4 episodes. Approx. 145 minutes. Written by: Alan W. Lear, Gary Russell. Directed by: Nicholas Briggs. Produced by: Gary Russell, Jason Haigh-Ellery.
THE PLOT
The 51st state has been added to the Union: Malebolgia, a chunk of territory in the Bible Belt that has seceded in order to form its own state (don't think too hard about the unlikely politics...). Former Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) is on-hand to observe the birth of this new state. But he's here for another reason, as well: To investigate the Dashwood Laboratory of Alternative Mentalities - an advanced mental hospital whose new treatment, involving a machine that can digitally store patients' memories as they undergo brain surgery, has raised concerns about mind control.
The hospital is owned by television evangelist Brigham Elisha Dashwood (Robert Jezek), who is manipulating all those around him to make sure that he will become governor of the new state. He has created a "Hellfire Club," a recreation of the famous/infamous gathering place of 18th Century Britain, run by his own ancestor, Sir Francis Dashwood. Here, he allows all the highest-ranking corrupt politicos to run rampant with their worst desires... all the while capturing their debauchery on videotape for future use.
This Hellfire Club doesn't so much employ young women of easy virtue as kidnap them off the streets. The newest arrival is a young English girl with strong ideas about what she'll do to anyone who touches her improperly. Dashwood's asylum has a couple of new arrivals, both also English: Gideon Crane (Nicholas Briggs), a journalist investigating Dashwood's institute; and "Zebediah Doe," a particularly confused man who insists both that he is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, and that he is in Hell - the one place from which he can never escape!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: Spends most of the story in a fractured state, his mind and memories having been jumbled just prior to the story's opening. This gives McGann a chance to do some pretty good insane acting. He mumbles a mile a minute, and you can almost see the Doctor's thoughts jumping from track to track as he tries to orientate himself. We get a flash of his usual persona as he remembers something, as some piece slots into place - Then see him falter into confusion and despair as the connection slips away. The Doctor only properly recovers in the final episode when, finally in command of his faculties, he takes complete charge, sorting a very messy situation with efficiency and elan.
The Doctor: Spends most of the story in a fractured state, his mind and memories having been jumbled just prior to the story's opening. This gives McGann a chance to do some pretty good insane acting. He mumbles a mile a minute, and you can almost see the Doctor's thoughts jumping from track to track as he tries to orientate himself. We get a flash of his usual persona as he remembers something, as some piece slots into place - Then see him falter into confusion and despair as the connection slips away. The Doctor only properly recovers in the final episode when, finally in command of his faculties, he takes complete charge, sorting a very messy situation with efficiency and elan.
Charley: Gets stuck with the traditional companion dilemma of being captured and escaping, only to end up recaptured. Fortunately, India Fisher's enthusiasm keeps the character strong even when some of the material she's given is weak. She is familiar with the legend of the British Hellfire Club (the Doctor reveals the less glamorous reality of it at the end), and can't help but be fascinated to see a revival. Though she only meets the Brigadier fairly briefly, he makes a strong impression on her... which doesn't stop her from ribbing the Doctor for calling him his best friend when he called her the same just a single story ago.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: It was a natural decision to end the first Eighth Doctor audio season with an appearance by the Brigadier, in order to allow Nicholas Courtney to - as Paul McGann put it - "complete the set" of classic Doctors. Courtney is in marvelous form, as is the character. Lethbridge-Stewart retains a natural authority, enough to cut short Sen. Waldo Pickering (Morgan Deare)'s temper tantrum at the institute in Episode One and enough to catch Dashwood's eye straight off. He is also at his shrewdest here, recognizing that something is not right about Dashwood's entire operation. He only has a small amount of "screen time" opposite McGann, but the two play well off each other and it's a shame that Zagreus was the only other story to feature both of them.
THOUGHTS
"That's it - Now I understand! Everyone is the universe is the Doctor! Everyone except me!"
-The Doctor faces a most bizarre identity crisis.
Minuet in Hell is generally the worst-regarded story of McGann's first Big Finish season, and I can't argue with the criticims of it. It's not just overlong - at almost two-and-a-half hours, it's positively bloated, which has earned it the nickname "150 Minuets in Hell." The Inside Story, Big Finish's warts-and-all overview of its first 50 releases, reveals that it had a very troubled history. Writer Alan W. Lear was hired to adapt his old Audio-Visuals story for the Eighth Doctor, but was only able to (more or less) pen the first half. Producer Gary Russell was left to throw together the second half on a very tight timetable... Which may explain why the second half is both a lot less crazy and (sadly) a lot less fun.
The story is unconvincing on any number of levels. Neither Dashwood nor Pickering convince as formidable political figures, and the backstory - involving a new Southern state coming into being via secession - is laughable to anyone with a passing knowledge of American politics. Morgan Deare's Waldo Pickering is downright painful to listen to, with speech patterns and dialogue culled from Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn cartoons. Pickering's every statement seems to be punctuated with either a "varmint" or a "tarnation," if not both. People not only don't talk that way in the modern American South... I don't think they ever actually did!
For all its problems (and there are many that I won't even bother mentioning), I have no hate for Minuet in Hell. For three of its four episodes, it is so over-the-top and downright nutty that it's actually rather fun. You've got: overblown Southern-fried accents; demonic possessions; technobabble surrounding the "Psi859 Psionic Matrix Facsimile Regenerator" that would make Star Trek: Voyager blush; and a story whose two main settings are a modern-day Hellfire Club and an insane asylum. If Salvador Dali tried his hand at Southern Gothic, then had the results reinterpreted by Tex Avery and filtered through the sensibilities of Ralph Bakshi, it's not hard to picture something like this as the result.
But Episode Four is tasked with taking all of this insanity and wrapping it up in a way that can at least pretend to make sense. Other than a brief bit with Charley being rejected by demons for being "already dead" (a nice reminder of her arc, which would take off in a big way the following year), the final episode feels joyless. We spend too long setting up Dashwood's television broadcast, so that we're well-prepared when the Doctor, the Brigadier, and Charley replicate the ending of A Face in the Crowd to defeat him. Then, since there's still a subplot involving a demon to wrap up (yes, the demon is a subplot), we get an additional climax in the institute, one that requires Dashwood to transform into a complete imbecile in order for events to progress as they do.
I can't exactly recommend this story, which is as ridiculous as it is ridiculously overlong. But there is a lot to enjoy here, with terrific performances by the regulars and by guest stars Nicholas Courtney and Robert Jezek. Worth a listen for completists... but probably OK to skip by everyone else.
Overall Rating: 5/10.
Next Story: Invaders from Mars
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