| MINUET IN HELL by Gary Russell & Alan W. Lear |
| Story 19 Synopsis: The Doctor wakes up amnesiac in a lunatic asylum with Gideon Crane, who arrived the same night. The asylum is run by Brigham Dashwood, would-be governor of the newly-formed 51st state of Malebolgia, and its key principle is the removal of the mind of the patient during surgery, before replacement after the cure. Dashwood also runs the Hellfire Club, where Charley finds herself similarly amnesiac, forcibly employed as a 'hostess'. Dashwood is also in thrall to a demon, Marchosias. Malebolgia's independence and the asylum, are being investigated by former Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. He believes the asylum's new programme of mind-removal could have dangerous intentions. But he doesn't realise Dashwood's true plan, to use the machine to provide new homes for more demons. The Doctor suffers at the hands of the machine, but eventually puts himself back together. He identified Marchosias as really being a Psionovore, the real brains behind the machine. After tricking Dashwood into revealing his true nature to voters, the Doctor manages to destroy the machine, which takes Dashwood and Marchosias with it. The restored Charley is worried about a suggestion that she's dead, but the Doctor denies it could be true. He wishes Lethbridge-Stewart farewell. |
| Review:- The initial brief 'season' with Paul McGann as the Doctor concluded with this American tail of mind warps and demonic possessions... and old friends. The extended running time (about half an hour longer than normal) is utilised by a complicated plot which seems to be packed with ideas yet stricken by having the various plot strands all overlapping. Dashwood's campaign for governor runs in parallel with his demon worshipping. His establishment of his asylum is in parallel with his work at the Hellfire Club. And then there's the double dealing about the special mind machine cf. The Mind Of Evil. It's small wonder the Brigadier is worried... McGann is lumbered with the unsatisfying plot of playing an amnesiac, or partial amnesiac. What became almost a running joke in some of the books, is here taken seriously, and shown for the pish it clearly is. His inter-relation with Gideon Crane, voiced by BF all-rounder Nicholas Briggs, provides quite unusual padding for the first half of the story, with the threat that the Doctor's mind might be wiped, or fragmented, for ever. Luckily, he avoids this, without explanation. Charley has the tedious pleasure of working at the Hellfire Club, and being chosen by Dashwood as his demon bride to be (though her brief run-in with the Psionovores that allows her release because of her 'death' is a cunning reminder of her overall arc, put to good use). As if that weren't shlocky enough, she's also teamed with Becky Lee, an implausible religiose do-gooder whose special power seems of little practical use, especially against demonic aliens. If, as seems likely, she's meant to refer to boring 1990's US drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer, then it's not exactly a flattering parallel. And the convenience that her uncle happens to be Dashwood's main political rival, Waldo Pickering, is asking too much for credibility. Dashwood makes a more interesting bad guy than the one-note Marchosias, though his extolling the position of using televangelism to make money and promote diabolism, seems just one more stick in the pot. His connection to the asylum doesn't quite fit, the dodgy third side of a very scalene triangle. Amidst all this comes the Brigadier, ostensibly snooping for the British, but really just providing a thin excuse for the new Doctor to meet his longest-standing friend. He fails to correctly judge that Zebadiah is the Doctor, not Gideon, but he does come up trumps in the conclusion, altering Dashwood's broadcast after his semi-convincing portrayal of a frail old man. Overall, it's a four-course meal full of ideas, but which, force-fed without time to digest, leave a queasy stomach, and a tired palate. Perhaps if I were someone to whom 'minuet' was in everyday vocabulary, it would seem better. But I'm not, and it doesn't. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |