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Doctor Who Review: Sixth Doctor audio ‘The Red House’

By James Aggas

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We head back to the Sixth Doctor and Charley, as they face not just werewolves but the Doctor’s darker self in ‘The Red House’!

Technically, this isn’t the first time that I’ve reviewed The Red House. As part of The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure box set, I covered it for a portion of my very extensive review.

But as I’ve been listening to the Sixth Doctor’s and Charley’s stories in order, I knew I wanted to look at it from a different angle. Before, I reviewed The Red House as part of the Sixth Doctor’s regeneration story. This time, I wanted to look at it as part of the Sixth Doctor and Charley’s ongoing story.

Admittedly, there is a key thread throughout all four episodes of The Last Adventure. But what helps with listening to each of them individually is that each episode is its own story. In fact, they all take place from wildly different points in the Sixth Doctor’s lifetime. So while he’s travelling with Charley in this episode, he travels with other companions in the rest.

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The very first scene helps to establish The Red House taking place very shortly after Brotherhood of the Daleks. It also further establishes how terrible a liar Charley really is. She keeps forgetting how little she’s traveled so far with this Doctor. She also makes references to monsters and races that the Sixth Doctor knows she shouldn’t be aware of.

It’s nice that the episode remembers what makes this pairing so unique. Especially as it had been written so long after her final story – almost six years, to be exact.

The Valeyard

There is another way that Charley is used appropriately for The Red House. Although she has no idea who he is, she meets another major character from the Doctor’s life: the Valeyard.

Introduced in The Trial of a Time Lord, the Valeyard is the amalgamation of the Doctor’s darker side. He’s also from his own future, “somewhere between [the Doctor’s] twelfth and final incarnation”, according the Master. This means that, when he comes across Charley, he’s very aware of who she really is.

Interestingly, he doesn’t ask too much about how she’s travelling with the Doctor’s Sixth incarnation, when he’d very probably only remember her travelling with his Eighth. Still, considering he’s trying to hide who he really is from Charley, that’s not too surprising.

While Charley never finds out who the Valeyard really is, their scenes together in The Red House are great to listen to. They’re a nice way of reminding the listener what makes Charley so special. The Valeyard’s involvement also nicely sows the seeds for the final episode of the box set. However, the overall plot of The Red House works very nicely on its own, which helps in reviewing it once more in this particular context.

Werewolves and mad scientists

The main plot of The Red House is overall rather enjoyable. It’s a rather refreshing take on the werewolf mythos, with an interesting twist. The story also appears to have a “mad scientist” in the form of “Dr. Pain”, who works in the titular “red house”. So all of this seems to have the makings of a Doctor Who take on a classic horror template. Something that Doctor Who is usually very good at.

Instead, it ends up going in a very different direction. What’s enjoyable about The Red House is that, with the exception of the Valeyard, there were no obvious “bad guys”. There are many opposing sides, but everyone has valid reasons for what they do. And while the Doctor seems to make the right decision, he actually ends up causing a massive mistake.

As part of The Sixth Doctor: The Last Adventure box set, The Red House has always been enjoyable. But it’s been nice reviewing it once more from a new perspective, as the Sixth Doctor and Charley’s journey together continues.

Next: BBC has regenerated a lost Tom Baker episode, and we’re freaking out!

Next time: ‘Return of the Krotons’

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