| MEDICINAL PURPOSES by Robert Ross |
| Story 60 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in a dark tunnel, and an encounter with a good-time girl named Mary, and her friend Daft Jamie, reminds the Doctor of Edinburgh, and the case of famous bodysnatchers Burke and Hare. To Evelyn's surprised revulsion, he decides to meet them. But at The Last Drop, he only meets Hare - and neither he nor Mary have heard of Burke. In fact, they're both lying, and Daft Jamie says so. Hare goes to warn his associate, Dr Knox. Evelyn and Mary pay Knox a visit, where he drops a clanger. The Doctor immediately realises, and heads off to confront him, to find Knox's house vanished. Later, he makes another attempt, realising that Knox simply has a Type 70 TARDIS, which he claims to have bought. He has infected many local people with a virus in a search for a cure, and then kills the sufferers to check the results. The Doctor suspects that he can't change history back. He realises that Knox is not immune to the virus, and so takes Daft Jamie and Evelyn back to the TARDIS, travelling forward a few months to see Hare's execution. Knox turns up, and claims victory, but the Doctor is able to get Jamie to cough on Knox and pass on the virus, thus leaving him unable to carry out more experiments in Edinburgh. Though unable to stop Knox altogether, history should carry on as normal. The Doctor and Evelyn take Jamie back to his place in history. |
| Review: Gloomy times in Scotland, and a foul criminal is at work... The question of historical adventures is whether the Doctor's interference means famous events are his fault, or whether he stands idle during disaster. Apparently, the original plan for this story involved Jack the Ripper, though the change of scenery at least cast lights on a fresher sets of crooks: Burke and Hare, bodysnatchers vile. By using such a setting, Ross is already halfway there, as Mary and Daft Jamie are already part of the story. To enable some semblance of originality, he also creates Doctor Knox. Knox is deftly played by veteran actor Leslie Phillips, almost twirling a moustache at the casual villainy he carries out. His use of a TARDIS, and his abuse of time make him quite a forceful foe for this Doctor, a macabre, modern day Meddling Monk. His ends seems rather more brutal than those of other time meddlers the Doctor has crossed before. Even the Rani seemed more humane. The use of Knox provides a hook to present a twist on the Burke-Hare story. It's perhaps tiresome that the Doctor is more familiar with their story than Evelyn is, but the discrepancies included are intriguing in the right way - after all, if Burke & Hare are supposedly thick as thieves, the prospect that they don't know each other puts the cat amongst the pigeons. Aside from Phillips, the other notable cast member is one David Tennant, last heard in the ham-fest that was Colditz. Here, he gets to play Scottish instead of German, and is excellently enjoyable in the vulnerable role of Daft Jamie. Given his later on-screen casting, the brief scenes where his character joins the Doctor and Evelyn aboard the TARDIS, have a certain amusing irony. Having heard the trailer for this story several times on the end of other releases, I feared his plantive cry of "No-one can shout/no-one can shout/no-one can shout when the Doctor's about!" would drive me mad, but thankfully it's only a brief part of the play after all. At least he moderates his accent. Sadly, others are so OTT Scottish that they seem to have escaped from Rab C. Nesbitt. This is distracting, and at least none of the major players let the side down in this way. Burke, Hare and Mary are all solidly presented, and though their inclusion is at least debated between the Doctor and Evelyn, their work is secondary to the mischievous Knox. His comeuppance is neatly done, and provides a fine conclusion to a play on the brink of bafflement. Despite a lack of promise, there is a decent story here, and no small entertainment, either. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |