Doctor Who Review: ‘A Life of Crime’ (Audio)
By James Aggas
The Seventh Doctor and Ace reunite with their old friend Mel in Big Finish’s latest regular release, Doctor Who: ‘A Life of Crime’.
Last year, we got a trilogy of stories featuring the Seventh Doctor and Mel that were overall surprisingly strong, as they were all set during one of my least favourite seasons of the classic series, Season 24. It worked well at showcasing how great a team Seven and Mel could have been on television, as well presenting a fresh jumping on point for new listeners.
‘A Life of Crime’ is in some ways very similar – it’s a great jumping on point that’s the start of a brand new arc, and once again, it features the Seventh Doctor and Mel. Only this time, it’s set many years later, long after Mel left in ‘Dragonfire’ and while Ace is still travelling with the Doctor.
This allows for a lot of interesting and heavily character-based drama to unfold, and lets Big Finish provide fresh takes on long established characters, particularly with Mel.
But first thing’s first: the plot, and how it allows the characters to be reunited with each other once more.
"“Come to Ricosta! Tropical climate, untouched beaches, fabulous cuisine… and no extradition treaties. The perfect retirement planet for a certain type of ‘business person’ – such as Ms Melanie Bush, formerly the co-owner of the Iceworld emporium, now on the run from her former criminal associate’s criminal associates…Some other former associates of Ms Bush are abroad in this space Costa del Crime, however. Not long ago, the time and space traveller known as the Doctor arrived here, alongside his sometimes-criminal associate, the reformed juvenile offender Ace. But now the Doctor’s gone missing – and Melanie Bush is about to learn that on the planet Ricosta, the wages of sin… are death.”"
I love a good heist story. I’ve been watching a great deal of the BBC series Hustle on Netflix recently, and I really do love the formula – the planning, the dodgy deals, the shaky alliances, the actual heist itself and how, one way or another, something always goes wrong. It’s not a formula Doctor Who uses often. The two best examples I can think of are ‘Time Heist’ in Series 8, and Big Finish’s very own ‘Grand Theft Cosmos’ with the Eighth Doctor. And honestly, it’s only a major part for the first half of ‘A Life of Crime’, really, but it still handles it very well.
There are a great deal of lies, cons, and tricks in the first two episodes alone, so I won’t go into too much detail on that plotwise. All I will say is that it leaves you guessing just what exactly is going on, with a lot of focus on Ace and Mel separately while we wonder where the Doctor is.
When the characters finally reunite in the second half, it pays off really well. There was a lot that I enjoyed about the scenes that all three time travellers shared together, as we get to see each character through the others’ eyes. Obviously, finding out what happened to Mel after she left with criminal Sabalom Glitz in ‘Dragonfire’ is really fascinating to hear… especially as it becomes clear that Mel might not be quite as naïve, or even innocent, as she once was.
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But equally interesting is hearing how Mel sees both the Doctor and Ace. In Season 24, the Doctor was still a nice and straightforward hero, but it’s been quite a long time since those days. Not only did he make difficult choices in stories like ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ and ‘The Curse of Fenric’, but in the audios, he and Ace have changed so much more. They’ve only recently finished travelling with former companion Hex, who had been with the TARDIS crew for ten years. In that time, the companions have had to deal with many secrets, lies, and grand games from the Doctor.
All of this really helps to showcase how long it’s been since the Doctor and Ace last saw Mel, and how much all three have changed. My personal favourite moment especially is of Ace really shocking Mel by displaying exactly how much knowledge and experience she’s had from her travels, to the point where she almost comes close to sounding like the Doctor himself, at times.
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