Review: Minuet in Hell

Paul McGann's first season of audio stories comes to an end with Minuet in Hell, by Alan W. Lear and Gary Russell, a serial which sees the return of a popular character from the TV series. It's fair to say that accepted fan opinion about this story is quite negative, with many listeners citing it amongst the worst of Big Finish Productions' Who output.

The plot sees us join an amnesiac (again) Eighth Doctor in a mental home, and a similarly memory-lacking Charley Pollard forced to work as - and I quote - a "pretty little satin bottom" in a gentlemen's club. They spend most of the first two episodes not knowing who they are, gradually remembering their identities and how they came to be in the situation. Both are in America at the start of the twenty-first century, in the newly-formed state of Malebolgia, where Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart is doing some investigating, and demons feed off negative emotion . . .

Beginning with the most common complaint about this story - the American characters are all played by British actors and actresses, and their accents fail to convince. In fact, so do their general performances, with some of the most hammy and camp acting Doctor Who has ever seen. And yes, a lot of the time, the cast are laughable, but there's also a certain charm to the performances - not in a so-bad-it's-good sort of way, but in a cute and experimental way. Clearly, Big Finish were trying to do something different and special, and setting the play in the near future in America is part of that; whilst a lot of elements don't work, you can clearly see and appreciate what they were trying to attempt.

The only other elements that didn't work for me were Charley (a few too many "Rather!"-type lines), and the Brigadier's convenient habit of reading aloud as he types his secret emails for the benefit of those who may be listening. Paul McGann and Nicholas Briggs, on the other hand, put in excellent turns, and the returning Nicholas Courtney slips effortlessly back into his role, all three coping well with some shaky material.

Perhaps, having heard so many negative opinions about Minuet before listening to it for the first time, I had lower expectations than normal - I don't know. But, in all honesty, I did enjoy the story on the whole, devouring it in one long sitting and finding it interesting and satisfying. The cliffhanger at the end of episode two is one of the best moments of this entire season, and the whole adventure has a fantastically epic feel to it, which succeeds despite this misfires.

Minuet in Hell has few poor performances and some clunky exposition, but it's a story that is, at its core, fairly good. It's a change in tone and style from the previous stories, it's experimental and different, and that should be commended. Not the best - definitely not the best! - but an improvement on Stones of Venice, and it's easy to find something to enjoy here.