4 episodes. Approx. 122 minutes. Written by: Stewart Sheargold. Directed by: Gary Russell. Produced by: Gary Russell.
THE PLOT
The Needle is more than just a luxury apartment complex. It is a living organism, under the constant control of the sentient machine known as Whitenoise (John Stahl). For its residents, the Needle represents an escape from the dark side of human nature. All residents have chips implanted in their brains. At the first hint of violence, Whitenoise will deliver a selective "edit," purging the impulse from the human mind before any crime has a chance to occur.
The Doctor knows full well that such a plan cannot work for long. The suppressed impulses will simply build, until the violence finds an outlet. That is exactly what is happening on the Needle. With increasing regularity, the residents are "Red-lining." Their chips malfunction, their consciousness taken over by a desire to kill. Whitenoise cannot stop it. He can only edit the memories of the residents, so that no one can recall that the murder victims ever even existed.
The Doctor's arrival complicates matters even further. The Doctor's violence is of a type beyond that of the Needle's regular occupants. Once he is fitted with a chip, he finds himself in tune with "Red." With each new killing, the Red signal grows stronger - and with each death, the Doctor finds himself losing control...
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: "I have destroyed races, destroyed worlds. Sometimes I've enjoyed it, that power. Oh, I am capable of so much more violence. Would you like to see?" Sylvester McCoy is often the silliest and most whimsical of Doctors. But when he's playing darker material, there's something in his voice that makes him genuinely chilling.
This story plays perfectly on that, stripping most of his frivoulous shell away. The cliffhangers all echo each other: The Doctor is made vulnerable to the violence of "Red," witnessing an attack through the killer's eyes, mentally becoming the murderer. He is appalled when one of the murders uses a technique plucked from his own mind."When he snapped her neck - He got that from me!" McCoy's tendency to roll his "R's" is also used to good, creepy effect. His repetitions of "Red, red, red" become increasingly guttural, until it's practically one extended rolled "R." This is one of McCoy's very best performances, one of only a handful of times across the series in which the Doctor becomes truly frightening.
Mel: The one character in the story who is "un-chipped," making her free to commit violence if she chooses to. This makes her an object of fascination for the characters. The masochistic Vi Yulquen (Sandi Toksvig) wants Mel to hurt her. The people of the city below find her capability to commit violence equally intriguing. Draun (Peter Rae) even refers to Mel as "Red," referencing the color of her hair but also drawing a connection between Mel, who could kill if she chose to, and the killer, who cannot choose but to kill. The irony is that Mel is one of the least violent companions the Doctor has ever had, and she is plainly disgusted at the obsession with violence permeating this society.
THE VIOLENCE OF "RED"
Violence. The fascination with violence. The sensuality of violence. The fear of it, the horror of it, the attraction of it.
Red is one of Big Finish's most purely disturbing stories. It's one I doubt would be allowed to be made under the Doctor Who banner today. Not because of its body count (far from the highest in the series), but because its violence is so textured, with so many different emotions tied into it.
One disturbing element is the sense of voyeurism created as we witness the killings. We not only see the crimes. We also see Chief Blue (Sean Oliver) and Whitenoise watching the crimes in real time. Chief Blue studies them on the monitors as they occur, and spends more time watching the secret "Red tape" of all the murders. He does this not to solve the crimes, but to enjoy the pain and fear of the victims.
Meanwhile, we meet the motley residents of this society: Vi Yulquen watches simulations of violence to attempt to feel something, and expresses her attraction to a friend by saying, "I wish harm on you." Draun playacts at threatening Mel with a knife; after he nearly does hurt her while possessed by "Red," he is left both crippled and confused by guilt. Then there is Draun's sister, Nuane (Denise Hoey), whose past includes violence of a sort that is usually associated with serial killers and war criminals.
None of these characters is presented as evil. They are all complex, all clearly damaged by a society that has attempted to "make them better" by purging them of their negative emotions. As the Doctor observes, this has left a hole in their humanity, to the point that they now hunger for the very things denied to them. They are depraved, twisted, and broken, wallowing in the very thing they were attempting to escape,
OTHER THOUGHTS
Writer Stewart Sheargold's script is extremely detailed, from the building that rearranges itself in response to the thoughts and needs of its residents to the lifestyle of the chipped people within. Instead of husbands and wives, those who live together are "designated habitat partners." There is no sex in the Needle, as Whitenoise thinks of "physical pleasure as the precursor to violence" - showing that purging negative emotions also leads to a purge of positive ones. The residents are cold, almost machine-like, even as the increasingly irrational Whitenoise is almost human in his breakdown.
Denied the visual, Sheargold evokes it by referencing colors. The residents entrusted with the maintenance of the Needle and Whitenoise are known as "Blues." The machine itself is "White" (along with being "white noise," which cancels out other input). Violence is represented by "Red," which is also the color of Mel's hair.
Merged with an expert production, it all brings this setting vividly to life. The first three episodes are compelling, as we are allowed to inhabit the world of the Needle and discover the cold lives of its inhabitants.
Unfortunately, as with many stories that are strong on setting and atmosphere, things slip when it comes time to really deal with the story. Episode Four is by far the weakest. An attempt to raise the stakes in the final stretch instead overloads the climax. People are massacred on the monitors as the Doctor and Mel work to stop the killer... but they work with no sense of urgency, pausing to explain exposition even as we hear the screams of the dying, making them seem uncharacteristically callous. A confused finale, as the survivors rush to safety, is one complication too many, leaving the ending feeling jumbled.
A pity, since the actual climax, as the Doctor confronts "Red" directly, is very good, a well-written and well-produced scene with a superb McCoy performance at the center of it. The story would have done better to have trusted itself to hold interest with this confrontation. By attempting to build up further threat, it nearly drowns out the part that works.
The weakness of the final episode, and particularly of the last ten minutes, keeps Red from achieving greatness. Even so, this is a dark journey well worth taking: The ambitions of the narrative, the detail and texture of both script and production, and the many good moments along the way make up for the shortcomings of the resolution.
Rating: 7/10.
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