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Minuet in Hell Review Concluding the first series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures is Minuet in Hell. Accompanying Paul McGann as The Doctor is India Fisher as Charley once again. By now, the dynamic between the lead actors and the characters portrayed are becoming quite established. Expanding the Doctor Who universe forward in this way creates many possibilities, whilst the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors are more constrained by their on-screen personas. The Doctor and Charley are separated, and are suffering from amnesia. They do not even remember who they are. The Doctor ends up in a cell in an asylum with British Journalist Gideon Crane, while Charley is abducted, ostensibly on charges of indecency, and taken to be a 'hostess' in 'The Hellfire Club'. At the Hellfire, Brigham Dashwood is celebrating becoming the govenor of a new state of America, Malebolgia, and entertaining high powered guests who also believe that the part-time TV evangelist Dashwood can summon up the devil himself. After a victory speach from Dashwood, a party is taken round the asylum, or institute, where Alistair Lethbridge Stewart is among the party. They are introduced to the PSI machine, which is capable of extracting the entirity of a persons brain so that it can be operated on before being returned. He is investigating whether the machine is being misused. Charley and fellow captive Becky Lee manage to escape when Becky Lee chants, and conjoures up forces to aid them. The Doctor is then taken to the PSI machine, with Crane having now convinced the institute head Pargeter that he is sane in tow. When the machine activates, it overloads and Crane is caught up and receives a chunk of The Doctor's personality and memories. Afterwards, some of The Doctors faculties return, but Crane convinces him that he is The Doctor. Meanwhile, Charley is back to her old self again, and is investigating the institute and club. Dashwood summons up the demon Marchosias to help him, as Lethbridge Stewart, Charley and The Doctor are closing in on him. Eventually, Lethbridge Stewart teams up with Becky Lee to infiltrate the institute, and after The Doctor has been forces to give his mental energy out to several catatonic patients, he manages to recombine everything back into himself with teh PSI machine and return everyone back to their normal mental state. Everyone is then reunited, and the demon Marchosias is revealed to be a Psionovore rather than a demon afterall, and he and Dashwood are eventually discredited on television when Dashwood explains himself believing the transmission not to be going out. He then uses a piece of alien machinery that overloads the PSI machine and sends him and Marchosias to the Psionovores realm, and peace is restored. Minuet in Hell is probably the boldest concept of the first series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures. The concept is somewhat similar to the TV Movie, so at least McGann gets to perform a similar role for the majority of the episodes. What this story does really well though is to fragment the typical path of adventures early, split up the main characters and then draw it all back together again at the end. This is done very well, and is a triumph of script writing and editing. It is also good that the other aspects of the story are also brought together nicely at the same time. As there is so much going on though, this does lead to it being slightly disjointed at times, and you get the impression that there is slightly too much story to be shoehorned into these four episodes. This might be because of the satin bottoms storylines are ostensibly only there to explain what happens to Charley and give her something to do while the Doctor is recovering. These are only minor points though, and are outweighed by the way the story draws back together. Leading the cast once more is Paul McGann and India Fisher as The Doctor and Charley respectively. Both are given the chance here to show another side of their acting, as they are separated and baffled to a greater or lesser degree in this story. McGann accomplishes this masterfully, and Fisher also does well in this story. They are joined by old favourite Nicholas Courtney as Alistair Lethbridge Stewart. He really is his old self, although he does show he may have mellowed with age, just a little. Of the guest cast, the American accents of Robert Jezek and Morgan Deare as Brigham Dashwood and Waldo Pickering are a little wearing, but not too distracting. Doctor Who favourite Nicholas Briggs provides the voice for Gideon Crane, and does a very good job, particularly when he believes he is The Doctor. Helen Goldwyn and Maureen Oakeley complete the guest cast as Becky Lee and Dale Pargeter respectively, and both give decent performances. Once again, the background sounds appear to be slightly off in places. This was a criticism of the previous story, and it remains here. It is most evident in the crowd scenes, and when The Doctor's brain energy is shared out to many through the MSI machine. this does detract slightly from the production as a whole, as it seems slightly less professional than it should be. It is however only a minor point, and the story does generally win out. Overall, Minuet in Hell is a good end to the first series of Eighth Doctor audio adventures produced by Big Finish. There are problems, the story appears slightly disjoined in places and some sound effects don't come off, but overall the story wins through. The best aspect of this story is the skilful way the fragmented plot lines are brought back together at the end. This means the listener is kept on the hook, and through some skillful acting the story will stand up to repeated listening.  |