 |
Minuet
in Hell
(Alan W Lear
and Gary Russell) |
|
 The
release for April 2001 is written by Alan W Lear, with
Gary Russell, and is directed by Nicholas Briggs and was
recorded on the 19th May and 2nd July 2000. Titled "Minuet
in Hell" it is the fourth and final story in this series
staring Paul McGann, as the Eighth
Doctor, and India Fisher as his companion Charley
Pollard.
Special guest
star Nicholas Courtney returns as Brigadier
Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and this completes
Courtney's fame as the only actor in Doctor Who's history
to star alongside all eight actors who have portrayed
The Doctor. Also starring are: Robert Jezek, Morgan Deare,
Helen Goldwyn, Maureen Oakeley, Nicholas Briggs, Hylton
Collins, Alistair Lock and Barnby Edwards.
The Doctor and Charley
find themselves in modern-day America and involved with
a particularly unpleasant 'televagelist'. The Brigadier
too is in the USA, to over-see the birth of Malebolgia
- its 51st state. However, Charley and especially The Doctor are in a desperate situation. Deprived of nearly
all of their memories, they are both on the brink of a
private hell…
 |
The
Brigadier |
|
With the twenty-first
century just beginning the newly formed state of Malebolgia
is seceding from the rest of the United States of America.
After his successful involvement with Scotland's devolution,
the Brigadier has been invited over to Malebolgia to offer
some expertise and meets up with Brigham Elisha Dashwood
III, who is the front-runner for first governor of this
new state. But a trip to a local medical institution arouses
his curiosity when a number of the inmates seem to know
who he is.
However,
the Brigadier then learns that there is someone held in
the Dashwood Institute, who believes he can travel through
space and time in a TARDIS.
This claim arouses his curiosity even more but it turns
out, however, not to be his old friend The Doctor...
Completely unaware that
The Doctor is infact trapped in the institute the Brigadier
inadvertently even returns The Doctor to the asylum after
he manages to escape and in doing so abandons The Doctor
to his fate. But the Brigadier is distracted by even more
strange events when the streets become full of Demons.
 |
Paul McGann and
India Fisher
with
Nicholas Courtney |
|
Meanwhile,
Charley finds herself hostessing at another of Dashwood's operations - a
mock-up of the infamous Hell Fire Club. With no memory of how she got there or
even her own name she manages to escape with the feisty Becky Lee and becomes
involved with Senator Waldo Pickering who is not whom he seems. With her
memories starting to return Charley returns to the Hell Fire Club and finds
herself in even greater danger when she is captured and is summoned by Dashwood
himself and then she comes face-to-face with the demons.
Becky Lee soon
meets up with the Brigadier and between them they attempt to free The Doctor
but will they be able to find the real one? The Brigadier finally meets up with
Charley but can they stop Dashwood and also free the real Doctor before he
succumbs to the institute's manic medical operations?
What danger
does the brain laboratory in Dashwood's asylum really pose? How is Dashwood
summoning demons into modern America and why? And how does one of The Doctor's
fellow inmates know more about his history then The Doctor himself?
If
The Doctor's very identity is dubious, how can the Brigadier hope to save an
unfamiliar friend from his demons and how can Dashwood be prevented from
carrying out his lethal plans?
|
|
Notes:
- Featuring the Eighth
Doctor, Charley
Pollard and The
Brigadier.
- Serial Number: 8E
- Number of Episodes: 4
- Cover Length: 130 minutes
- Episode Lengths: 1 = 43'51", 2 = 29'53", 3 =
36'02", 4 = 37'28"
- This story takes place after "Doctor
Who: The Movie".
- Cover Illustration: Clayton Hickman
- Recorded: 19th May and 2nd July 2000
- Recording Location: Christchurch Studios
and Stonesthrow Studios
- Released: April 2001
- ISBN: 1-903654-05-X
|
|
On the
Back Cover:
The twenty-first century has just begun, and
Malebolgia is enjoying its status as the newest state in America. After his
successful involvement with Scotland's devolution, Brigadier Alistair Gordon
Lethbridge-Stewart has been invited over to Malebolgia to offer some of his
experiences and expertise.
