Big Finish audio, 8th Doctor Adventure, Jan. and Feb. 2007
Welcome Lucie Miller! Hop on into the TARDIS, slammed right into the console room by the Time Lords without so much as a by-your-leave. And that starts us off with a satisfying bang into this new adventure with Lucie and the Doctor. They don’t like each other and don’t even bother to pretend to. She tells him not to yell at her and yells right back at him, diverting him with questions of her own so he can never get to the bottom of things. Until later, much later.
And he does things that annoy her and vice versa. They end up on the planet that everyone wants to get their hands on—a close relative of Earth, I’d say. Red Rocket Rising. Fun name! It’s been hit by a meteor and subjected to clouds of dust particles and there are just a few humans left (hundreds, maybe thousands) who didn’t manage to escape. We’re not really sure what’s going on until we hear those fatal words on the transmission, Daleks. Coming to rescue you! Oh dear. I think it’s time to run the other way! We get our characters introduced and lots of running around, then end on a finale of a new race of Daleks being built by the crazy doctor and a pretty good cliffhanger.
The cliffhanger is resolved with the Doctor surviving, of course, and being very clever. Smarter than your average bear! Tom Cardwell shows his true colours of hero, Klint does her bit as the stand-in president, and Asha as the mad scientist brain transfer. Klint is the least interesting character and Asha turns out to be a not-so-mad scientist after all. But the Doctor does his part by popping up here and there, at the right moments, to convince everyone to do the right thing at the right time.
This new race of Daleks is just as ruthless as the original variety pack, too. The humans caught in between are given to good timing, though their planet is not. The next rescuers are from Telos!? Hehehe. Now that’s just mean. There won’t be anyone left to actually fight back at this rate. But it is a rather fun adventure all in all, except for the ending area, where the Doctor helps the original flavor Daleks but ends up in neither camp and somehow things get a bit jumbled and sped up a bit too much at the end. No gobbledygook but plenty of “Exterminate!” and bodies flying everywhere. But of course the Doctor and Lucie, the reluctant passenger, fly off into the sunset together. And the mystery headhunter enters the picture. Having heard the whole thing and knowing who she is, I won’t say much except … well, you’ll have to wait for the last story on that one. The headhunter definitely helps build up suspense and continuity along the stories, much like the Charley Pollard stories. The ending here isn’t very wiz-bang but it definitely lends itself to the next adventure. Can’t wait!
Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith
writer: Stephen Lyons
director: Nicholas Briggs