Big Finish Retro Review: Minuet In Hell

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. An 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…

For fans of the more recent years of Doctor Who, the idea of the season finale isn’t anything new. As it was fourteen years ago, it was essentially unheard of in the series. With their first set of eighth Doctor stories coming to an end, Big Finish sought to bring it to a close with a story that would at once be a remake of another story originally produced as a fan audios in the 1980s as well as being set in the United States and bringing the eighth Doctor together with the Brigadier. The result was Minuet In Hell and it is a story perhaps is best summed up in the phrase “good concepts poorly executed.”

One of the things on the plus side is the performances from its leads Paul McGann and India Fisher. McGann as the Doctor in particular shines despite the fact he is given not a lot to do throughout much of the story except mumble about hell and ask “who am I?”, which at least in the case of the second item comes across unintentionally as a rehash of part of his performance in the TV Movie. Where McGann shines in his attempts to make the amnesic plot work and in the fourth part where he is finally given something to do. The same is very much true of Fisher as the Charley who spends the first half of the story virtually amnesic before finally being allowed to do something plot wise in the second half. In fact, much of the story’s middle section is carried by Charley which once again gives Fisher a chance to show her talents off when the writing is able to let her. While the writing might not be stellar the leads do try and be and make the story listenable as a result.

The supporting cast is a real mixed bag if ever there was one. First up the good news: Nicholas Courtney and Nicholas Briggs. Courtney of course returns as the Brigadier, former UK commander of UNIT and friend of the Doctor, who comes to a new American state on a mission for UNIT. Courtney is in fine form as the Brigadier and is highly convincing as an older, wiser but just as active version of the character plus he has some fine chemistry with both McGann and Fisher during his scenes with them. In fact the Brigadier’s scenes with the eighth Doctor is the biggest reason to listen to it. Then there is Nicholas Briggs as fellow asylum “patient” Gideon Crane. Briggs does a commendable job in the role especially during one of the plot twists where the identity of the Doctor is supposed to be in question. Outside of that Briggs also shares some nice chemistry in his many scenes with McGann as well which always helps too. Together these two are the best players of the supporting cast.

Now for the bad news: the rest of the supporting cast. None of the supporting cast members, especially Morgan Deare as Senator Waldo Pickering, manages to be convincing in their roles. Much of this is down to some really badly done accents including, once again, Deare who plays the former U.S. Senator as though he is Foghorn Leghorn from the Loony Toons cartoons of old. It is also down to the writing as well which doesn’t help the unconvincing accents in trying to really sell the story. While much of the supporting cast have given wonderful performances elsewhere in the Big Finish range (Robert Jezek in The Holy Terror for instance) this is far from their best work and a real disappointment.

The real problem with the story lies in its script. Minuet In Hell (like the previous eighth Doctor audio Sword Of Orion) started its life back in the 1980’s as a story from the fan group Audio Visuals, many of whose members went on to work for Big Finish and was set in eighteenth century London involving the Hellfire Club and the notorious Bedlam asylum. Outside of perhaps wanting to harken back to the TV Movie’s US roots as well as bringing the Brigadier into things, the question to ask is why was the remake set in America? It doesn’t work as a story set in America not just because of the aforementioned accents but in terms of the plot as well. It’s not just that problem as there’s some holes in the plot (what are the Psionovores up to anyway?) plus plot twists that fall completely flat as well (see the cliffhanger for part two for example) despite showing a considerable amount of promise. Last but not least is the dialogue which is quite good at times but (in the form of Waldo Pickering and Becky Lee especially) can be downright cringe-worthy to put in very politely. That said the concept of an amnesic Doctor in an insane asylum is a neat idea that unfortunately is badly used here and because of the choice of Doctor seems to even be a rehash of an old idea. The results make it clear that the story was written by two Englishmen without a good understanding of the American political system or its culture at all.

So where does Minuet In Hell rank? While it features good performances from its two leads, two members of its supporting cast and a good concept or two it is held down considerably by its many problems. To be specific in the unconvincing performances of much of the supporting cast and a script that, despite that good concept or two, manages to fall flat on its face more often then not. Overall then Minuet In Hell ranks as by far the weakest of the stories from the first McGann Big Finish season and as a rather underwhelming finish to an otherwise fine set of stories.

Released as a part of Big Finish Productions monthly range as the 19th release of the range in April 2001.

The story was recorded on the 19 May and 2 July 2000 in Bristol.