Unregenerate!

"He's recently regenerated..."

Writer: David A. McIntee

Format: Audio

Released: June 2005

Series: Main Range 70

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Mel

Synopsis 

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...

Verdict 

Unregenerate! was a bit of a mixed bag audio adventure and whilst the good did outweigh the bad, I still thought there was quite a bit of room for improvement. It seemed a bit rushed towards the end when there was no need as I felt that the build up was actually a little slow. The plot was strange and enigmatic which is good but at times I think a little more clarity and explanation was needed. It was just missing that burst of energy to enhance its excitement which I think is a vital element in an audio story, especially one that is close to being two hours long. They can be a little difficult to listen to at times which I suppose is only natural with a lack of visuals so something needs to jump out and grab my attention and I felt that only partially occurred in this story. The name of the story caught my attention and because of it I've been wanting to listen to the audio for a long time now and whilst the focus was on regeneration for a time, there was no real hint of unregeneration. I assume that would be a similar process to what the Tenth Doctor went through in The Fountains of Forever/Spiral Staircase/Sins of the Father but it wasn't even talked about. All we knew was that the story was very early on in the life of the Seventh Doctor since his regeneration and there were quite a few references to Time and the Rani which were great but not exactly surprising. The idea of a mental asylum setting was obviously a good one and I loved that the Doctor himself seemed to be the prime patient. For the first two parts, I thought Sylvester McCoy gave an extremely powerful performance and he was the star of the story for the first hour or so but once he had 'recovered' back to his normal self, I thought the story lost its appeal. There was a mystery behind why the Seventh Doctor was apparently mentally insane and I don't think that was made enough of during the story. I did like the relationship between Mel and the Cabbie as his character was named and they did share come pretty cool scenes together. His reactions to the aliens and Mel's having dealt with them before was very good I must say. I thought Louis was a fantastic character and hearing him regenerate at the part three cliffhanger really was quite a surprise. The revelation about the presence of the Time Lords in this story really was surprising which is great but I just felt that by the time it came out, there wasn't enough of the story left for the idea to be explored. That really was quite a shame as I did think that the idea was good and that it was just the execution that was poor. It could have, and probably should have, been a lot better than it was and when that happens with a story I can't help but get a little frustrated. I know it can be good but it's just missing little bits that prove costly when it comes to my rating. The relationship between the Doctor and Mel was excellent though and I loved the continuation of the latter's photographic memory. That's something I am envious of although I think I partly use a similar technique when revising. The ending was pretty good but I did think that it could have been more climatic and filled with some suspense. Nevertheless, despite the fact I've probably been a bit critical in this blog entry, the story wasn't bad and was actually pretty decent. Overall, good but improvement needed!

Rating: 7/10