Details for Doctor Who Short Trips: Mel - evolent

Out this month from Big Finish's download only line is a 6th Doctor adventure narrated by Bonnie Langford who played Mel during the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy era.  This story is unique as it takes place in the TARDIS.  You can order this download only release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/mel-evolent-1557

Mirror mirror on the wall, something stalks the TARDIS halls...

A glimpsed reflection in a dark and dusty corner leads Mel on a journey Through The Looking Glass.

Witchcraft and shadows reign.

Mel must face the evil at the heart of it all, while the Doctor battles to save a TARDIS determined to prove it’s not only bigger on the inside, but darker. Much darker.

Producer Ian Atkins
Script Editor Ian Atkins
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Written By: Simon A Forward
Directed By: Helen Goldwyn

Cast
Bonnie Langford (Narrator)

Details for Doctor Who - The Silurian Candidate

This months main range release sees the 7th Doctor going up against the Silurians.  You can order this Doctor Who audio adventure from the Big finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-silurian-candidate-1259

The year is 2085, and planet Earth remains on the edge of a nuclear precipice. At any moment, either of two vast rival power blocs, to the West and the East, might unleash a torrent of missiles, bringing about the terrible certainty of Mutual Assured Destruction.

But there is another way – or so Professor Ruth Drexler believes. Hence her secret mission deep in Eastern bloc territory, to uncover a hidden city, never before glimpsed by human eyes: the Parliament of the Silurians, the lizard people who ruled the Earth before humankind.

There, she’ll encounter a time-travelling Doctor, who knows the Silurians well. A Doctor on a secret mission of his own.

Written By: Matthew J Elliott
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Fiona Sheehan (Ruth Drexler/ Avvox), Nicholas Asbury (Chairman Bart Falco), Nicholas Briggs (Chordok), Caitlin Thorburn (Karlas), Ignatius Anthony (Gorrister), Louise Mai Newberry (Director Shen).

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Alan Barnes
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details for Doctor Who - The Blood Furnace

This month's main range features the TARDIS crew of the 7th Doctor Ace and Mel.  This time they are in England of 1991 and on the hunt of an alien assassin.  You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-blood-furnace-1258

The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Ace and Mel to a recently reopened shipyard in Merseyside. It's 1991, the hardest of times - but now they're shipbuilding once again, thanks to the yard's new owners, the Dark Alloy Corporation. A miracle of job creation - but is it too good to be true?

While the Doctor and Ace go in search of an alien assassin at loose in the yard, Stuart Dale, discoverer of the near-magical Dark Alloy material, has an extraordinary proposition to make to his old college friend, Mel.

But who is the Corporation’s mysterious client? Who does she really represent? And what's the secret of the Blood Furnace? Seeking answers, the Doctor and friends are about to find themselves in very deep water…

Written By: Eddie Robson
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush), Julie Graham (Carolyn), Jade Anouka (Danuta), Todd Heppenstall (Stuart Dale), Clare Calbraith (Orla), Louis Tamone (Vinny), Ignatius Anthony (Lee).

Other parts played by members of the cast.

Producer David Richardson
Script Editor Alan Barnes
Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Details for Doctor Who "The High Price of Parking"

This months main range release sees the 7th Doctor in an adventure with his two companions Mel and Ace. You can order this audio adventure at the Big Finish website.

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-high-price-of-parking-1257

The planet Dashrah is a world of exceptional beauty. Historical ruins; colourful skies; swirling sunsets…

Unsurprisingly, it’s a major tourist trap. So if you want to visit Dashrah, first you’ll have to visit Parking, the artificial planetoid that Galactic Heritage built next door. Parking, as its name implies, is a spaceship park. A huge spaceship park. A huge, enormous spaceship park.

When the TARDIS materialises in Parking’s Northern Hemisphere, the Doctor, Ace and Mel envisage a quick teleport trip to the surface of Dashrah. But they’ve reckoned without the superzealous Wardens, and their robotic servitors… the sect of the Free Parkers, who wage war against the Wardens… the spontaneously combusting spaceships… and the terrifying secret that lies at the lowest of Parking’s lower levels.

