“Red Planets” is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions. Una McCormack is the author of this particular episode starring Sylvester McCoy alongside Bonnie Langford and Sophie Aldred.
The Doctor and his companions, Mel and Ace, find a timeline that should not exist where the United Kingdom is under Russian control, and a mission to Mars seems to be at the center of the trouble.
This story seems to start with the Doctor and friends in the middle of the problem with two different time periods. Ace is allied with a wounded British spy in 1961 while the Doctor and Mel investigate matters in London 2017.
I am not sure this one works as well on audio. Seventh Doctor adventures tend to get more convoluted than usual. But alternate timeline stories tend to get like that. I had some trouble getting interested at first, but it got more compelling as the story unfolded.
The main cast continues to perform well together although Ace was largely separated from the other two. This is another story where the performances help with forgiving the weaknesses of the writing.
There was a bit of the spy caper mixed into the usual science fiction. I think I may like this one a little better once I get around to listening to it again. It may not be a bad story if I can concentrate on it better on a subsequent listen.
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