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Unregenerate!
(David A. McIntee) |
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 The
release for June 2005 was originally going to be filled
by a story called "Dead Man's Hand". Written
by John Ostrander this was to be a Seventh
Doctor, Ace and Hex story set in the American Wild West and featuring
Wild Bill Hickok.
"Dead
Man's Hand" was initially planed to be released in
September 2004 but the revamped schedule for 2004, due
to the impending new television season, meant that this
story was postponed until June 2005. However, this story
has now had to be postponed again and is now not due to
be released until 2006.
Taking its place is another Seventh Doctor story titled
"Unregenerate!" that has been written by David
A. McIntee – making this his second Doctor Who
audio script for Big Finish Productions – the first
being the 2002's "Excelis
Rising". Joining Sylvester McCoy is Bonnie Langford,
as companion Melanie
Bush. This will be Bonnie Langford’s
third story released in 2005 as she is also stared in
January's "The
Juggernauts" and April's "Catch-1782".
"Unregenerate!",
which was recorded 16th and 17th November 2004, is directed
by John Ainsworth. This is John’s second Big Finish
Productions Doctor Who Audio story. His first
being the Fifth
Doctor story "Nekromanteia"
that was released in February 2003.
This
story guest stars Jennie Linden who played the part of
Barbara in the first Peter Cushing Doctor Who
film "Dr Who and the Daleks" in 1965. Also starring
in "Unregenerate!" are: John Aston, Gail Clayton,
Hugh Hemmings, Sam Peter Jackson, Toby Longworth and Jamie
Sandford.
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| Seventh Doctor |
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When
is an asylum not an asylum? Maybe when it needs to be
under armed guard?
In
1957, as Russia launches Sputnik, a man named Johannes
Raush is approached by a mysterious figure, calling himself
Louis, who offers him a deal - his dream life, in exchange
for going off with Louis the day before he dies.
Investigating some kind of anomaly, The Doctor has gone
on ahead – sending the TARDIS
back to 2005 with instructions for his companion Melanie
to follow a mysterious emissary, Louis who has returned,
apparently unchanged, to claim his part of the deal from
Rausch, now a successful sculptor.
The car that Louis takes Rausch away in is being followed,
albeit inexpertly, by Melanie. That trail takes Melanie
to what proves to be an impossible building: the Klyst
Institute, formerly Hetchell House. But where is The Doctor
and what does Louis want with an old man?
Melanie
knows that The Doctor is the best person to find the answers
– but she is stranded on Earth, and the TARDIS has
returned without him...
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Melanie
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On her own, except for the taxi driver, Melanie is convinced
that the answers, and maybe even The Doctor himself, lie
within the building. But even with all her experience
of travelling with The Doctor she is unprepared for the
ghastly events that are going on inside when she becomes
embroiled in this run-down medical facility where screams
echo in the halls and mysterious creatures roam, terrorising
the staff. Where patients complain of betrayal rather
than illness, and no-one is quite what they seem. What
obscene experiments are the staff carrying out, and to
what purpose? What is the price that must be paid for
making an agreement with those who run the asylum?
What forms of creatures really live inside this run-down
building? Who are Louis and Professor Klyst working for?
And if Melanie finds The Doctor inside… will he
be himself at all?
As the answers begin to be uncovered inside the secret
Klyst institute, with The Doctor in the middle of an identity
crisis and sudden appearance of the Time Lords,
The Doctor finds that the past may yet come
back to haunt him especially when he discovers that someone
is planting the minds of TARDISes inside people’s
heads...
Could it be that the Time Lords are behind everything
so that they can keep track on time travelling races or
are they dealing with just three rogue Gallifreyans whose
agenda is something more sinister?
The Doctor, with Melanie’s assistance,
must learn the truth and so prevent those who have signed
Faustian pacts to give their bodies up on the day before
they would have died naturally in return for the life
of their dreams - which may just turn out to be a fate
worse then death or life…
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Notes:
- Featuring the Seventh
Doctor and Melanie
Bush.
- Serial Number: 7E/C
- Number of Episodes: 4
- Cover Length: 100 minutes
- Episode Lengths: 1 = 26'12", 2 = 24'31",
3 = 27'44", 4 = 29'23"
- Total Story Length: 107'50"
- This story takes place between "Paradise
Towers" and "Delta
and the Bannermen",
and takes place after "Flip-Flop".
- Early Title: "Mark Four".
- Cover Illustration: Lee Binding
- Recorded: 16th and 17th November 2004
- Recording Location: The Moat Studios
- Released: June 2005
- ISBN: 1-84435-158-0
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On the Back Cover:
In a run-down asylum,
screams echo in the halls as mysterious creatures roam,
terrorising the staff. Patients complain of betrayal rather
than illness, and no-one is quite what they seem.