Written By: John Dorney

Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Bonnie Langford (Mel Bush), Gabrielle Glaister (Cowley), Hywel Morgan (Kempton/ Tribesman), Kate Duchene (Regina/ Seraphim), Leighton Pugh (Fulton), Jack Monaghan (Dunne/ Selfdrive), James Joyce (Robowardens).

Producer David Richardson

Script Editor Alan Barnes

Executive Producers Jason Haigh-Ellery and Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who - The Ultimate Foe Review

Celebrating 30 years of Colin Baker's season 23 story The Trial of a Time Lord

Doctor Who:

The Trial of a Time Lord

The Ultimate Foe

By Robert Holmes Episode 13

Pip and Jane Baker Episode 14

“In all my travellings throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation, decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core. Ha! Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power, that's what it takes to be really corrupt.”

After the turn of events from Terror of the Vervoids  The Doctor is now on trial for genocide to go along with the charges of meddling.  The Inquisitor tells The Doctor that he can call witnesses to help his cause but how can he get them as they are all scattered throughout space and time.   When suddenly Mel and Glitz appear at the trial and this turn of events catches The Valeyard by surprise.  

Then a more shocking turn of events as The Master appears on the Matrix screen offering to help The Doctor.  The Master shows proof that The Doctor is correct that the Matrix can be entered by anyone and events can be altered as he shows the key of the Matrix he has that has dumbfounded the Keeper of the Matrix.  The Master beckons the Time Lords to let Sabalom Glitz give his testimony.  Glitz explains that on Ravalox he was there to steal the secrets of the Matrix that the Sleepers had stolen.  It appears that the tide might be turning for The Doctor.

Doctor Who - Terror of the Vervoids Review

Celebrating 30 years of Colin Baker's season 23 story The Trial of a Time Lord

Doctor Who:
Terror of the Vervoids
By Pip and Jane Baker

VALEYARD: Whether or not the Doctor has proved himself innocent of meddling is no longer the cardinal issue before this court. He has proved himself guilty of a far greater crime.
INQUISITOR: You refer to Article Seven of Gallifreyan law?
DOCTOR: No, my lady, that cannot apply! Had a single Vervoid reached Earth, the human race would have been eliminated!
VALEYARD: Article seven permits no exceptions. The Doctor has destroyed a complete species. The charge must now be genocide.

The Doctor is now ready to present his case after a short time to mourn the death of Peri shows the court an adventure from his future.  The Doctor and new companion Mel respond to a distress signal from the Hyperion 3.  Apparently there is something sinister going on as a string of murders has taken place.  The Commodore is an old friend of The Doctor and lets him take charge of the investigation.

Details For Doctor Who Maker of Demons

Out this month from Big Finish's Main Range of Doctor Who audio adventures is the second of the Mel and Ace trilogy that sees the 7th Doctor returns them to the planet Prosper where things are not the same as before.  You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/maker-of-demons-1055

Decades ago, the mysterious time-travelling Doctor and his cheerful companion Mel became the toast of the planet Prosper, when they brokered a peace between the native Mogera and humans from the colony ship The Duke of Milan.

But when the TARDIS at last returns to Prosper, the Doctor, Mel and their associate Ace find only a warzone. The burrowing Mogera have become brutal monsters, dominated by their terrifying leader Caliban – and it's all the Doctor's fault!

Written By: Matthew J Elliott
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Andrew Hall (Alonso/Gonzalo), Lucy Briggs-Owen (Miranda), Rachel Atkins (Juno), Ewan Goddard (Talpa), Aaron Neil (Stephano/Klossi/Trink/Setebos). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Doctor Who Fiesta of The Damned Cover and Details

This month's main range release sees the adventures of the 7th Doctor, Ace and Mel continue with an adventure set in Spain in the year 1938.  You can order this adventure from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/fiesta-of-the-damned-1054

In search of "a taste of the real Spain", the TARDIS transports the Doctor, Ace and rejoined crewmember Mel not to sizzling Fuerteventura, or the golden sands of the Costa Brava – but to 1938, amid the horrors of the Spanish Civil War.

