Recorded on: 20 June, 16 and 18 July 2024 and 16 January 2025
Recorded at: The Soundhouse
Script editor Matt Fitton said: "After spending some time with the older Seventh Doctor, it's fun to go back to the partnership that defines his era like no other. The Doctor and Ace have a rollercoaster relationship over years of stories, with many twists and turns, ups and downs - but in Wicked! we delve into the very beginnings of that beautiful friendship.
"The lonely Time Lord starts to see the potential of his new young protégée, and the rebellious teen from Perivale has her eyes opened to the universe. These are Ace's very first trips in the TARDIS - a madcap treasure hunt through 1920s London, facing danger on the snowy slopes of future Earth, and an encounter with another duo which holds a mirror up to the time travellers. 'The Seventh Doctor meets Don Quixote' is such an inspired pitch, I am amazed nobody has done it before!"
Simon Callow said: "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza are one of the great double acts of our culture, like Laurel and Hardy! Don Quixote is, as always, looking for demons and bad people to slay because he believes he is a knight whose duty is to save people in distress. But it's a great break for him when he encounters the Doctor. They're absolutely on the same page - they prove to be soulmates, which is very touching."
Writer Alan Ronald added: "There's a sort of Quixote voice that I had in my head while I was writing. And when we were lucky enough to get Simon Callow, suddenly that voice was real - it's just dream casting. You can’t really get better than that."
Sophie Aldred, who has played Ace since 1987, said: "I'm very excited to be going back all that long way and at my grand old age to be playing 16 again. It's fun to actually think about who Ace was - she doesn't even know who the Doctor is at the end of Dragonfire, she doesn't know that he's a Time Lord, she doesn't know anything about the TARDIS. It's a really good way of introducing her to things that got missed in the TV series.
And here we are in 1920s London and she's stepping out of the TARDIS for the first time, going, ‘Oh this isn't Perivale, where are we?' and fully wanting to engage with all of it. The Doctor has to rein her back a bit. Ace is running away, she hasn't really got a home. In many ways, the Doctor and the TARDIS become her home - and this is the very beginning of that happening."
Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred
Simon Callow © Oliver Bowring
Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred © Oliver Bowring
Ekow Quartey and Simon Callow © Oliver Bowring