2004, Special Release III
This audio adventure has a particular flare for the interesting—the bounty hunter/assassin hired to kill the Doctor never had a chance! That is the assumption we go into the story with. How he manages to meld the real and unreal and save himself is very odd. That’s the part that keeps it from being excellent. The tale mixes up the strange and the real for him, allowing him to remove the implant with an imagined tool and also destroy the TARDIS while in an imagined land. The story itself, with the temple and the damaged TARDIS and Peri and Antranak, er, Hamiyun. In 2001 Jonathan Owen played Antranak, Erimem’s faithful protector, head of her palace guards. And three years later, he’s the more rational member of the populace in the imagined town for this adventure.
I like the plotline in general and have just some small issues with it. It’s not a fantastic story as it’s not as heart-wrenching as it should be—I know it’s not real so I’m not concerned about Peri dying. Though how Rashaa, the assassin, expects the Doctor to sacrifice himself and die I just don’t know. He doesn’t kill himself to help the villagers. He almost kills the TARDIS but he doesn’t kill himself. Given time he’d die but she’s bored and wanders off. So he makes like a tree and escapes. In his usual clever way, of course. So this one is a borderline 4 jelloid tale but the technology and little pieces along the way make it worth the time.
Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant
writer: Julian Shortman
director: G-Russell