Having fallen in with a rag-tag column of Republican soldiers, the time and space travellers seek shelter from Franco's bombers in the walled town of Farissa – only to discover themselves besieged by dead men returned to life...

Written By: Guy Adams 
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Enzo Squillino Jnr (Juan Romero), Christopher Hatherall (George Newman), Owen Aaronovitch (Antonio Ferrando/Control Unit), Tom Alexander (Luis/Phillipe). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Doctor Who - Details on A Life of Crime

This month's Main Range adventure sees The 7th Doctor and Ace meeting up with Mel as she is on the run from criminal associates.  This adventure can be purchased from the Big Finish website.
https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/a-life-of-crime-1053

Come to Ricosta! Tropical climate, untouched beaches, fabulous cuisine... and no extradition treaties. The perfect retirement planet for a certain type of 'business person' – such as Ms Melanie Bush, formerly the co-owner of the Iceworld emporium, now on the run from her former criminal associate's criminal associates...

Some other former associates of Ms Bush are abroad in this space Costa del Crime, however. Not long ago, the time and space traveller known as the Doctor arrived here, alongside his sometimes-criminal associate, the reformed juvenile offender Ace. But now the Doctor's gone missing – and Melanie Bush is about to learn that on the planet Ricosta, the wages of sin... are death.

Written By: Matt Fitton
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Ginny Holder (Gloria/Secretary), Des McAleer (Lefty Lonnigan), Stephen Hagan (Nathan Later), Harry Myers (Atomon/Sperovore Banker/Steward), John Banks (Mayor/Sperovore Auditor/Sperovore Financer). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

Doctor Who - Terror of the Sontarans Review

Terror of the Sontarans
By John Dorney and 
Dan Starkey
Starring Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie 
Langford

The Doctor and Mel are responding to a distress signal on a hostile alien world to find that the base that the signal originated from is deserted.   But they stumble upon a Sontaran that doesn’t seem all that mighty and appears to be afraid of something.  Soon another group of Sontarans have arrived searching for the missing research team.  The Doctor soon discovers that there is an evil on this planet that is more of a threat than a bunch of warmongering Sontarans something so evil that it drives humans and Sontarans mad that it eventually drives them to death.  So it’s up to The Doctor and Mel to figure out a way to save everyone human and Sontaran without getting killed in the process.

Doctor Who - The Warehouse Review

Doctor Who:
The Warehouse
By Mike Tucker
Starring Sylvester McCoy and
Bonnie Langford

The Doctor and Mel have landed in what appears to be a huge warehouse.  What is different about this warehouse is that it is in space and in orbit around a planet.   The Doctor notices that lots of food and supplies are just sitting on the shelves with no hint of being shipped to the planet below.  There also seems to be a strange smell as the travelers encounter a mold that appears to be alive.

Also in this warehouse is a computer that doesn’t appear to be acting correctly and a crew of clones. One set of clones doesn’t seem to be right and insists there is something wrong.   The Doctor is confused and continues to investigate while Mel and the strange set of clones is seeing the supervisor and ends up being forced to fix the computer.  Then there is the problem of the vermin running around the warehouse.  Are they there to invade or something else?  It is up to The Doctor to sort it all out and save the warehouse and the planet below.

Doctor Who - Synopsis For Terror of the Sontarans

There are two Main Range releases this month and the first one finishes off the 7th Doctor mini trilogy with a showdown with the Sontarans.  You can order this release from the Big Finish website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/terror-of-the-sontarans-875

Once it was a mining facility. Then later its corridors rang with screams generated by grotesque military experiments. However when the Doctor and Mel arrive on a hostile alien world after detecting a distress signal, the base they find themselves in is almost deserted.

But not for long. Soon the Doctor's old enemies, the Sontarans, have landed, and are searching for the remnants of their previous research team. Before long they uncover evidence of strange occurrences on the planet. Of madness and death.

