PSAudios 4.3. Massanicassa

"How can I remember something I know nothing about?"

Nick is hearing voices in his head, telling him of a mysterious world somewhere in time and space...

Rob hears Nick's voice in his dreams... a single word and a scream.

The Doctor is shocked to hear a word he hasn't heard for many, many years...

MASSANICASSA.

What dark secrets has the Doctor been hiding for years? Who do the voices Nick is hearing belong to? Will Rob find a pair of shoes that fit?

And just what will they all find on Massanicassa?

It all began at the recording session for Heist! In 2008, when Si Hunt asked Simon Hart to write a new story, one that would reveal where companion Nick had come from. A simple premise, but one that would lead in to the most complicated and longest gestation of any PS Audio so far.

The basic premise for the story was written on a long train journey back from a visit to Cornwall in August 2008. On this journey Simon wrote some notes about the story- working out the basic story of what had led to the Doctor bringing Nick up, and a very rough idea of the start of the first episode and a few notes about what we'd learnt about Nick to this point.

Simon quickly came to conclusion that it was time the PS Doctor faced another of his old enemies, The Cybermen. The Cybermen would be behind the destruction of Nick's home planet, and would be a threat to the Doctor, Nick and Rob in the present day too, tying two time zones together. Simon liked the idea of two adventures being explored at the same time, the one in the Doctor's past along side the present day one. The two would be intertwined throughout, giving the Doctor a chance to do some storytelling and some flashbacks for Nick.

After playing around with a few names, the name of Nick's home planet was settled on, Massanicassa, named after a furniture shop seen on a holiday in Spain, Massa Cassa with Nick's name craftily added to the middle. Simon decided that this would give the story a suitably intriguing title, in the Christopher Hamilton Bidmead style.

Scripting began in early 2009. While plotting the story, Simon found that his initial plan for a two part story that had become the standard length for PS Audios grew and grew until he found he was tackling the first four part story since Magical History Tour.

Scripting the story was fairly easy. However, on reading back the first version of part 2, it was thought that the story wasn't moving along quickly enough, so a new version was written to replace it. Sadly this meant some scenes with Esther, Aaron and Daborn were lost, but this was a worthy sacrifice to get the story moving faster.

The scripts were edited and finalised in August 2009, ready for recording in October 2009. However, this was not the end of the scripting process for this story...

The recording of Massanicassa took place over several sessions. The first session featured Ashley and Phillip Culley doing Massanicassan voices while Phillip was visiting from Canada. This was followed by a full session on the weekend of 7th November 2009, with the rest of the cast in attendance. Paul Monk then joined Steve Alexander and Dave Tudor to record all the scenes with the Doctor on the Sunday.
Unfortunately this session was largely unusable. The levels on the mic hadn't been checked before recording began and the sound was horribly distorted. It would all need to be recorded again. And this is where things get complicated.

Over the next few months many attempts were made to complete the story. Simon worked on the scenes that had been recorded fine, while the pre-recording of scenes with the Doctor and Rob were fitted in during sessions for Sting of the Time Bees and Once Upon A Time Lord .This still left a number of unrecorded scenes, however, including all those featuring Dave Tudor as Nick. Many attempts were made to get Dave's scenes re-recorded, but they all fell through.

At the end of 2010 realising that the situation needed to be resolved one way or another, Si Hunt and Simon Hart plotted ways to get the story finished. In the end, the decision was made to rewrite the story and write Nick out. Simon Hart set to work on adjusting the scenes that hadn't yet been completed, or other scenes that would need adjusting to take Nick out of them. It was found that some of the material recorded at the abortive session could be salvaged with some effects added, so some important things could be retained.

With a new version of the script finalised again, a new session finally took place in May 2011 with Paul Monk and Steven Alexander to complete the new scenes. This went without a hitch this time and it was finally all in the can.

Simon then got to work on completing the production of the story. It was during this, that the cliffhanger to episode 3 was changed, with Simon making a new cliffhanger out of various parts of dialogue both used and unused from the story.
The sound design of the story was designed to emulate early 80s Doctor Who and has a score from various members of the Radiophonic Workshop, with some music reused from Earthshock and The Visitation.

Si Hunt put together the montage of Nick moments heard at the end of the story.

Massanicassa had a long and difficult production history. To get around certain difficulties there were major changes made to the storyline as we went along. Some of the changes included a different finale and a different cliffhanger to episode 3.
The original cliffhanger to episode 3 was this:

Download PSAudios - 4.3. Massanicassa - Episode3's original ending.mp3

A 5 minute trip through the fluffs and mistakes

Download PSAudios - 4.3. Massanicassa - Outtakes.mp3

That was amazing! It's where your old-Who or four episodes meets the new Who of two part episodes.
Dino

I thought this was outstanding! The final episode was a perfect "pay off" from the previous four, and I really liked the way that as a listener I got to hear what I wanted to hear, Nick realise the Doctor wasn't at fault. And the return of Nan! Hurrah! And the lovely bit where the Doctor called Nick his son and recounted the story of their early life... bless you for keeping in my long-held ascertion that the Doctor sat on Nick's egg to keep it warm! And the ending with Nick finding his Mum again was lovely.
Just brilliantly produced from start to end, I have to say. The vocal tracks, sound effects and music all segued beautifully together. There was no hint whatsoever of the problems that we had getting the production together. It was just a great, epic story and I think Episode 4 was my favourite of the four.
Favourite line was the one linking "Massanicassa" with Milestra's appearance in "Echoes of the Protii". Talk about a story arc! Even Doctor Who on TV has never had a five year plotarc!
Finally, I have to say that Dave was just wonderful as Nick all the way through, and his sobs at the end of the episode would break even the hardest of hearts! He hasn't come on this thread, but I hope he's heard it and is proud of his performance.
Si Hunt

In many ways it's been quite a difficult story to listen to, rather etherial for the most part, so difficult to imagine the surroundings in which the charaters are in. I'm quite sure that it's just my own take on it, though, no fault of the story. I've been listening to it during my lunch hours at work, with all the hubbub of the office going around me, so I was probably not concentrating enough.
Having said all that, I liked the story. It was a fitting swansong for Nick, and as usual Dave was outstanding, particularly at the end when he was crying.
Ant Cox

It really was an excellent story and probably the most emotional audio PS has ever produced, I think. Loved the scene where Nick forgave the Doctor and acknowledged him as his father (I remember this always being hinted at, but it was nice to have some confirmation, enjoyed the bit about the egg!)
I think this might be everyones finest performance too, the regulars are all on fine form, and everyone gets a chance to do something quite different. Dave does Nick's flipping between confusion and anger perfectly and Paul lends a great deal of pathos to the usually calm and serene Doctor.
Martin Penny

Really excellent story. Great performances all round; the best of which were probably Paul and Dave (although a special mention should go to Susan and Si Hunt's Nan).
Andrew Clancy

So much to like in this but particularly loved the many references to past adventures all of which earned their place wiithout interrupting the pace of the drama. The "goodbye" was also a great moment. I was almost expecting a Bad Wolf Bay scene but I think keeping it short and sweet was much more effective and nicely emphasized the finality.
Richard Brinck- Johnson

Everything including the aborted recording sessions exists in Si Hart's archive.