Catch-1782 é mais um exemplo de como a BIG FINISH transformou a Mel em uma companion notável, melhor desenvolvida com maior aprofundamento. Alison Lawson aposta em um enredo inofensivo, cadenciado sem muitas informações ficando longe de apresentar plot twits e cliffhangers que irão deixar seu ouvinte de queixo caído, esse é um caso muito comum na linha Main Range que na maioria das vezes divide opiniões – O destino dos dois viajantes da TARDIS é a Fundação Nacional de Pesquisa Científica no ano 2003, Mel se encontra com seu Tio John um cientista que trabalha há anos para a Fundação sempre envolvido em diversos projetos. Tomando conhecimento de uma lenda que assombra os arredores do local envolvendo um fantasma que supostamente possui ligação com seus ancestrais, mais precisamente a esposa do antigo proprietário Henry Hallam que se chamava Eleanor Hallam – Mel decide abandonar o evento para fazer algumas investigações sobre sua árvore genealógica no escritório de seu Tio, até que uma cápsula feita com uma nova e estranha liga experimental acidentalmente envia a companion para o passado no final do século XVIII, ano de 1781. Conhecendo pessoalmente Henry Hallam notamos que seu personagem está passando por um momento de luto pela morte de sua falecida esposa Jane, Mel começa a sofrer de lapsos mentais e crises psicológicas causadas pelo fenômeno da capsula, o proprietário então se dispõe a cuidar da companion. Interessante notar todo o trabalho feito por Alison Lawson com o personagem Henry, inicialmente muito amigável, gentil e doce, mas à medida que sabemos de suas reais intenções ele se torna controlador e abusivo tentando forçar a Mel ser sua futura esposa, nesse ponto o escritor nos entrega as duas grandes questões de seu enredo “Será que Mel é a esposa que vem a falecer e assombrar os arredores da Fundação? Ela está se tornando ou sempre foi um ponto fixo desse evento??” juntamente com uma mensagem contra comportamentos e relacionamentos abusivos. [⚠️ SPOILERS] Uma coisa que me chocou muito foi o fato da Mel ter passado seis meses trancado em um quarto como uma prisioneira recebendo tratamento de medicações dopantes, tudo isso porque o 6° Doctor e seu Tio John chegaram em 1782 ao invés de 1781 [⚠️ FIM DE SPOILERS]. Em resumo, sendo bem sincero não há muito o que falar de Catch-1782, com já disse anteriormente seu enredo é bem simples sem muitas surpresas ou complicações, talvez não agrade os não simpatizantes de andamentos narrativos lentos – No meu caso, foi uma experiencia leve com alguns pontos interessantes e satisfatório no que diz a Mel.

A gently paced story that takes quite some time to become eventful. Eventually Mel gets thrown back in time and trapped in her own family history. It’s good, clean fun propped up by superb character acting, but my God - it moves slowly. It’s a nice change of pace from some of my more recent Big Finish which has new ideas flying at you every minute, but I’m glad this is not typical of Big Finish’s output.

The best element of this play is seeing the master of the house (Henry Hallam) slowly be revealed as a possessive maniac. It is a very unusual kind of peril for a companion to find themselves in. Hallam’s cruel response to his housekeeper’s affection is the highlight of the play and reveals how damaged he is.

It’s all very polite, safe and unsurprising, but at the same time an enjoyable ride.

It's my, ehem, triumphant return to the Main Range after a month and a half of absence. And this is kind of a meh story. There's some interesting ideas here, but ultimately the ending was a pretty weak cop out to a rather interesting question that challenges the "can't change history" philosophy that I hate about this show.

There's a lot of technobabble nonsense to get the plot going. It doesn't really matter. The point here is that there's a reception for the anniversary of a scientific institute that Mel's uncle works and lives at. They're burying a time capsule to commemorate it, but uh oh, what's this? There's something already buried there? It turns out that the experimental metal they're working on was buried in the ground for hundreds of years in a box from the late 1700s. And then Mel gets yanked back in time through technobabble by the experimental metal. For reasons. Who knows. Doesn't matter.

Mel ends up showing up at this same mansion during the late 1700s, but it's inhabited by a distant ancestor of hers. She becomes confused and distraught because, again, technobabble nonsense. The point is that she's super unwell, has no idea what's happening, and is in an on again off again coma for six months. They treat her with laudanum, which is apparently an insanely powerful painkiller that makes her even more confused and tired.

And then the Doctor shows up six months later because more technobabble and it turns out that Mel is supposed to become Elanor, the second wife of Henry Hallam, a distant ancestor of hers. Henry is super infatuated with her and he thinks her name is Nel, short for Elanor. Naturally Mel doesn't get a say in this. Can you imagine women getting a say in who they marry? You know, in general? Wild.

This is where I said, lol f**k you Medicinal Purposes. Preserving history just for the sake of preserving history is a dangerous road to go down. In that story, the Doctor lures a boy who trusts him absolutely to his death for the sake of preserving history. That's evil enough, but what if it was supposed to be Evelyn who died according to the history he knew? What if, according to history the Doctor had read, there was an old woman who was a stranger who was killed, and that was supposed to be Evelyn? Would he have gone through with luring her to her death? Because, given how evil that story was, I can easily see him doing it.

There's a similar situation here. Would the Doctor willingly leave Mel here in this time period against her will and force her to marry this man she doesn't care for just to preserve history the way he remembers it? Absolutely he would as presented in the story. That's f**ked up. Mel is consistently NOT a character in this story. She is an object. A ball to be passed back and forth between the characters. She's going to be forced to marry Henry because it's the 1700s and what other choice does she have? No, she's going to be forced to marry Henry to preserve history the way everyone remembers it, because what other choice does she have?

There's something to be said for the grandfather paradox as well. If she doesn't marry this man, does that mean her family would never have existed? This is some Back to the Future stuff. If she doesn't have kids with him, then she doesn't exist. But does that matter? If you're faced with the choice of either you marry and have sex with a man you don't love and is kind of insane versus you don't exist, which would you chose? I would imagine a lot of people would choose the later. But, of course, that's not a discussion here. That could be an interesting discussion in this story, but like the rest of the story Mel has no agency here. She's not allowed to choose for herself or even think about the possibility of another option. She realizes that she has to marry Henry and that's that, it never even occurs to her to choose anything else.

Thus the ending itself is kind of a cop out. The housekeeper loves Henry and is the one who marries him. I don't know why considering he attacked her and is really violent and hateful towards her at the end, but sure. (I also can't help but hear Mrs Baddeley in her voice. "Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without my plum pudding!") It neatly solves the whole problem. It makes the story not have to confront the philosophical implications of how evil not changing history for the sake of it truly is. So with that ending in mind, it's just kind of fine. It's not nearly as interested in chewing on the ideas that it presents as it is knocking Mel out and having a bunch of men discuss her fate. Not the worst story, not nearly as bad as Medicinal Purposes which embraces the evil of that idea, but not that great either.