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 | Decent, but Fairly Standard "Doctor Who" |
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| What: | Island of Lost Souls (BBV Audio Adventures in Time and Space) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 22 September 2023 |
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| Rating: |   7 |
The second adventure of The Time Travellers finds The Professor and Ace at a secret military base in Greenland during WWII. The base is conducting experiments attempting to mix sound and radar. Of course, some weird things have been happening and our heroes arrive just as the situation is starting to go a bit tense. The experiment has disturbed something, causing hideous mutations in the local fish, and other troubles. Plus, someone on the base is definitely a German spy. It's classic Doctor Who fare, with McCoy and Aldred playing their roles in a somewhat more understated manner than on TV. The Professor is not so scheming and is a bit friendlier, while Ace is more mature. The story itself is one of those Doctor Who variations on Professor Quatermass. It is, therefore, entertaining, but with a few questionable details regarding science and plotting.
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| Episode 2 Is Still A Bit Murky |
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The next installment of The Stranger Chronicles starts from the ending of the Eye of the Beholder video. Saul (David Troughton) and Egan (John Wadmore), Soloman's former terrorist partners, have tracked him down and drawn him back into the Interdimensional Web, or so they think. In a remote British locale, a top secret experiment is going on using the extraordinary extrasensory mental powers of a young woman named Meta. As the three preceptor terrorists attempt to escape, her mind encounters them in the Web, breaking a hole in the Web and drawing them back to Earth. As the Web cuts off this location and starts to repair itself, it closes in tighter and tighter on the band stranded at the house - Meta, the lead scientist experimenter, the police/agent government representative, and our three terrorists. In the process, Saul and Egan slowly learn that perhaps the lives of those in the universe are not as worthless and disposable as they thought. As with the previous Stranger Chronicles audio, the acting is pretty good, but the sound design is not. The Interdimensional Web, the Protectorate, and all the rest of the series background still do not make much sense. The Web seems a kind magic, anything the writer wants it to be.
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| Decent, If a Bit Confusing |
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BBV decided to build out their Stranger Chronicles series of videos by providing a couple of audio prequels. In doing so, they move away from the "alternate Doctor Who" that was the videos. In this series, The Stranger (Colin Baker), here called Solomon, turns out to be a terrorist from another dimension, referred to as "The Web." He is the leader of a terror cell containing two others. They seek to strike against The Protectorate, a shadowy hegemony that apparently protects this dimension and our universe. What the terrorists have against The Protectorate is not entirely clear. So, the terrorists go about primarily killing random people of no consequence to prove that The Protectorate is not all powerful. Beyond that, their actions do not seem to accomplish anything of value. This audio tells of the "last mission" of Solomon when he gets nabbed by The Protectorate, in particular by a Protectorate agent played by Elisabeth Sladen. They have decided to put Solomon through The Estrangement Program, to force him to experience the material universe with no recourse to the interdimensional web, and thus learn the errors of his ways. One can tell that much is left in the murky background. Just what the Web is remains unclear, as do The Protectorate, the motives of the terrorists, and just why the universe should be their battle ground. The acting is all very good. The sound design a bit so-so. The story just feels like the background has not been properly worked out.
| What: | Doctor Who Unbound: Deadline (Doctor Who Unbound audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 4 September 2023 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
For the Doctor Who Unbound what if this time, it's: What if Doctor Who had never been produced? The story is about writer Martin Bannister, played superbly by Derek Jacobi. Bannister lives in assisted living, by himself. He has alienated all the people in his life: his three wives, his adult son, his former co-workers, and the other residents in his facility. He's disillusioned and self-centered, the type that mistakes cruelty for honesty. However, he does have one remaining dream: to finally complete his pilot script for an unproduced BBC serial called Doctor Who. Bannister incorporates those around him into his imaginary script, taking on the role of the irascible time traveler in his own mind. As events go along, Bannister finds it harder and harder to separate fantasy from reality, especially because reality is a bore that requires from him an emotional effort he has no desire to expend. Writer Robert Shearman has some fun rejiggering elements from the original series, thinking of how they might have been different. The story itself fits with Shearman's pattern of plotting: characters get trapped in the imaginary worlds of madmen, such as in the Big Finish Doctor Who stories The Holy Terror and Jubilee. I think some listeners may have trouble with this story because it is not really a full reimagining of Doctor Who and not really Doctor Who at all. As audio drama, though, it is quite good, very well structured, and consistent. What brings it down just a bit for me is that Martin Bannister is too difficult a character to sympathize with.
