The Tertiary Console Room: Review - Doctor Who

'I just wish sometimes people could sort their problems out all by themselves! I mean, why does it always have to be me?'

The Doctor and Mel arrive in the far future, only to find that someone has already saved the people of Generios instead. One of the local inhabitants of the planet tells them that the Doctor saved them. Mel suggests that it’s another incarnation whose arrived first, but the Doctor doubts that. He believes that someone has been impersonating him, and the Doctor is determined to find out who. However there is a greater threat to the Generios system waiting to make itself known...

Gareth Roberts and Clayton Hickman’s The One Doctor sees Colin Baker teamed up with Bonnie Langford for the first time on audio, and given the circumstances of their previous appearances in The Trial Of The Time Lord, this story marks their first full story together. Ever since the title for this story was announced, there has been much speculation upon what it would be like, but it doesn’t disappoint at all.

The One Doctor is a superb triumph, demonstrating the variety of the Doctor Who format tremendously by being unlike any previous release by Big Finish. It’s very much a comedy at heart, and whereas previous audio stories have had humour present, they were nowhere near on the same scale as exhibited here. The One Doctor is a positive riot of humour from start to finish, with the magnificent, sharply written script brimming with quality which never fails to be anything but hugely entertaining. Coupled with excellent performances from its all star cast and good direction as well, The One Doctor is one release not to be missed.

If The One Doctor has any fault, then it lies with its plot, which is a little reminiscent of the quest type stories of The Keys Of Marinus and The Chase in the way that it’s structured into a series of different set pieces. There’s nothing wrong with this at all, but had lesser writers than Roberts and Hickman have attempted something similar, then the results could very easily have been disappointing. But the plot of The One Doctor is less important than on other releases because it’s not trying to be a regular release. It’s written to be purely fun and entertaining, and that makes a very refreshing change of pace.

Some of the television Doctor Who stories where comedy was the main element fell quite badly because the performances weren’t up to much, but as this is a Sixth Doctor story, there was very little danger of that happening here. Each of the actors and actresses involved in The One Doctor put in very good performances and bring the script to life skilfully.

Colin Baker is excellent as usual. The renaissance of the Sixth Doctor is now well and truly complete with Baker demonstrating time and time again how good he can be as the Doctor when given decent scripts. While previous Sixth Doctor stories have hinted at what a good comedic, as well as dramatic, actor Baker is, The One Doctor lets him showcase this perfectly. Many of Colin’s scenes here are highly amusing, such as the opening exchange with Mel for example, and very memorable. Roberts and Hickman get the balance of his character just right as well with the right amount of his old television arrogance and the more well balanced version of the Sixth Doctor established by the audios and the Doctor Who novels.

In her previous audio appearance, Bonnie Langford proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could act much better than her few appearances in the television series showed, and The One Doctor continues this. She’s quite excellent as Mel here, showing none of the annoying characteristics that so blighted her television performances, and the repartee she develops with Colin Baker is superb, illustrating how good they might have been on television given more time together. Bonnie seems to really enjoy herself in this audio (as do all the cast in fact), and it tells in her performance which benefits no end from this.

The main guest stars of The One Doctor are Christopher Biggins and Clare Buckfield as Banto Zame and Sally-Ann Stubbins. Whilst the cast lists from the CD booklet make it clear that Biggins isn’t actually a future Doctor, he is actually quite convincing in the role as ‘the Doctor’ during the first episode and he and Sally-Ann form a good team. The idea of someone impersonating the Doctor is a very admirable one, and in the hands of these writers it works superbly well with Zame coming across as a rogue out to scam as many people as possible for as much as possible with his deception. The confrontations between him and the real Doctor are some of the audios many, many highlights. Clare Buckfield does very well as Sally-Ann, putting in a good performance alternating between her naive companion put on persona and her more lecherous true self with relish.

The rest of the cast’s performances are good as well. Matt Lucas, recently seen in an episode of the new Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) series, does well in his two roles as the Cylinder and the Jelloid, and Adam Buxton, of Channel 4’s The Adam and Joe Show, is excellent as one of the two Assemblers - who are themselves an excellent creation. Jane Goddard’s performance as The Questioner is clearly influenced by Anne Robinson’s Weakest Link persona, and in the context of the section which it appears is very apposite.

Gary Russell’s direction is excellent, ensuring that he gets the best of the actors involved so that they all perform well with the bizarre characters they play. The story is very well realised with a very appropriate, futuristic score from Alistair Lock and some very evocative sound design which helps to establish the society of the Generios society, and also adds greatly to the comedy of the story.

The One Doctor is enormous fun, and to discuss specifically all of the many highlights of the story would spoil one of the best releases from Big Finish so far. There is so much to enjoy in this release whether it’s the sharply comedic script, the excellent performances or the many surprises that The One Doctor has in store for the listener, that it stands as one of the most memorable releases so far. In fact, it’s quite possibly the funniest piece of performed Doctor Who ever. The One Doctor is superb, and in a year when there have been many quality releases stands as one of the very best. It is entirely and unequivocally recommended.