Unregenerate! (audio story)

Unregenerate!
Doctor:	[[doctor::Seventh Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Melanie Bush
Main setting:	London, 1957 and 2007
Key crew
Publisher:	[[publisher::Big Finish Productions]]
Writer:	David A. McIntee
Director:	John Ainsworth
Release details
Release number:	70
Release date:	June 2005
Format:	4 Episodes on 2 CDs
Production code:	7D/A
ISBN:	ISBN 1-84435-158-0
Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories
← Previous	Three's a Crowd
Next →	The Council of Nicaea

Unregenerate! is a Seventh Doctor full-cast audio from Big Finish Productions. It is the only Big Finish story set explicitly and immediately after a Doctor's regeneration. Occurring in the wake of Time and the Rani, it is the Big Finish story which happens earliest in the Seventh Doctor's timeline. Moreover, it's likely the third Seventh Doctor story in all licensed fiction, behind only Rani and BE: The Useful Pile. It provides an account of greater post-regenerative distress than was indicated in Rani, suggesting that the Doctor's sixth regeneration was at least as problematic as his previous two.

The story is also significant for its thematic connections to DW: The Doctor's Wife. As in the 2011 story, Unregenerate! deals with the difficulties of transferring the consciousness of TARDISes into the brains of other species.

Publisher's summary

In a run-down asylum, screams echo in the halls as mysterious creatures roam, terrorising the staff. Patients complain of betrayal rather than illness, and no-one is quite what they seem.

Mel knows that the Doctor is the best person to find the answers -- but she is stranded on Earth, and the TARDIS has returned without him...

Why does a medical facility need to be under armed guard? What procedures are the staff carrying out, and to what purpose? What is the price that must be paid for making an agreement with those who run the asylum?

As the answers begin to be uncovered, the Doctor finds that the past may yet come back to haunt him...

Cast

• The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy
• Melanie Bush - Bonnie Langford
• Louis #2 - John Aston
• Rigan - Gail Clayton
• Johannes Rausch - Hugh Hemmings
• Shokhra - Sam Peter Jackson
• Professor Klyst - Jennie Linden
• The Cabbie - Toby Longworth
• Louis - Jamie Sandford

References

• By the age of nine, Mel had read the entire canon of the Sherlock Holmes series.
• A BBC News bulletin on 15 October 1957 reports on the recent launch of Sputnik, Earth's first artificial satellite, by the Soviet Union.
• A BBC News bulletin in 2007 refers to the Iraq War. The report indicates that the United States and United Kingdom governments were anticipating final victory in Iraq in the near future.
• Louis, Professor Klyst and Rigan are all Time Lords in the employ of the Celestial Intervention Agency. Rigan kills Louis with a staser-gun, triggering his regeneration into his second incarnation. Professor Klyst tells him that the first regeneration is always more painful than subsequent ones, suggesting that she was in at least her third incarnation.
• Rigan suggests taking the Doctor back to Gallifrey and repatriating him into Time Lord society, which the recently regenerated Louis describes as "a fate worse than death."

Notes

• The title is taken from a Sixth Doctor line in Part One of DW: The Twin Dilemma.
• Jennie Linden (Professor Klyst) previously played Dr. Who's granddaughter Barbara in the non-canonical film Dr. Who and the Daleks.
• Jamie Sandford (Louis) would later play Andrew Harper, Nyssa's first serious boyfriend, in BFA: Autumn.
• This audio drama was recorded on 16 and 17 November 2004.

Continuity

• The Doctor is still recovering from the effects of his sixth regeneration. (DW: Time and the Rani) The fact that the Doctor recently regenerated is confirmed by the presence of the lindos hormone in his system. (DWN: The Twin Dilemma)
• The Doctor records a non-interactive TARDIS hologram for the benefit of Mel. Towards the end of his ninth incarnation, he would record another such hologram for the benefit of another temporally stranded companion, namely Rose Tyler. (DW: The Parting of the Ways) A hologram of the Tenth Doctor would later appear to Sally Sparrow and Larry Nightingale in the TARDIS console room (DW: Blink) whereas a hologram of the Eleventh Doctor subsequently appeared to the Doctor himself after he had been poisoned by River Song in 1938 (DW: Let's Kill Hitler).
• The Doctor mentions in his holographic recording that most circuitous routes are more interesting than straight lines. (DW: The Time Warrior)
• Mel tells the Cabbie that she has the "memory of an elephant." (DW: The Ultimate Foe, BFA: The One Doctor, DW: Time and the Rani)
• In his delirium, the Doctor claims that he can survive in the vacuum of space for a brief period of time. (DW: Nightmare of Eden, DW: Four to Doomsday, DW: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe)
• Mel mentions the Sixth Doctor's trial at the hands of the Time Lords. (DW: The Trial of a Time Lord)
• Mel mentions her recent encounter with the Rani on Lakertya and jokingly compares the TARDIS to an intergalactic taxi service given that the Doctor spent an appreciable amount of time returning the geniuses whom the Rani had kidnapped to their native eras. (DW: Time and the Rani)

Timeline

• Unregenerate! occurs after BE: The Useful Pile
• Unregenerate! occurs before BFA: Red

External links

• Official Unregenerate! page at bigfinish.com
• Unregenerate! at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• DisContinuity for Unregenerate! at Tetrapyriarbus - The DisContinuity Guide