They are warriors bred for war, strong of spirit and unafraid of death. To fear the enemy is an act of betrayal. Nothing holds terror for the Sontarans.

Until now...

Written By: John Dorney and Dan Starkey
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Daniel O'Meara (Ketch), Jon Edgley Bond (Anvil Jackson/Technician Gyte), Andree Bernard (Tethneka/Carter/Thing #1 and #2), Dan Starkey (Field-Major Kayste/Skegg/Stodd), John Banks (Adjutant Commander Klath/Stettimer), John Dorney (Glarr). Other parts played by the cast.

Doctor Who - We Are The Daleks Review

Doctor Who:
We Are The Daleks
By Jonathan Morris
Starring Sylvester McCoy and
Bonnie Langford

The Doctor and Mel have landed in London in the year 1987 and things are not the way that Mel remembers when she left.   For instance there is a building in London that looks a bit like a Dalek.   Another is that people all over London are acting strange and more violent than normal and causing The Doctor to look into this more intently and everything is pointing to that building.

Inside that building it appears that the Daleks are servants.  Asking people what they want to drink or if they want Hors d'oeuvres.  What The Doctor discovers is that the Daleks are trying to make a deal with the politicians of England to sell them technology and secrets to help in their advancement.  But that is only a hidden agenda as Mel figures out that the video game that people are playing in England is more than a game as they are actually doing the fighting against the Thals for the Daleks.  The Doctor has his hands full trying to figure things out and it gets worse once everyone is under Dalek control.

Doctor Who - Synopsis For The Warehouse

Mike Tucker returns to pen another 7th Doctor story and this time he is using Mel as the companion instead of Ace as he normally does when he writes for the 7th Doctor. As what is his trademark I'm expecting this story to be scary.  You can order it from the Big Finish website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/the-warehouse-874

The Doctor and Mel land in what appears to be an orbiting warehouse, a delivery facility with a dangerously erratic computer.

Whilst Mel is helping with repairs, the Doctor begins to realise that not everything in the warehouse is as it seems. Why do no goods ever seem to leave the shelves? Why are the staff so obsessed with the stocktake? And who is the mysterious Supervisor?

On the planet below, the Doctor discovers that the computer might be the least of their problems – and that they should be more concerned with the spacestation's mould and vermin...

Written By: Mike Tucker
Directed By: Barnaby Edwards

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Phillip Franks (Supervisor/Acolyte), Dillie Keane (Lydek), Clare Buckfield (Ann/Darl), Barry McCarthy (Fred/Terminal), Anna Bentinck (Jean/Computer), Barnaby Edwards (Reef). Other parts played by the cast

Doctor Who - Synopsis For "We Are The Daleks"

This month's Main Range sees the 7th Doctor and Mel back in Mel's time where they encounter an old enemy.  The Daleks are back and this time they are trying a different tactic to take over the universe.  You can order this release now from the Big Finish website.
http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/we-are-the-daleks-873

The year is 1987, and Britain is divided. In Bradford, strikers are picketing and clashing with the police. In the City of London, stockbrokers are drinking champagne and politicians are courting the super-rich. The mysterious media mogul Alek Zenos, head of the Zenos Corporation, is offering Britain an economic miracle. His partners wish to invest – and their terms are too good to refuse.

While the Doctor investigates Warfleet, a new computer game craze that is sweeping the nation, Mel goes undercover to find out the truth about Zenos’s partners.

The Daleks have a new paradigm. They intend to conquer the universe using economic power. The power of the free market!

Written By: Jonathan Morris
Directed By: Ken Bentley

Cast
Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush), Kirsty Besterman (Serena Paget), Angus Wright (Alek Zenos), Mary Conlon (Celia Dunthorpe), Robbie Stevens (Niles Bunbury/Frank Lewis), Ashley Zhangazha (Brinsley Heaton), Lizzie Roper (Shari), Dominic Thornburn (Afrid), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks).