Big Finish 8th Dr. New Adventures audio drama, June 2009
This story is a rarity in the Dr. Who universe – a story of adversity and yet, after the initial battle, they characters move in a different direction. The menace and fear that usually is there turns around into a meeting of the minds, an intellectual race for a peaceful resolution through the history of a species. The only similar story in the Who-verse that I can think of is Dreamtime by Simon Forward from 2005. There is the threat and danger happening but it takes a quick left turn into a lesson in tolerance and learning on both sides.
Usually the bad guy is straightforward and out there, always threatening people and the Doctor has to save everyone as possible. However, the bad guys are not the final story here. My main issue with this story is the way the bad guys are portrayed. There’s a knee-jerk reaction on the part of Delong as to the bugs, despite the ties his grandfather had to them in his culture as a settler on the planet. It almost seems like Starship Troopers for the audio set but then it goes left where Troopers went right. So it was very good but not spectacular.
Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith (with Colin Salmon and Daniel Anthony)
writer and director: Nicholas Briggs