24 Carat (webcast)

24 Carat
Main character(s):	Melanie Bush
Featuring:	Seventh Doctor
Main setting:	Mel's spacestation headquarters
Key crew
Writer:	Pete McTighe
Director:	Pete McTighe
Release details
Premiere broadcast:	21 January 2021
Premiere network:	YouTube
Format:	2 x 3 minutes 40 seconds minisode

24 Carat was a Doctor Who minisode written by Pete McTighe and released in 2021. Labelled a mini-episode and entity unto iself by its creator McTighe, it was released as part of A Business Proposal for Mel!, a longer YouTube webcast which also included a trailer for the Season 24 Doctor Who blu-ray (packaged in between the two halves of the minisode, acting as a sort of ad break) and interview clips with various actors who had appeared in Season 24.

The webcast was notable for featuring the live-action return of Bonnie Langford to the part of Melanie Bush (which she had previously reprised in audio format with Big Finish) and also featured Sylvester McCoy reprising his incarnation of the Doctor.

Summary

Several investors visit Melanie Bush to propose business ventures, and a mysterious old friend returns....

Plot

to be added

Cast

• Bonnie Langford - Melanie Bush
• Catherine Cusack - Drinking Fountain
• Edward Peel - Visitor from the Ice Colonies
• Richard Gauntlett - Derek the Tetrap
• Sylvester McCoy - Seventh Doctor
• Mark Halliley - Narrator

References

• Derek tries to get Mel to invest in "bubble-trap bath".

The Doctor Who series

• The Doctor gives Mel a copy of Doctor Who The Collection Season 24 as a present. He calls it a "boxset" which contains a "holographic six-dimensional record" of his and Mel's adventures.

Notes

This marked Sylvester McCoy's first official live-action return to the part of the Seventh Doctor since the 1996 TV movie (although he had reprised the part in audio plays as well as in a variety of unlicensed live-action productions, such as the film Gene Genius).

There were plans for him to reprise the role in The Sarah Jane Adventures but this did not happen due to Elisabeth Sladen's death and the series' subsequent cancellation.

Continuity

• Drinking Fountain's business proposal for Mel is Paradise Towers as a hotel. Mel mentions the Towers' previous reputation, to which Drinking Fountain replies that "most" of the robotic cleaners aren't homicidal anymore. (TV: Paradise Towers)