With Evelyn gone, the Doctor sets course for his destiny… in the form of his first meeting with Miss Melanie Bush, a computer programmer from the village of Pease Pottage, currently busy rehearsing with the local Amateur Dramatic Society – and blissfully unaware that her future is on its way, in his TARDIS.
Make that two TARDISes. Because at that very moment, a slightly younger Doctor is flying into Pease Pottage, too – returning his future companion Melanie Bush to her rightful place and time, after they were flung together during the course of his Time Lord trial.
Time travel is a complicated business – the iguanadon terrorising Pease Pottage being a case in point. But how much more complicated could things possibly become, if the wrong Doctor were to bump into the wrong Mel?
THE WRONG DOCTORS
At first glance, the conclusion (and only the conclusion) of “The Trial of a Time Lord” appears simple: the Doctor and Mel get back into the TARDIS and depart Gallifrey to continue their adventures together. But upon reflection, it doesn’t make much sense: Mel came from the Doctor’s future, after all, so have they even “met” yet? Stranger still, considering the strong desire of fans to fill gaps, is that none of the spinoff material addressed this question. But now, at the dawn of the fiftieth anniversary year, Matt Fitton’s “The Wrong Doctors” addresses this question – and the solution is even more convoluted than the question implies.
The story opens with the Doctor lamenting Evelyn’s departure and deciding to pursue his destiny by “meeting” Mel for the first time. But he arrives in Pease Pottage just after his earlier self drops Mel off from Gallifrey, meaning that the older Doctor has arrived too late and the younger Doctor has arrived too early. Take away their respective TARDISes, and there’s your conflict. And it’s a great one, and the centerpiece of the entire play. Colin Baker is cast against himself, playing both the mellowed Big Finish version of the sixth Doctor and the spiky, obstreperous version from television. Baker easily pulls this off, which is surprising given how similar the characters still are: it is never difficult to tell which Doctor is featured in a given scene, and that’s entirely down to Baker’s tour-de-force performance. This isn’t one of those multi-Doctor stories in which the Doctors never meet; on the contrary, Baker has multiple scenes in which he converses extensively with himself, and each one is a delight. Anyone who considers himself or herself a fan of the sixth Doctor should find delight in this performance; I’d recommend the play on this basis alone.
Bonnie Langford, making her first appearance in the main range since all the way back in “The Wishing Beast,” makes up for lost time, joining Colin Baker in the fun by playing two Melanies. Unfortunately, the second Mel here is merely a creation of a false timeline, but Langford’s turn is almost as fantastic, taking this less complex Mel and giving her a shocking amount of depth and sympathy. Spice Girls jokes aside, if there’s a character that Big Finish has rehabbed more than the sixth Doctor, it’s Mel, and it’s a joy to have her back in the range.
I rarely open these reviews with discussions of the performances, and here that’s largely because I’m unsure what to make of Matt Fitton’s script. I don’t generally care for alternate universe stories unless they serve as informative reflections of the “real” characters – and the same goes for alternate realities where anything can happen. In this structural respect, “The Wrong Doctors” has a lot in common with “Legend of the Cybermen” or “Gods and Monsters,” in that Petherbridge (Tony Gardner) gleefully taunts the Doctor with control over possible realities – but the similarities stop there, as Fitton quite plainly isn’t taking himself seriously in the slightest. Except for one or two surprisingly touching scenes, “The Wrong Doctors” is thoroughly whimsical: it rolls from reality to reality with barely any regard for scene breaks, never mind theme. As far as I can tell, it hangs together reasonably well, and I don’t have a problem with silly Doctor Who, but I kept asking myself throughout “Why am I listening to this?” The only answer, “Well, it’s kind of fun, no?” is absolutely true, but I think it’s merely down to a personal dislike of this sort of story. “Black and White” was too cluttered, but it had a lot of smart material; “The Wrong Doctors” is structured well, but it’s ultimately disposable. If Fitton can combine the two, the result just might be a classic. (But not the cluttered and disposable combination.)
I’m a big fan of Simon Robinson’s score here, mostly because it incorporates 1980s Doctor Who style, and I happily admit I prefer the music from that era to any other. It also provides a good match to the tone of the story, along with the reliable sound design. Nicholas Briggs slides back into the director’s chair – and let’s be honest, he gets a gold star just for directing Colin Baker. Overall, “The Wrong Doctors” is a bit of a mixed bag, but on balance it’s a success. It’s absolutely not what one would expect from a resolution to Mel’s bizarre timeline, but the play takes its idea and runs so far with it that it’s impossible not to respect. Seriously, though – if for no other reason, listen to this for Colin Baker and try not to grin.
Recommended.
7/10