Big Finish Audio adventure, July 2003
As I am listening to this again, I'm trying to figure out what "angle" on the Doctor's personality David Bishop is corrupting, basically. I would guess that it is his lack of humanity, perhaps due to a lack of companions. This version of the Doctor is a little more difficult to suss out as the change is more philosophical. This Doctor doesn't have that spark of humanity that keeps him from being a killer as he kills the Professor. The Doctor we know and love would find another way.
Perhaps it's his lack of companions that does it to him. He doesn't appear to have regular companions and doesn't appear to need them, in his mind. "Our" Doctor does kill people indirectly in order to save the universe or millions more than the few who die. But it does have an impact on him mentally or emotionally. This Doctor is actually ruthless behind the façade. I wouldn't want to meet this Doctor on any of his missions, that's for sure!
And that is how he comes to a different end from our Doctor—he doesn't respect life so the people he ends up with don't respect his. Though that's not entirely accurate either. He is more calculating and the mission is more important than the people involved. So he doesn't give any quarter for anyone and saving people isn't a priority. So the story is chilling, ultimately. We hear how the Doctor could have turned out, where he turned more into a creature, an alien, than someone we can understand and empathize with.
The story has Ruth, the woman he has taken care of for years, going with him and a mini-sub owner (Hoskins) down to the wreck of the D.E.E.P., the research station where Ruth's father died. As the story unfolds, I can't help but believe in what the Doctor does, how he acts. But then we find out the horror of who he cares about and perhaps, there is justice done at the end by Ruth. It's definitely a bit of a twist in the gut either way as I'm not sure what she's doing is right but is what the Doctor did right? One of the proverbial questions that always follows him around like his shadow--did he do the right thing? This is definitely the strongest of the five original Unbound adventures but I don't give it a 5 jelloid rating because it just doesn't hold up with a repeat listen. It's still very good but it doesn't have the punch of the first listen.
David Collins (The Doctor), Ed Bishop (General Flint), Siri O'Neal (Ruth), Jeremy James (Hoskins), Matthew Benson (Professor Vollmer), and Jack Galagher (Lee)
writer: David Bishop
director: Jason Haigh-Ellery