Red

"I feel like killing you. I can see red."

Writer: Stewart Sheargold
Format: Audio
Released: August 2006
Series: Main Range 85

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

Subject 2660  Celia Fortunate, designated citizen of the needle. Subject experiencing traumatic, violent delusions during waking moments. Subject remains passified and under control of Whitenoise. Medication has been prescribed.

Subject0357 Vi Yulquen, designated Matriarch of the needle. Subject is under constant surveillance due to her wish to experience harm. This is in direct contravention of Whitenoise's programming. Also supplier of the drug classified as Slow. Editing is required.

Subject 0841  Chief Blue. Technician in symbiotic relationship with this Whitenoise system. Knowledgeable in human psychological evaluation. Subject has been diagnosed a voyeur, and has a dangerous obsession with the Red Tape. Machine augmentation is favoured to curb this defect.

Subject [error]  Melanie Bush, designation companion of subject 3999. Subject [error] is not chipped and is a threat. Her ability to harm has not been checked, compromising the continued security programming of this Whitenoise system. She must be inihibited.

Subject 3999  the Doctor. Subject has committed homicide. This subject now in constant redline. His propensity for violence remains unchecked. Analysis suggests synchronisation with the killer. The Doctor will attempt to kill again. He must be stopped.

Verdict


Red was a pretty decent audio adventure but I do think it could have been slightly better if I’m being honest. I still very much enjoyed it but it didn’t quite grip me and provide what I was hoping for. Now, it has been too long since I’ve done a train journey from South to Mid Wales but Christmas calls and I’m finally seeing that side of my family again. The journey always means something gets blogged and I was sadly too tired to read a novel but a full-length audio certainly suffices in my eyes. I was interested right from the get go which is usually a good sign but the story just seemed like it was waiting for something to happen without something impactful actually materialising. I thought the pairing of the Seventh Doctor and Mel was good but I’m not sure I liked how vulnerable our resonant hero was in this story. His links with the killer were good and I liked the explanation of how that was to do with their shared ability to time travel. Celia was a good character and I liked the revelation surrounding her involvement with the killer but I do think it could have had more of an effect. The whole concept of Red was intriguing and I liked how it was to do with violence. The fact that it prevented the action but not the thought as well was of particular interest to me as that seemed rather harsh. Whitenoise was a great character I must say and I liked how we had another maniacal machine to accompany the likes of WOTAN in the Doctor Who universe. Vi was a good character but she was another one who I was hoping to hear a little bit more from. The same could be said about  Uviol to be honest. One massive positive of this adventure was the cliffhanger to part two where it appeared that the Doctor was going to kill Mel. Or at least feel it as if he was doing so. I’m not sure he’d have been able to cope with that but the idea was superb. However, I expected the story to really kick on from there but sadly it wasn’t quite the case. It seemed to stagnate during part three and I’m not sure if my bitterness at the football game I attended prior to boarding the train was coming to the surface but I was actually a little annoyed it wasn’t better. That’s because I loved the idea behind the story and its potential but it wasn’t quite what I hoped for. And that’s absolutely fine, I still enjoyed it! The concept of Slow was interesting and I imagine it induced a temporal equivalent of vetting high on drugs. That in itself is quite an intriguing area of exploration. Chief Blue and Drawn were good characters and I thought the former’s erasure by Whitenoise was probably the most shocking moment of the audio. That was good though as I like to be taken by surprise in some stages. The stages of Red were pretty good but I did find it a little disturbing in some instances to listen to. The whole obsession and taking over of the character went a little too far for my liking and I must admit it did put me off a tad. That wasn’t a major issue and I can see how some listeners would have liked it but it just wasn’t quite to my taste. The ending was pretty decent but a little anticlimactic with the killer being trapped on the chips. The revelation behind how it came to be was decent but I was hoping for something more. Overall though, despite my sounding critical, I still very much enjoyed the story! 

Rating: 7/10