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We Are the Daleks
(Jonathan Morris) |
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 Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor and Bonnie Langford's Melanie Bush are reunited on audio nine years since they recorded their last Big Finish story together, "Red", in 2006.
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| Seventh Doctor |
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'I'm shocked to realise it's almost 10 years', Sylvester McCoy has stated. 'It doesn't seem like that long. Their relationship', he has revealed, 'is 'kind of sparky. It's eyebrows-up acting! She's a computer expert, so it's easy for him to communicate with her on those terms, with the technology we bump into in the universe. It's not as dark as my Doctor developed - it's interesting to go back earlier. It's a very different mix between the two of us. It's lovely to hear that voice again'.
Why has it taken so long for Big Finish Productions to get these two characters back together? 'It's simply been circumstance', Executive Producer Nicholas Briggs has revealed. 'Bonnie was working on Broadway for a while, and then when she came back we paired her with Sixth Doctor Colin Baker for some stories. But now the Seventh Doctor and Mel are back in the TARDIS, and it's glorious. Bonnie is so lovely to work with, so good, such fun and so professional, and we hope this is the start of many more tales with this team'.
Their first story, released in July 2015, is "We Are the Daleks". This Dalek story has been written by Jonathan Morris and has been directed by Ken Bentley. It was recorded on the 5th and 6th January 2015.
Also starring are: Kirsty Besterman, Angus Wright, Mary Conlon, Robbie Stevens, Ashley Zhangazha, Lizzie Roper, Dominic Thornburn and, providing the voice of the Daleks, Nicholas Briggs.
'After the 200th release, we're entering a new era', Script Editor Alan Barnes has stated. 'A lot of ongoing storylines have come to a natural conclusion, so we wanted to make each of the next year or so's worth of trilogies a clear jumping-on point for new listeners'.
'When it came to the Seventh Doctor and Mel, I found myself wondering what sort of Dalek story we might have seen in 1987. It occurred to me that "Remembrance of the Daleks", made in 1988, was partly a nostalgia piece set 25 years in the past... but that more than 25 years have passed since Remembrance, so it'd be interesting to make a not dissimilar piece now, in 2015, with the Daleks in London of around about 25 years ago - the London of 1987, with a Big Bang in the City, and strange modern towers in Docklands... and a slicked-back Doctor wearing red braces!'
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| Melanie |
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Writer Jonathan Morris has revealed that 'A little while back, I wrote an article for DWM called "We Are the Daleks". It was about what the Daleks represent. This story is very much using the Daleks as an allegory, not party-political, but political in terms of how the world works, and the compromises that politicians have to make. If Daleks did exist, and they came to our planet, and they offered people free oil, quite a lot of our politicians would go, "Well the voters want free oil, so we'll have to do a deal with the Daleks"'.
Although this story is set in the 1980s it is still stylistically very modern. 'I was trying to write modern Doctor Who', Jonathan Morris has revealed. 'Mel, back in the day, was a bit of an archetype. You can do more with the characters than that, and I think a great actress like Bonnie Langford needs a better-written part'.
'I think she's more sensible now', Bonnie Langford has revealed. 'She's a bit more rounded as a character. She's also a bit more gregarious. She's more aware of other people's feelings, which makes her a bit more mature. Mel was always very earnest. The assistant is the one who's asking the questions the audience should ask, so it's difficult sometimes not to be appear completely thick! In this, she's saying, "Well, I know this is what The Doctor would do" - there's less of a gap in between, she's working much more in coordination, rather than just dragging along behind...'
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