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| Surprisingly Good, If Depressing |
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This Doctor Who Unbound has the "what if" starting point of what if The Valeyard won at the end of Trial of a Time Lord? Big Finish uses a couple of their own regulars - Coordinator Vansell (Anthony Keetch) and Ellie Martin (Juliet Warner) from the Sarah Jane Smith series. The story revolves around how much The Valeyard is or is not The Doctor. Like The Doctor, he has nothing but contempt for the Time Lords. Like The Doctor, he seems to need a traveling companion (Ellie in this case). And, like The Doctor he feels compelled to meddle. Where The Valeyard differs is that he wants to undo all The Doctor's achievements, which The Valeyard regards as mistakes, collect all the powerful artifacts and weapons, and then remake the universe to fit some ideal that he does not really himself full understand. The problem is that undoing these events starts undoing both the entire web of time and The Doctor's entire timeline. The Valeyard is actually erasing himself from time, and thus becomes desperate to try to "fix" the problem with even more heavy-handed interference that ends up making the problem worse. Into this chaos, Vansell has sent Mel either to reason with The Valeyard and get The Doctor back, or to assassinate The Valeyard. Unfortunately for Mel, The Valeyard erases the Time Lords, so there is no going back for her. Michael Jayston portrays The Valeyard excellently. He is a character who cannot control most of his impulses, but is intelligent enough to know that what he is doing is wrong. Bonnie Langford does really well as a weary, jaded Mel who has left all her young enthusiasm behind and is now just dedicated to getting a job done. The story itself is told by jumping around in time, so it is a bit difficult to piece together. Also, writer Gary Russell has indulged the "what is reality" idea just a bit too much, especially toward the end. The story does provide the listener with a new way to see the virtues of The Doctor.
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| Welcome back Martha Jones |
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| What: | The Year of Martha Jones (Miscellaneous audio dramas) |
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| By: | Andrew Munro, Corby, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 1 September 2023 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
If you love this era of Doctor who and especially Freema Agyeman as our hero Martha Jones then what are you waiting for buy it now and find out what happened when the doctor was gone and Martha travelled telling as many people about her hero the doctor.
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| If you love the 4th Doctor & Romana 2 |
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| What: | The Pyralis Effect (The Companion Chronicles audiobooks) |
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| By: | Andrew Munro, Corby, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Friday 1 September 2023 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
If you are a child (Or adult) or the classic Doctor and Romana 2 then this is for you.
The sound scape hits the spot and Lalla Ward is fantastic.
The story isn't out of this world but does enough to keep you intesterted.
| What: | The Return of Robin Hood (Literary crossover novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 21 August 2023 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
The audience for this novel is probably ten-year-olds. That, at least, is the way Magrs has written it. I think, however, that he has erred too far on the side of simplicity. The result is a muddled story, a fairly typical Magrs mish-mash of story types in which he has not really worked out how it all fits together. Doctor 4, Sarah, and Harry arrive in Sherwood Forest in the 1190s. There's Robin Hood and the Merrie Men (yep, spelled that way and always referred to in that way, as if Robin Hood and the Merrie Men were a 60s pop group). This is the same troop from the TV serial Robot of Sherwood. Thus, we have The Doctor facing people who have already met him in a later incarnation. Therefore, we know that Magrs will have to contrive some way to wipe The Doctor's memory (yet again - how many times can these novels and audio dramas contrive to work this?). Magrs has written this Robin and Co. like the characters from the 1930s Errol Flynn movie. He's unabashed about it, even mentioning the movie. So, we have Doctor Who mixed with the 20th-century idea of Robin Hood, legendary figure. But wait, there's more. Lurking in the forest is an evil witch who is contriving to do something - cause chaos just because, destroy the world, control the world, distort time? - I can't tell - all the ideas are floated, but none land). So, we have Doctor Who + Robin Hood + Hansel and Gretel, I guess. Magrs tries to get away with this chop suey plot by having characters sometimes act as if "real" and sometimes as if they know they are fictional creations. He even has The Doctor refer to himself as "Doctor Who." All this does, however, is make the mix more confusing. There is no clear idea of just what kind of story we are in or why anyone should care. Magrs also throws in a heap of fan-winks, referring to multiple TV episodes. The worst problem of this book, though, to me is the tone. Magrs seems to think that children are simple-minded. They need a plot that is basically good guys vs. bad guys, villains that are evil simply because they are, motivations that go no deeper than "I want to destroy" or "I want to help people," and ham-fisted writing pointing out the obvious in italics, just so the poor kids' little minds won't be stumped. Young Doctor Who fans deserve better than this.
