Doctor Who: Come Die With Me

Writer: Jamie Anderson
Director: Ken Bentley
Script Editor: Alan Barnes
Cover Illustration: Joseph Bell
Music & Sound Design: Steve Foxon
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred
Released December 2015

Come Die With Me marks the halfway point of the You Are The Doctor anthology and, so far, it looks to be one of the most disposable releases yet. Jamie Anderson's story of an old-fashioned mansion in the future seems to be desperately trying to create a Night Thoughts-style atmosphere, but ends up closer to The Silurian Candidate.

The setup initially seems to be a murder mystery game organised by the skin-crawling Edwin Norris that has stumped the greatest minds from all time and space. This naturally piques the Doctor's curiosity, while Ace is pulled below stairs with the housekeeper. They learn more about the situation in tandem and eventually the Doctor must save Ace and defeat Norris. It's not especially challenging stuff, which isn't a problem in itself, but this is so chaotic it's hard to get a handle on anything and hence hard to pay attention.

There is something in Anderson's story of a murder mystery in an old house with the Sylvester McCoy Doctor that evokes stories like Master and The Magic Mousetrap. Unfortunately, that is where comparisons to these two superior releases end. Control of knowledge seems to be the 'theme' of this anthology so far, unless you count Ace having a go at flying the TARDIS, which still wouldn't be the flimsiest arc Big Finish have attempted. In Come Die With Me's climactic scene, Norris ends up giving McCoy a run for his money in the gurning and histrionics stakes, revealing that he wants to trap the minds of anyone in creation more intelligent than him in his library so that he can be the cleverest being in history. On the strength of the 20 minutes preceding this, he's going to need a bigger library.

So much care goes into crafting these stories in post-production that it seems ungrateful to criticise. There must be nightmares on so many productions that the listeners never discover because of talented sound designers managing to save them. But still, the presentation of Come Die With Me leaves a lot to be desired. This can be laid at the door of director Ken Bentley; McCoy gives a shocking performance, vamping it up like a good 'un on what appears to be his first encounter with the script. Sophie Aldred as Ace isn't much better, sounding like she got out the wrong side of bed and going massively over the top on almost every line. The sound design completely misses every open goal with regards to building atmosphere, and instead goes gives the impression of stock tracks for an am dram matinee. The music is also far too lightweight and completes the impression that the production team see this as disposable fluff, and consequently that's what they have made.

It is entirely reasonable to skip Come Die With Me without missing anything in character, plot or production terms. When people are paying £15 for this release that is inexcusable. At least You Are The Doctor was trying something different; it speaks volumes that the actor playing Norris isn't even credited.

Doctor Who: You Are The Doctor

Writer: John Dorney
Director: Ken Bentley
Script Editor: Alan Barnes
Cover Illustration: Joseph Bell
Music & Sound Design: Steve Foxon
Producer: David Richardson

Starring Sylvester McCoy & Sophie Aldred
Released December 2015

Opening a quartet of stories starring Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred as the seventh Doctor and Ace, You Are The Doctor is an entertaining, if not outstanding, way to fill 25 minutes. Any innovation it exhibits is in its novel presentation, the plot itself being as rote as they come. The 'decide your destiny'-style narrative and the accompanying commentary at each fork in the road are used to good effect and fill the run time well enough without pushing any boundaries.

It could be said that You Are The Doctor is somewhat obvious, but then that does seem to be the point. The pig-like Porcians return from author John Dorney's own The Fourth Wall, a full-length main range story featuring Colin Baker and Lisa Greenwood. This time it appears the Doctor's old adversary Chimbly and his wife Keith have actually, against all odds, managed to invade and take over a planet, so the Time Lord's suspicions are immediately aroused.

What follows is an inoffensive jaunt through their spaceship, punctuated by the Doctor and Ace's numerous deaths, after which the listener is instructed to return the beginning of the story. The most successful element of presenting the story in this decision-based framework is that the track numbers on the CD or in the digital album do actually correspond to the options Chimbly gives, so you could actually play along if you wanted. This is arguably unnecessary given almost all listeners will, on first pass at least, play the entire story, but this kind of attention to detail elevates the episode.

This is well-directed but it's notable how McCoy, in particular, and Aldred are able to sound so ill-prepared 30 years into playing their characters. Kim Wall returns as Chimbly and the performance suits the role though the listener could be forgiven for mistaking Wall for Nick Briggs. It really is uncanny. And try as the cast might, the Porcians still aren't as funny as the script seems to think they are. The sound design and music do a good job of setting up the narrative structure and providing extra tics to denote sections such that the listener knows what's going on before any dialogue is spoken.

You Are The Doctor was perhaps inevitable. It's pleasant enough, and sets its sights no higher than that, which is fine. While this is refreshingly unconvoluted for a Big Finish McCoy episode, we've done this story now, so hopefully the second instalment in this release will prove more substantial.