Mel knows that
The Doctor is the best person to find the answers –
but she is stranded on Earth, and the TARDIS has returned
without him...
Why does a medical
facility need to be under armed guard? What procedures
are the staff carrying out, and to what purpose? What
is the price that must be paid for making an agreement
with those who run the asylum?
As the answers
begin to be uncovered, The Doctor finds that the past
may yet come back to haunt him...
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On the Inside Cover:
IT’S VERY
STRANGE - WHEN I FIRST pitched Unregenerate!
(as a Dalek story called Mark Four, would you
believe?) the new TV series had only just been announced.
By the time you read this and listen to the two shiny
discs, the series will have been transmitted!
But I’m
here with a new audio that has something very important
to my memories of Doctor Who and that no story
in the new TV series will have: four episodes, with
a cliffhanger at the end of three of them.
My wife calls
the cliffhangers in Doctor Who (she’s
a fan too) ‘diddly-dums’. We both love them.
Bizarre as it seems, my main ambition in terms of Doctor
Who, sadly not fulfilled before now, was to write
something with proper diddly-dums. It’s a small
ambition to have, yet a strangely satisfying one to
fulfill. Declaring myself Emperor of the World someday
will probably have a bigger impact, but, well, it’s
Docter Who, with diddly-dums!
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David A. McIntee,
January 2005 |
David A.
McIntee has written more Doctor Who novels than
he can count these days, as well as a previous Big Finish
audio, Excelis Rising. When not writing books,
he explores historical sites, researches Fortean subjects,
teaches stage-fighting workshops and collects science-fiction
weaponry. His role models in life are the Fourth Doctor,
Kerr Avon, Graeme Garden and Eddie Hitler, so members
of the public should be wary of approaching him. |
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Production Notes:
David Mclntee originally submitted the synopsis of Mark
Four back in November 2003. However, as it featured Daleks,
who were scheduled to appear elsewhere in the range, producer
Gary Russell passed on the story. Liking the central idea,
he asked for a reworking of it without the Daleks. Or
indeed the Cybermen, as Mclntee flippantly suggested later.
Submitted with the Fifth Doctor in mind, Russell asked
for it to become an Ace and Hex adventure with the Seventh.
After a few ideas concerning Hex’s parentage, Mclntee
decided instead to go for Mel, especially as Sylvester
McCoy had pointed out how few stories he’d done
with Bonnie Langford for Big Finish. The
final version of the script was somewhat over-long,
and quite a few sequences involving exploding motor
cars and extremely unpleasant torture devices were cropped,
as was a split personality for Louis, who was also known
as Meles (based, rather Faustianly, on Lucifer and Memephistopheles).
The
writer made a few demands, such as begging for certain
actors, none of whom he got because they worked in Hollywood
and/or would cost millions of dollars!
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Who's Who?
The Seventh Doctor
First television appearance: "Time
and the Rani"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "Unregenerate!"
He
has been exploring the universe for hundreds of years.
He fights injus¬tice. He defeats evil. He helps people.
Since his regeneration, The Doctor - now travelling with
his friend, Mel - has been a little unpredictable. One
moment he can be frivolous and fun, the other he’s
thoughtful and serious. How will this affect his friendship
with Mel?
Melanie Bush
First television appearance: "The
Trial of a Time Lord"
First chronological Big Finish audio appearance: "The
One Doctor".
A
computer expert from twentieth-century Earth - Pease Pottage,
East Sussex, to be specific - Melanie Jane Bush is young,
bright and enthusi¬astic. She enjoys her time with
The Doctor and the adventures they have. They met for
the first time from Mel’s point of view in 1989
- however, The Doctor had by this point seen his future
and had already met Miss Bush! However, The Doctor has
recently regenerated... Can Mel still trust her friend? |
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Full Cast List:
| The Doctor |
Sylvester McCoy |
| Melanie |
Bonnie Langford |
| Louis #2 |
John Aston |
| Rigan |
Gail Clayton |
| Johannes Rausch |
Hugh Hemmings |
| Shokhra |
Sam Peter Jackson |
| Professor Klyst |
Jennie Linden |
| The Cabbie |
Toby Longworth |
| Louis |
Jamie Sandford |
The Production Team:
| Writer |
David A. McIntee |
| Director |
John Ainsworth |
| Sound/Music |
Ian Potter |
| Theme Music |
David Darlington |
| Producers |
Gary Russell and
Jason Haigh-Ellery |
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