The Vanity Box

"Let the years roll back and back and back..."

Writer: Paul Magrs
Format: Audio
Released: July 2007
Series: Main Range 97b

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis

A strange beauty parlour has opened its doors for business in a dowdy Salford terrace circa 1965. Monsieur Coiffure is the talk of the street with his fabulous make-overs. When the Doctor arrives, however, he knows at once that there's been some unnatural titivation going on.

Verdict

The Vanity Box was another decent little story but in what seems to be a common theme with the Main Range of late, I felt that it suffered by only being a one-part story. Twenty-six minutes just isn't quite enough to get the higher level of ratings sadly but I'm quite relieved that there is only one more of these formatted stories left during this current point of the series. It just hasn't quite worked for me and whilst I can understand the desire for a slight niggle for the format to keep things fresh, four-part stories is the formula that works best for Doctor Who and I really don't think that needs to be meddled with. This story seemed to continue right where The Wishing Beast left off which I thought made sense but I have to say I didn't expect it to feature the same enemy! The one-part stories on recent releases have been completely independent of their three-part counterpart but this one was a sequel and a prequel to the main story of the release which was quite interesting. I did like the connections but the prospect of the Doctor and Mel immediately encountering the Wishing Beast seemed a little unlikely. However, The Ark shows us that the TARDIS can land absolutely anywhere so that doesn't come into effect when deciding my rating for the audio. The setting of Salford in 1965 was just a common British setting and I really liked that. There are far too many stories set in London so this was a refreshing change. The gossiping between Nesta and Winnie was quite humorous at times and I loved their conversation about the TARDIS having arrived. The talk of the town was the latest goings-on in Monsieur Coiffure's salon and women in the area were becoming twenty years younger. It was something more than a makeover and with talk of things being strange there, the Doctor couldn't help but comically go undercover. I thought Colin Baker's take on impersonating an older woman was delightful and it really showed the fun side of the Sixth Doctor. The way that he found out he was encountering the Wishing Beast again was decent and I did like that the creature hadn't met the Doctor yet. The way the flight path of the TARDIS was used for the Wishing Beast to go and haunt the Applewhite sisters was good and I did like that the Doctor's age caused the Beast pain and confusion. The vanity box was soon rendered obsolete and Coiffure wouldn't have much luck in reinvigorating the looks of the local population. Overall, a decent story but just a little short.

Rating: 7/10