Big Finish likes to mix things up, and one of the company’s more recent endeavours is paring the Seventh Doctor up with both Mel Bush and Ace; this wonderful trio continue their audio adventures this month with the latest Main Range title, The Dispossessed.
Every time I hear that title, I think of The Parting of the Ways, which is surely a good thing.
Here’s the synopsis:
The Doctor, Ace and Mel are caught in a forever night. After crossing the threshold, a strange world awaits them.
An army of tortured souls. A lift that leads to an alien landscape. An alien warlord, left for dead, and willing to do anything to prolong his life… it’s all in a day’s work for the Doctor.
But when his companions become victims of the desperate and powerful Arkallax, the Doctor will have to do battle in a psychic environment where he must make a choice. Save his companions… or himself.
If it’s a straight choice between saving himself or Ace and Mel, I think we all know where the Doctor’s hearts lie. Right…?
Writer, Mark Morris teases:
“As often happens with Big Finish submissions, this story changed hugely from first concept to final script. Originally it was a fairly rural story about a giant worm, but it went through such a huge process of evolution that eventually it became something completely different, with only the kernel of the original idea remaining intact.
“The story as it eventually appeared was perhaps most prominently influenced by a horror film called CITADEL that I actually didn’t like all that much, but whose imagery and central theme – that of urban deprivation creating a sort of feral substrata of society that in the movie is depicted as a gang of vicious supernatural beings – stuck with me. I liked the idea of a dark, monolithic tower block sitting in the middle of a sea of rubble. I liked the idea of creating a sense of pervading threat, or even evil, and of the Doctor and his friends being drawn in, like flies into a spider’s web.
“I’ve also always liked Doctor Who stories that suddenly flip over from one thing into another – The Stones of Blood being an obvious example. Admittedly it’s a device I’ve used before when writing Doctor Who fiction, but it’s always effective, not to mention the fact that there are multiple variations on the theme, so I had no qualms about employing that device again here.”
The Dispossessed stars Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor, Sophie Aldred as Ace, Bonnie Langford as Mel, Morgan Watkins as Ruck, Anna Mitcham as Jan, Stirling Gallacher as Isobel, and Nick Ellsworth (Arkallax).
The Dispossessed is out now from Big Finish, priced £14.99 on CD or £12.99 as a download.
