just the nutcase that is Mel’s distant relative, Henry Hallam.  Her uncle is the nice old guy but Henry’s just a nut because his wife died.  There’s no real villain in this story, just a string of moments put together into a string of coincidences that make up 6 months of Mel’s life.

Overall, it’s not a very strong adventure.  When she goes back in time, she is ignored, patronized and drugged.  Isn’t Melanie Jane Bush able to cope with things better than this?  She’s all helpless until the Doctor arrives, and even after that.  And of course the TARDIS goes haywire or else things would’ve transpired and her relative wouldn’t’ve had her to care for.  Otherwise, the story wouldn’t’ve happened.  At all.  And since the dilemma lies in the conundrum of time alone, it doesn’t make for a tale I like listening to much.  I would go as high as 3 jelloids on it but it’s just not up to the standard of some other good audios, like The Fires of Vulcan and The Juggernauts.  How does Colin Baker seem to get more than his fair share of the blah stories?  It doesn’t seem right somehow…


Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford

Writer: Alison Lawson

Director: G-Russell

Release: April 2005

© Laura Vilensky 2019