I.D. and Urgent Calls

Information is valuable in the future; so valuable that there is a black market in stolen and recovered data, and people are prepared to kill to protect their claims. The Doctor arrives on a planet where hulking Scandroids patrol the wrecking yards in search of any scraps of data they can salvage from old computer systems, but one of the droids comes across more than anyone bargained for in the form of an invasive virus that not only spreads through the Scandroids, but can also spread to humans with hardware upgrades to their brains. And in the far future, that could mean everybody.

I.D. is actually only a three part adventure, and it benefits from that shorter length by being more tightly directed, the plot cleared of a lot of backstory that might or might not add to the overall picture. Colin Baker is, as always, magnificent in his ongoing portrayal of the Doctor, once again with no regular companions at his side. The cast of characters he does come into contact with are the usual mix of skeptics, crooks, and victims, all forced to exist together under a condition of seige, plus the usual mad scientist perpetuating himself through a computer system. And the Scandroids, just these big wandering things, information forklifts if they're anything. Cool voices though. Cool voices don't make the story stand out though; it's okay but nothing I'm going to run around telling everyone they must hear.

As part of an experiment at Big Finish (they're really into those as you've seen) I.D. comes paired with a single episode adventure called Urban Myths, where a young woman's phone connects her to the Doctor seemingly by accident at first but more and more by design as the days go by. The young woman, Lauren, becomes a temporary companion even if she never actually meets the Doctor in person, but he saves her life, she bails him out of jail, and along it goes. This story is best suited to a shorter format, as a sustained 90 minute adventure of nothing but telephone conversations would really get stale, and by the end I found myself getting tired of it as it was. But it was different, which is something Doctor Who always has the scope to be. My beef with it though is Lauren's attachment to the Doctor as their adventure carries on; she starts having these notions of going on holiday together and meeting and being friends much like a lot of lonely people on chat lines do with other voices they hear in times of need (usually those are late at night when single people are at their neediest). The Doctor is strangely sympathetic to her and lets her down easily, as opposed to the sort of cut and dry response he might normally give. Perhaps travelling alone is softening him?

Now the last thing to say is about the "bonus" material. I didn't listen to any of it, not really, but my question is: does anyone? If you're going to slap a bonus interview onto a Big Finish disc, make it with someone we actually want to hear from. Interview Colin Baker on how he feels he's been able to expand on the role! Ask him how he feels some of these stories would have translated to television! Ask him what he had for breakfast! Stupid.

NEXT EPISODE : THE MARIAN CONSPIRACY