Red Planets written by Una McCormack and directed by Jamie Anderson

What’s it about: London, 2017. Except... it isn't. Berlin, 1961. But it isn't that either. Not really. Not in the timeline the Doctor knows. Something is very wrong. While Ace tries to save the life of a wounded British spy, Mel and the Doctor must get to grips with the modern-day socialist Republic of Mokoshia. For Mel it feels strangely familiar and 'right', which makes the Doctor feel even more uneasy. Soon, a message from a dark and blood-soaked distant future is on its way... But the Doctor will have to act fast to stop this timeline becoming reality. And with Ace stranded in an alternate 1961, will saving the Earth end her existence?

The Real McCoy: The Doctor considers the 1960s the golden age of music, film and television and a perfectly splendid place to put Ace down for a while. He’s far grumpier about 2017; melting ice caps, seas of plastic, species after species disappearing into nothing. He seems to subscribe to the ideal that the 60s was a brighter period for the 60s, a post war glow that everything was going to be alright before everything went horribly wrong. The Doctor sighs at another version of the Earth where human beings simply cannot get along. It’s easy for him to be cynical about these things. He denies everything as a matter of form. I’ve heard that there is a taste of the New Adventures about this and the way that the Doctor is condemned in episode three definitely brought back that ugly feeling of him being blamed for every wrong turn in the universe that that series books promoted.

Oh Wicked: Enters the story kicking and screaming, which as I have discussed a million times before isn’t Sophie Aldred’s forte. Maybe when she was younger and on television she convinced as an aggressive teenager with a pleasingly physical performance but in later years she merely sounds like an older woman standing in front of a microphone trying to sound like an aggressive teenager. The effect isn’t quite the same. Because Ace has been separated from the Doctor and Mel and sent off on a mission by the Doctor this has the feel of a New Adventure. You know where the Doctor treated his companions more like subordinates than friends.

Aieeeeeeeeee: Mel is a absolutely terrifying as a Soviet drone, spouting propaganda and sounding every bit the Russian Nazi (I realise that is a contradiction in terms). What’s a shame is that this robotic propaganda machine is very soon replaced with the Mel we know and love. She’s corrupted by the timeline but instead of being a willing participant in it (which would have been so interesting) she instead tries to puzzle out the core timeline in her head and questions this fresh history that has been dumped there. Had Mel been the villain of the piece, spreading the Soviet ideal, it would have been a deliciously dark new spin on the alternative universe timeline. Unfortunately, McCormack isn’t that brave. Langford is still on top form regardless, she’s the strongest actor in the regular cast by a country mile. She doesn’t overplay the dialogue like Aldred or misunderstand it like McCoy, she gives a consistently dramatic and subtle performance. Everything changes in the timeline and yet everything falls into place to create a Melanie Bush in this timeline? Surely that’s a little too much of a co-incidence.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘You should all by playing with your IPads and worrying about petty politics!’
‘There’s always someone who wants to be free and always someone willing to use force to stop them.’
‘You’re just another thug in a world of thugs.’
‘One false move and Europe comes tumbling down…’
‘I think we’re talking to the future.’

Great Ideas: The Berlin Wall was taken down when Germany reunited in 1984. Germany became part of the International Communist Republic of Mokoshia. Communism didn’t collapse in the 90s, it spread throughout Western Europe. 100 years of comradeship later and the peace, love and understanding that sprung from these changes is rife. England is now the British Commune, the Queen abdicated and lives as a normal citizen now. After initial dissent a coalition was formed and the People marched on the West (with a lot of tanks in tow). The whole of Europe unified under the flag of Mokoshia.

Musical Cues: I’ve come to expect more from Big Finish than a recycled score. This shares the same composer as Static, and it shares a lot of the same cues as well. I think in a range that offers very little in the way of bonus content for a shortish story at a high price the least you can expect is original material within. Static’s music was very effective (that’s why it’s repetition here is so blatant) but I would suggest that if the choice of composer cannot yield a first-hand score that Big Finish think about using somebody else. At least the music in the last episode is halfway to convincing you that exciting things are happening.

