Unregenerate was my second Dr Who audio for Big Finish. Sylvester McCoy stars as the Seventh Doctor, with Bonnie Langford as Mel. In this story, Mel has taken a day off from the Doctor, and is stood up by him when she tries to rejoin him. With the help of the TARDIS itself, and a cabbie, Mel discovers that the Doctor has been locked up in a strange insane asylum, full of mysterious creatures...

The story runs four episodes, and is available both on CD and as a download at Big Finish - just click on the image of the cover there to go to the appropriate page of their site.

Cover Blurb

“In a run-down asylum, screams echo in the halls as mysterious creatures roam, terrorizing 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....”

CAST:

1. THE DOCTOR- Sylvester McCoy.
2. MELANIE BUSH- Bonnie Langford
3. THE CABBIE- Toby Longworth.
4. PROFESSOR KLYST- Jennie Linden
5. JOHANNES RAUSCH- Hugh Hemmings
6. RIGAN- Gail Clayton
7. LOUIS #1- Jamie Sandford
8. LOUIS #2- John Aston
9. SHOKHRA- Sam Peter Jackson

Crew and behind the scenes goodies

• Directed by John Ainsworth
• Produced by Gary Russell and Jason Haigh-Ellery
• Music and Sound Design by Ian Potter
• Cover by Lee Binding

The story began life as a companionless Sixth Doctor proposal called Mark Four, which would have involved the Daleks. Gary Russell liked the basic idea behind the story, but wanted to leave off the Daleks, and use the Time Lords instead - which was a bit tricky, as what could the the Time Lords do that involved putting one species into another? Nevertheless, I thought about how TARDISes were supposedly sentient and had telepathic links to their pilots, and that seemed to be the way to go. After reassuring Gary that I wasn't just trying to fit in with the books that featured humanoid TARDISes and the like...

I wanted to play to the strengths of Bonnie Langford as Mel, having disliked the TV character, but enjoyed her book and audio appearances. I also asked Gary if he minded if I didn't have her scream - I had no idea that she'd had it written into her contract that she wouldn't do screams! I wanted to give her all the heroic and, dare I say, Doctor-ish bits to do. For the Cabbie I wanted a sort of less-dodgy Dave Courtney character, and at some point felt that Al Murray would be a good choice for the part. Unfortunately, somewhere in between suggesting that to John and Gary, and his agent asking for far more than the budget could allow, the Pub Landlord had taken over the part more than consciously intended! Which meant heavy rewriting to get him back to supporting status. When John asked if I had a second actor in mind for the role I said Toby Longworth, having enjoyed him as Dredd - and conveniently that's who John had in mind anyway! Contrary to popular belief, I never suggested Christopher Walken (but how cool would that be?!) - but I did mention him in a stage direction. As for the rest of the cast, it was cool to have Jennie Linden, but my only comments were that it should be people who could play the scientists as professionals doing a day job, not as mad scientists.

Because another story fell through, Unregenerate's release was brought forward by almost a year, and I'd screwed up on the timing to the degree that there was enough material for five episodes, which meant a sudden large rewrite, on the same day as I was delivering the novel Destination Zero - which going straight to the printers chapter by chapter on account of its being a fill-in for another drop-out from that schedule... So I edited Unregenerate as much as possible, and director John Ainsworth gave it a nice polish too. It was recorded on November 16th and 17th 2004, and released in June 2005. John and the cast did a great job, and I'm very happy with it, though I'd be far happier still with Colin and Daleks in it!