There he encounters the charismatic Brigham Elisha
Dashwood III, an evangelical statesman running for Governor who may not be
quite as clean-cut and wholesome as he makes out. One of Dashwood's other roles
in society is as patron of a new medical institute, concentrating on curing the
ills of the human mind. One of the patients there interests the Brigadier -
someone who claims he travels through space and time in something called a
TARDIS.
Charley, however, has more than a few problems of her own.
Amnesiac, she is working as a hostess at the local chapter of the Hell Fire
Club, populated by local dignitaries who have summoned forth the demon
Marchosias. And the leader of the Club? None other than Dashwood, who seems
determined to achieve congressional power by the most malevolent means at his
disposal… |
| |
|
On the
Inside Cover:
"Hell is where I have come at last... and there
can be no escape..."
Thus spake The Doctor.
Oh.
That is, if that was The Doctor just then. How can
we tell? He thinks he is - but then, you think you are who you think you are.
But... suppose a highly qualified led psychiatrist were to tell you you'd
fantasised yourself into somebody else's identity, where your entire memory is
unqualified hallucination...
You take my point, I'm sure.
And is "Minuet
in Hell" really "Minuet in Hell"? Somewhere in the Space-Time-Continuum, might
there not exist a tired old 1980s amateur cassette bearing that title, in which
a different Doctor experienced a spookily similar Hell as this one - not in
21st century America but in the London of 1765? Where the Hell Fire Club really
was as the sensational movies and novels tell, and not, as my recent reading
assures me, a lot of Antipodean-canine offal?
In an
infinite Continuum wherein every moment offers an infinitude of equally
possible futures, who would have the gall to decree that this version of events
is true, that false?
One thing though stays unchanged: whoever it may transpire
that I am, I shall remain your obedient servant… |
Alan W Lear,
March 2001
|
| |
|
Full Cast
List:
| Part One |
| The Doctor |
Paul McGann |
| Charley Pollard |
India Fisher |
| The Brigadier |
Nicholas Courtney |
| Brigham Elisha Dashwood
III |
Robert Jezek |
| Dr Dale Pargeter |
Maureen Oakley |
| Gideone Crane |
Nicholas Briggs |
| Becky Lee Kowalczyck |
Helen Goldwyn |
| Senator Waldo Pickering |
Morgan Deare |
| Orderly |
Hylton Collins |
| |
|
| Part Two |
| The Doctor |
Paul McGann |
| Charley Pollard |
India Fisher |
| The Brigadier |
Nicholas Courtney |
| Gideone Crane |
Nicholas Briggs |
| Dr Dale Pargeter |
Maureen Oakley |
| Becky Lee Kowalczyck |
Helen Goldwyn |
| Brigham Elisha Dashwood
III |
Robert Jezek |
| Senator Waldo Pickering |
Morgan Deare |
| Orderly |
Hylton Collins |
| |
|
| Part Three |
| The Doctor |
Paul McGann |
| Charley Pollard |
India Fisher |
| The Brigadier |
Nicholas Courtney |
| Becky Lee Kowalczyck |
Helen Goldwyn |
| Senator Waldo Pickering |
Morgan Deare |
| Gideone Crane |
Nicholas Briggs |
| Brigham Elisha Dashwood
III |
Robert Jezek |
| Dr Dale Pargeter |
Maureen Oakley |
| Guard |
Alistair Lock |
| Scott |
Barnaby Edwards |
| |
|
| Part Four |
| The Doctor |
Paul McGann |
| Charley Pollard |
India Fisher |
| The Brigadier |
Nicholas Courtney |
| Dr Dale Pargeter |
Maureen Oakley |
| Brigham Elisha Dashwood
III |
Robert Jezek |
| Becky Lee Kowalczyck |
Helen Goldwyn |
| Gideone Crane |
Nicholas Briggs |
| Orderly |
Hylton Collins |
| Senator Waldo Pickering |
Morgan Deare |
| Scott |
Barnaby Edwards |
The
Production Team:
| Writer |
Alan W Lear with
Gary
Russell |
| Director |
Nicholas Briggs |
| Sound/Music |
Nicholas Briggs |
| Theme Music |
David Arnold |
| Producers |
Gary Russell and
Jason
Haigh-Ellery |
| Executive Producer for the BBC
|
Jaqueline Rayner |
|
|
|
|