Isn’t it Odd: I don’t mind if a plot doesn’t make immediate sense, after all who wants all the answers up front. But the first scene in Red Planets is so confused and obscure I stepped into this story with a huge frown on my face. How this new world is presented in the first episode isn’t through its characters but a massive info dump from Mel and the Doctor trying to catch up. I feel that McCormack could have been more imaginative in how she painted this world, entangling the regulars in some action so that the reality of the altered Earth could be eeked out slowly. There’s a lot of suspense that is squandered by handing out the answers immediately. Whatever happened to an episode one full of mystery? I though Big Finish could indulge in that because the new series couldn’t (whose episodes reveal the nature of the story and where they are usually before the pre-credits sequence). I really want to feel like these seventh Doctor/Ace/Mel stories are evolving the characters or pulling them into a cohesive whole and bringing out new shades as a team but with a story like this where they are separated throughout it feels as if they are trying to achieve the opposite. It’s a stark contrast the sixth Doctor/Constance/Flip combination, which has gelled far more effectively and progressively. Entire episodes of exposition and chatter, with a spark of energy at the climax because a cliff-hanger is required. Ultimately this story is terribly plot driven but I didn’t feel that it was personal enough. I question whether Tom Macrae pushed the domestic angle too much in Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel but at least he attempted to show the impact of an alternative world on the characters that it was foreign to. McCormack presents an alternative world and the only person who really objects is the Doctor, and the seventh Doctor at that, and he was never going to be an adequate identification figure. ‘It’s worse than that…we’re running out of timeline!’ probably looked better on the page than it sounded in reality. The reason the timelines diverged is a stray plot point in a narrative cul de sac…it’s not the revelatory moment it should have been. Because the bomb is introduced late, there is no time for any character fallout. So it’s all about restoring the status quo rather than the story having any kind of impression.

Standout Scene: The end of episode three where the two plots, mostly disconnected until that point, finally come together in a dramatic moment. Beware your ears, there’s plenty of screaming.

Result: ‘The International Ideal that Unites the Human Race…’ There’s a great idea at the heart of Red Planets that attempts to shift the very old hat idea of a parallel Earth along and that is that Mel’s memory has been corrupted by this timeline and she remembers the edited version of her home world. That has the potential for some seriously powerful drama. The trouble with Red Planets is this Soviet inspired version of the Earth never truly convinces, it isn’t given enough colour or detail to truly come alive. So unfortunately we have a companion lost in a perverted timeline that fails to convince. A problem. Another idea that should have been pushed far more than it is the intriguing notion that the new timeline is a more productive, prosperous one. There is the odd sly dig at how unscrupulous culture and politics are in the real 2017 but it could have been a much angrier attack on the world we know and love. With the same premise, Robert Holmes would have killed this subject matter (think The Sun Makers). There’s a strong role for the Doctor in this, condemning aforementioned alternative timeline, but McCoy’s performance veers between dangerous and embarrassing. He occasionally sounds like he is in complete control of the story but more often gives the impression he has only just looked at the script. It’s a common complaint of mine that his unorthodox acting choices leaves a very inconsistent taste in the mouth. Occasionally he’s completely in sync with the script and for my money in those stories he’s the best audio Doctor, but those stories are few and far between and the result is often like this. Awkward. You’ve got all the elements of a spellbinding Doctor Who story; an intriguing premise with room for racial and political commentary, a narrative split between three regulars, an SF subplot that affects the main action, a Doctor who doesn’t like what is happening at all and isn’t afraid to say so and companions who are impacted by events. This should have been a gripping, emotional, intelligent ride. Instead it’s wordy, overly expository, awkwardly plotted and lacking a spark that would really bring it to life and connect with me. What you have is a story that is attempting to press all the right buttons but never kicking into gear, a story that is half way there to achieving it’s aim of creating a talking point but never having the nuts to slaughter its target. You’ve got Jamie Anderson’s lively direction to help (but in such a wordy script he’s not given much to work with) and a star turn from an increasingly wasted Bonnie Langford to enjoy, at least. I don’t know if it was my imagination but the episodes felt very short, and the last episode felt particularly plot heavy without much effective wrap up. An extra point because the last 15 minutes upped the dramatic tension coniderably: 5/10