Doctor Who – The Monthly Adventures

#085. Red ~ 10/10

◆ An Introduction

Season 24 constantly gets a bad rap from the fandom, who often cite it as being the worst run of Classic Who (partly down to the hammy writing, and partly because everyone went deaf when Bonnie Langford decided to start screaming like a banshee!) BigFinish have done a lot to redeem this era, but what happens when you take ‘Paradise Towers’, and recreate it as a psychological horror? Well, you get a masterpiece from Stewart Sheargold. Beware violence… beware red! Red! Red! Red! Red!

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Subject 2660 ­ Celia Fortunatè, designated citizen of the needle. Subject experiencing traumatic, violent delusions during waking moments. Subject remains passified and under control of Whitenoise. Medication has been prescribed.

Subject 0357 Vi Yulquen, designated Matriarch of the needle. Subject is under constant surveillance due to her wish to experience harm. This is in direct contravention of Whitenoise's programming. Also supplier of the drug classified as Slow. Editing is required.

Subject 0841 ­ Chief Blue. Technician in symbiotic relationship with this Whitenoise system. Knowledgeable in human psychological evaluation. Subject has been diagnosed a voyeur, and has a dangerous obsession with the Red Tape. Machine augmentation is favoured to curb this defect.

Subject [error] ­ Melanie Bush, designated companion of subject 3999. Subject [error] is not chipped and is a threat. Her ability to harm has not been checked, compromising the continued security programming of this Whitenoise system. She must be inhibited.

Subject 3999 ­ The Doctor. Subject has committed homicide. This subject now in constant redline. His propensity for violence remains unchecked. Analysis suggests synchronisation with the killer. The Doctor will attempt to kill again. He must be stopped.

◆ The Seventh Doctor

Sylvester McCoy cannot be faulted in ‘Red’, not with a performance that is this amazing.

The Doctor wasn’t attacked in the vortex, but his TARDIS was – some violent time disruption played havoc with the telepathic circuits, so whatever happens to her will happen, to an extent, to him. All the more reason to go looking for whatever caused the disruption! He believes that you should never presume anything about a foreign society. Apparently, he’s a dab hand at prison breaks, and at least they’d get some answers if they were locked up. The Doctor is always the random element, the spanner in the bonnet, the bee in the works… he always gets exactly where you don’t want him to get! How frightening is it to hear him under the influence of the Red Infection? He ends up synchronised with another victim and is forced to kill an innocent, rolling his r’s as he chants “red! red! red!” like a deranged psychopath!

◆ Mel Bush

‘Red’ sees Bonnie Langford bringing her A-game, in what I’d easily call her character’s best story.

Mel isn’t good with heights, so isn’t particularly happy when the Needle pushes her high out into the bleak sky! She wonders why it’s always the same wherever they land (referring to the dead body lying in front of her, and the chaos that is likely to unfold). She is likely to tell their captors anything if torture is on the cards. The name is Mel, not Red… she had enough of that in school. Despite being half paralysed and threatened by a maniac with a knife, she still has a good swinging arm, and proves that by smacking Draun over the head with a bottle! She’s an honest person, to a fault.

◆ Story Recap

The Needle is a living apartment complex that exists symbiotically with its inhabitants, expanding and shifting its dimensions to accommodate the travel needs of its population. It’s exclusive luxury accommodation where crime has been completely eradicated, all thanks to a miracle chip.

Administered by the ruling artificial intelligence, Whitenoise, the chip allows him to monitor the residents and give their brains a slight electric shock when they have violent thoughts. But violence can never be truly eradicated; it always bleeds through.

A form of digital infection has been hopping between the residents and causing them to “redline” (a condition where Whitenoise looses control, and their suppressed anger bubbles over, turning them into single-minded killers). After coming across someone who has just been murdered by their partner, the Doctor and Mel soon find themselves separated – the former is chipped and forced to synchronise with the killer “Red Infection”, whilst the latter falls hundreds of floors out of the Needle… and finds herself paralysed amongst the homicidal rabble below!

Murders are being committed left, right and centre, and it’s up to the Doctor and Mel to reunite and stop them.

◆ Blazing Anger

I’ve owned my copy of ‘Red’ since 14th November 2017, and it’s still one of the most fascinating stories in my collection. It’s important to remember that anger is a normal emotion, and one that can rarely be avoided. It’s sometimes an inappropriate emotional response, but that’s why it is so important to learn to control your anger and find a healthy release for it (one that doesn’t harm yourself or anyone else).

