Doctor Who:
Bang-Bang-A-Boom!

Distributed by
Big Finish Productions

• Year: 2002
• Rating: 8/10
• Cat. No: BFPDWCD7E/A
• Format: 2xCD
• Running Time: 100 minutes
• Price: £13.99

Director:
Nicholas Pegg

Writer:

Gareth Roberts & Clayton Hickman

Cast:

The Doctor: Sylvester McCoy
Mel: Bonnie Langford
Dr Eleanor Harcourt: Sabina Franklyn
Prof Ivor Fassbinder: Graeme Garden
Lieutenant Strindberg: Vidar Magnussen
Loozly: Nickolas Grace
Angvia: Patricia Quinn
Nicky Newman: Anthony Spargo
Geri: Jane Goddard
Logan: David Tughan

The creators of Christmas 2001's The One Doctor returned with another specially-commisioned dose of comedy Who to round off the Big Finish release schedule for 2002. This time around, it's an eminently charming and often hilarious spoof on sci-fi TV series such as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Space:1999; programmes which at one point or other posed a rivalry to Dr. Who during its 26-year run on British screens. The setting is an Intergalactic Song Contest, held in the midst of rising hostilities between two longtime enemy races.

With the Seventh Doctor/Melanie Bush team reunited for this adventure, it's not hard to deduce that Bang-Bang-A-Boom! milks all the potential hamminess in such a scenario and it doesn't shy away from wonderful silliness or shameless send-ups of cheesy cultural icons like Terry Wogan (represented here by a very thinly veiled commentator by the name of Logan, trademark vocal mannerisms and all).

Mistaken identity, murder mystery, haughty divadom and self-absorbed popstardom all add up to a delightfully tongue-in-cheek romp.

Bang-Bang-A-Boom! hits the bullseye thanks to pleasingly restrained performances from McCoy and Langford (more experience with the Who format no doubt benefitting them) and some superb supporting characters. Patricia Quinn's marvellously theatrical Queen Angvia steals the piece, although Sabina Franklyn's dutiful Doctor Eleanor Harcourt and the absent-minded Professor Fassbinder, played with subtlety by Graeme Garden, are also important to providing a dry counterfoil to the Doctor's endearing but erratic eccentricity.

Proving there is still much fun to be had with affectionately playful parodies, Bang-Bang-A-Boom! even offers a perfectly satisfying finale to proceedings. As long as you have the stomach for it....

Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2003.