BBC Audio adventure, November 1998
The music starts with the buzzing sound, the insect noise that we’ll later come to associate with this story. Kemo Arnie is our hero, the little human of our future. Listening to Nicola Bryant read is fascinating as her British accent is very present, as opposed to her American accent that I’m used to hearing. Pararachnids are the huge bug villains that will ultimately be fought by the Doctor and defeated. Naturally.
This story does go down a winding path but nothing too extravagant, ultimately. The Doctor and Peri get separated and Peri subjected to the nightmare of “the line”. She gets rescued but it’s definitely not a good experience for her. The Weblywee help Kemo Arnie escape from the line initially but it was up to the Doctor to save them all in the end. Though Kemo Arnie is the one who takes the responsibility, as it should be. The androids/robots protect the humans and all is made right again after the Pararachnid invasion is over.
This story is a good, old fashioned adventure for the Doctor and Peri. It’s got danger and tension, though I don’t feel like the Doctor and Peri are in imminent danger of dying or anything. But there is peril and excitement. And the reading is very well done, too. So overall a very good adventure!
writer: Dave Stone
read by: Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant
This is a fun little solo adventure for the Doctor. He goes to the pleasure planet (Nestra) and does battle with Laxus, a robot who thinks that humans should only experience pleasure while on vacation. So insulin shots, fixing broken bones, fixing cavities, and other such unpleasant things are not permissible. And the guests just can’t ever get up the strength to leave! Though you’d think they should be able to talk to/call their relatives to get help or something.
It’s a fun adventure with the Doctor playing detective and cat and mouse with a lady spy. He rather enjoys himself and ends up convincing Laxus that humans need pain and a little suffering to make their lives worthwhile, which isn’t exactly what he was shooting for. Hehehe. A cheery little side-adventure that really is rather amusing and fun.
writer: Guy Clapperton
read by: Colin Baker
This adventure, on the other hand, is about as happy as a walk through a haunted house. Yucko. As much as you might think that would be a good thing, it's only partially good. There is much sadness and heavy emotional exploration in this story but without a real conclusion. The Doctor just finds out that something strange is happening that is, once again, his fault. He tends to impact the people he meets and in this case, Val is impacted negatively but only partially because of the Doctor. The other part is that his daughter is in a coma and he can't get over that she's just not there. Peri sees some old friends and we get to see the consequences of a bad relationship go very bad, possibly because of her presence. But this is only cursorily explored, which is good because they leave it up to the listener to determine how much of this is actually Peri's fault. Yet it also leaves the usual heavy thoughts behind in the gore.
The Doctor and Peri both experience a different part of a case in the newspapers of horrid deaths. Yet the outcome is the same for both of them--loss and emotional pain. And things that they don't want to tell each other. At least not yet... Without that emotional wrap-up, the ending to their internal turmoil, the story loses something. Sometimes that works and in this case, despite the spooky atmosphere and people in pain they become involved with, and even the threat of death for Peri, I can't get emotionally involved in this story like I think I should. Good but not great.
writer: Michael Collier
read by: Nicola Bryant