People might suggest having a long hot bubble bath with a bunch of scented candles, having a nap or going for a walk. Speaking as someone who has pretty much always struggled with anger issues, writing these reviews is my way of healthily releasing my anger. It’s often why I get really sarcastic and venomous when I write a review of a story I dislike, something like ‘Minuet in Hell’ - I find it really cathartic (especially if I’ve had a dreadful day).

If someone told me they could give me a chip that would take away my ability to act on my aggressive instincts, I would honestly take it in a heartbeat, and I can understand why all the people living in the Needle would too. But the chip cannot get rid of anger completely, and it becomes like hot oil in a pan… eventually getting so hot that it ignites and goes out of control. I think that is definitely a life-lesson to take away from this story – it’s always best to let your anger out when it’s at its lowest, because keeping it to yourself is just going to make you explode with rage!

◆ Sound Design

Never forget that this is, first and foremost, a psychological horror story. The sound design here is often violent and homicidal, and Jenkins really manages to conjure up a disconcerting and utterly unhinged atmosphere. It’s extremely effective.

There’s a background hum present throughout the entire Needle that really puts you on edge. Whitenoise and Chief Blue examine the Red Tape, listening to several people chanting “red! red! red!” as they murder their partners. The voice of the Red Infection is almost like pure static; creepy and utterly mischievous! Violent blood sports play on the television inside of Yulquen’s apartment. The scene of Whitenoise restraining and chipping the Doctor is gruesome; a needle piercing his skull, and that blood-curdling scream! Rain trickles onto Draun’s dirigible, as Mel regains consciousness following her fall from the Needle. The world slows down around Mel, as she comes under the influence of Slow. Towards the end of this adventure, Whitenoise completely flips his lid and starts burning out everybody’s chips… causing their skulls to pop like balloons! It’s horrifying. As Whitenoise is finally switched off, the Needle crumbles into nothing.

◆ Music

The score for ‘Red’ is being handled by Andy Hardwick, and it really managed to put me on edge for the whole adventure! The music twinkles like it’s some sort of twisted lullaby about chaos and hatred. It’s utterly brilliant, and it saddens me that this story came out long before the isolated scores would be included on the CDs.

◆ Conclusion

“I want your violence…”

I’m sure a lot of you rolled your eyes more than McCoy rolls his r’s when I compared this adventure to ‘Paradise Towers’, but I implore you to give ‘Red’ a chance.

In a society where the ability to act on violent urges has been eradicated, the possibility of a murderer on the lose is even more worrying than usual… because all that subdued hatred can be used to turn even someone who seems rational into a savage killer! Fellow reviewers definitely have a point when they say this is a story that pretty much only has one idea, but you cannot deny that Stew Sheargold milks the idea for all it’s worth!

Our regular cast members deliver some of their best performances to date, and they’re accompanied by a brilliant guest cast (with QI’s own Sandi Toksvig doing a marvellous job as Needle matriarch, Vi Yulquen. John Stahl also manages to steal the show with his performance as Whitenoise, playing the unhinged computer in a manner similar to HAL 9000).

‘Red’ has been in my collection for six years, and it remains one of the greatest things I have ever purchased. If you’ve not heard this one, you’re really missing out!

What an interesting story. It is not a story you often hear described as a Big Finish “classic”. Perhaps this is because it’s release #85 in the Main Range, from 2006, it hasn’t got the sheen of the range’s early years that fan’s adore so deeply.

Red is about a society that has such a poor frame of reference for pain and suffering that their incapacity to feel these sensations makes them seek it and simulations of them. They want to be scared, they want to be hurt - now that's a Doctor Who pitch.

You also get to hear Mel (the health nut) on drugs which is a hell of a listen! The fact they were allowed to do this at a time when the new show was back on BBC1 is flabbergasting, but it really works. I was recently reading an archive issue of DWM from 2003 where I saw that some fans were dismayed at the idea that Bonnie Langford was being employed by Big Finish, she was being held up as one of the problems with the show in the 1980s. Red is proof, if any were needed, that she is a stellar actor and the character has so much potential for development left in her following season 24. So many avenues to go down.

Oh, also. Shout out to Sandi Toksvig who has an incredible guest turn as a fascinating but unscrupulous, serious but funny, well written lesbian character. She adds a lot of dynamism to the story. It’s always nice to hear a familiar voice too.