Tardis

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The Vanity Box was the following one-part story comprising part of the ninety-seventh release in Big Finish's monthly range. It was written by Paul Magrs and featured Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor and Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush.

Publisher's summary[]

A strange beauty parlour has opened its doors for business in a dowdy Salford terrace circa 1965. Monsieur Coiffure is the talk of the street with his fabulous make-overs. When the Doctor arrives, however, he knows at once that there's been some unnatural titivation going on.

Plot[]

The Doctor and Mel arrive in 1965 Salford to rest after defeating the Wishing Beast. Whilst the Doctor goes for a drink at the Sailor's End, Mel goes to Lily's corner shop and hears from Bessy about Monsieur Coiffure's Vanity Box salon, which she has left looking several decades younger. The Doctor observes the reactions to Bessy when she enters the pub and, suspecting that something strange is going on, goes with Mel to investigate, finding Lily rejuvenated by a box put over her head.

Monsieur Coiffure sends the Doctor and Mel away, so they visit the gossipy Nesta who agrees to put the Doctor in drag so that he can return to the salon as a customer in need of a makeover. When Monsieur Coiffure places the Vanity Box on his head, the Doctor realises that it is the box containing the Wishing Beast, which has been feeding on psychic energy and shortening people's lives. It struggles to feed on him because of his long life and the Doctor and Mel take the damaged box back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor makes a tear in spacetime through which he throws the box into the Time Vortex, sending it along the TARDIS's recent path to the asteroid where he and Mel first encountered it in the distant past. Mel argues that the Doctor could have prevented what will happen to Maria, Eliza and Daniel Applewhite, but he denies this and takes her back to the Sailor's End. They find that the make-overs have worn off and the Doctor asks Mel what she would have wished for from the Wishing Beast; she says that she would have wished for more time to travel with him.

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