A Life of Crime

A Life of Crime

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Mel), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Ginny Holder (Gloria/Secretary), Des McAleer (Lefty Lonnigan), Stephen Hagan (Nathan Later), Harry Myers (Atomon/Sperovore Banker/Steward), John Banks (Mayor/Sperovore Auditor/Sperovore Financer). Other parts portrayed by the cast.

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-ownerof the Iceworld emporium, c 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.

Written by: Matt Fitton
Directed by: Ken Bentley

• A Life of Crime was the two hundred and fourteenth story in Big Finish’s monthly range. It was written by Matt Fitton and featured Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush and Sophie Aldred as Ace.
  
• Gloria gives 500 grotzits to the Mayor.
  
• Mel lost her ship, the Nosferatu III, when it was impounded.
  
• The Ricosta currency is the dollar. The Mayor regrets not adopting the grotzit when he had the opportunity.
  
• Lefty Lonnigan is a cyborg. He received his nickname because only the left side of his body is still human.
  
• Gloria offers Mel a glass of Gadalaxian champagne.
  
• Ace refers to the Mayor as “fur-face” and “fuzzball”.
  Lefty compares Ricostans to ferrets, though Gloria believes that they more closely resemble raccoons.
  
• Ace has read about regeneration.
  
• Mel considers Glitz to be his ne’er-do-well.
  
• Ace compares Lefty to Long John Silver.
  Gloria tells The Doctor that not even she can make beige and paisley look good.
  
• The Sperovores are one of the wealthiest species in the Andromeda Galaxy, if not the wealthiest.
  
• Lefty once robbed a bank on Andromeda IX.
  
• Gloria refers to Mel as “Little Miss Carrot Curls”.
  
• Glitz has been paying off his debts to the Sperovores by allowing them to absorb some of Mel’s possible futures.
  
• The galactic common currency is the grotzit. (The Mysterious Planet, Dragonfire)
  Lefty was Glitz’s best friend. (The Mysterious Planet, Dragonfire)
  Mel tells Gloria that she met Glitz on Iceworld. ( Dragonfire)
  Ace refers to the fact that The Doctor stole the TARDIS. (An Unearthly Child, Logopolis, The Name of the Doctor, The Beginning)
  
• Lefty refers to Ravolox (The Mysterious Planet), Iceworld (Dragonfire) and Vandor Prime. (Mission: Impractical)
  
• A Foamasi representative is visiting Ricosta. (The Leisure Hive)
  
• Mel tells Gloria that she is aware that The Doctor can regenerate from personal experience. (The Brink of Death, Time and the Rani)
  
• Mel refers to the fact that The Doctor procured a new umbrella in the Warehouse. (The Warehouse)
  
• Mel recalls The Doctor telling her his days were”like crazy paving” just before she departed the TARDIS. (Dragonfire)
  
• Ace once again exclaims, “Gordon Bennett!” (Dragonfire, The Happiness Patrol, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Battlefield)
  
• Acerefers to Long John Silver. During his sixth incarnation, The Doctor met Silver in the Land of Fiction. (Legend of the Cybermen)
  
• Ace recalls that Glitz used to hang around Iceworld’s ice cream parlour when she worked there as a waitress. (Dragonfire)
  
• Ace again refers to Mel as “Donut”. (Dragonfire)
  
• Mel mentions that she has recently encountered the Porcians (You Are The Doctor) and visited the Grand Betelgeuse Hotel (The Gtelgeuse Hotel). The Doctor determines that the two humans who escaped from Chimbly and Keith were Mel and Glitz, You Are The Doctor) and that the woman going by the name of Ms Zingiber, whom Norris claimed had visited immediately before The Doctor and Ace’s arrival and who later stayed at the Grand Betelgeuse Hotel, was Mel (Come Die With Me, The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel).
  
• The Doctor notes that Mel has a memory like an elephant. (The Ultimate Foe, Time and the Rani, The One Doctor, Unregenerate!, The Warehouse)
  
• Ace tells Mel that The Doctor has been giving her lessons in flying the TARDIS. (You Are The Doctor, Come Die With Me, The Grand Betelgeuse Hotel, Dead to the World)
  
• Ace uses Nitro-9 against the Sperivores. ( Dragonfire, Remembrance of the Daleks)
  

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