The Mega is a Doctor Who audio drama released by Big Finish Productions in 2013. It is an episode from the range known as The Lost Stories, which were initially written for the television series but never saw productions for one reason or another. Jon Pertwee would have starred as the Third Doctor if he was still alive, however Katy Manning returns as Jo Grant and also shares narration duties with Richard Franklin, who also reprises his role as Captain Mike Yates of UNIT. Bo Poraj and Derek Carlyle are the guest actors who play various other parts. Bill Strutton either wrote the script or had the original story idea which was adapted by Simon Guerrier. Ken Bentley serves as the director of this particular episode.
Essentially, there is a new alien menace known as the Mega. The Doctor seems to have betrayed all of humanity, but Jo as usual doesn’t believe it. This is another six part story which really does drag on a bit.
There wasn’t much that stood out to me as far as the story goes. It’s pretty rare that six episodes doesn’t feel too long in a Doctor Who story as much as I love the series overall. Once again, the story doesn’t stand out for being particularly terrible, but I was just ready for this to be wrapped up. Manning and Franklin are fine in their roles, but that is not unexpected. Manning stood in for the late Jon Pertwee. Although it is impossible for her to sound just like Pertwee, she nails the vocal mannerisms enough where it is not too distracting when she performs the Doctor’s lines. The sound effects and score also work well enough, but yet again, that’s easy enough for Big Finish to accomplish.
The only brief impression I can come up with about this particular release is that it’s okay. I will likely listen to it again several more times because I like Doctor Who that much, but I am not sure that I will find anything all that unique to appreciate when I do.
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