| What: | Birthright (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 11 August 2023 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
I am completely baffled by the generally positive reception given to Birthright. To me, this is a pretty awful novel on many levels, and the more I think about it, the worse it gets. The story is that The Doctor tricks Benny and Ace and strands each in different time zones without telling them that he is going to do this, why he is going to do this, or what they are supposed to do. Then, we get a Benny story set in London 1909 involving secret societies and mysterious insect invaders appearing out of nowhere and carving up women. Next, we get an Ace story of her in the far future placing herself as the leader of some humanoid "mammals" that are beset by some intelligent insects using the mammals for food. The insects are being helped by a mysterious know-it-all who is probably a far-future incarnation of The Doctor. He calls himself Muldwych. Then, the two halves collide together, two stranded TARDIS shells become one, sort of, there is battle, dead bodies all over the place, the TARDIS crew reunited, and the companions just accept what The Doctor has done to them.
So, here are the things that are so wrong about this book. First, the only idea Robinson seems to have for the character of The Doctor is "manipulative." He has no other meaningful characteristics. The only idea he has for Benny is "sarcastic." The only idea he has for Ace is "violent." Thus, none of the TARDIS trio is remotely likeable. The Doctor manipulates the whole thing from behind the scenes, appears at the last minute, and justifies nothing that he has done, absolutely nothing. He even turns his back on Benny when she tries to talk to him about it. What a jerk! Ace, early in the novel, watches The Doctor trick Benny and says nothing about it. Later in the novel, she herself tricks and lies to Benny for no good reason that I can fathom, by placing sedatives into a cup of tea. What a jerk! And who the hell carries around sedatives solely for the purpose of spiking cups of tea? Benny spends her time moaning about being manipulated and generally annoying on purpose nearly everyone she meets. What a jerk! With both of these characters, it is even worse. Ace shoots a bank guard and "hopes" that she set the gun on stun. And that is the last she thinks about it. She has no remorse or second thoughts about possibly killing a man who was only doing his job. Benny, late in the novel, is glad that some annoying guy she didn't like is among the many dead. That is right, she is happy that someone who is merely annoying is dead. Are these really our heroes? Even Turlough would not have sunk so low in morality.
The next bad thing about the book is the clunky writing. There is line after line of telling rather than showing. Villains rant and rave in their heads: All power will be mine! and similar ridiculous things. The story works along the plot by convenience model: something shows up or happens because it needs to. Many elements simply appear and then are discarded. This is especially true of characters. They appear, do useful things, and then when no longer needed they vanish. Robinson spends quite a bit of ink trying to get the reader interested in Popov and Charlie and many others. What happens to them after the main plot is over? We don't know and Robinson doesn't seem to care.
And then there is the huge amount of fan-candy thrown in, the many, many needless references to characters and stories from the Doctor Who TV show in a plot that would get along without any of them.
So, it should be pretty clear that I do not like this book.
| What: | Shadowmind (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 26 July 2023 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
Christopher Bulis had been primarily an illustrator before he tried writing a novel. Shadowmind is his first novel, and it displays many novice novelist errors. Bulis would go on to write much better Doctor Who novels. His "thing" was to set Doctor Who into various science fiction sub-genres. For his first novel, the sub-genre was military science fiction of the David Drake, Jerry Pournelle, and Robert Heinlein variety. Therefore, this novel feels strangely out of place in the Doctor Who universe. It is as if Bulis desperately wanted to get the Doctor to wear military gear, and has contrived the whole novel to reach that end. The story is rather thin. Doctor 7, Benny, and Ace travel to planet Tairngire to give Ace a birthday gift. She has a good time for a day or so, then spots someone in need. This someone turns out to be a duplicate of an actual person, operated by a furry critter. Before they know it, our heroes are now the center of some kind of conspiracy of duplicates. The Doctor easily worms his way into the Tairngire government to help them battle the duplicates, or the critters that run the duplicates, and then we are off into space war. The duplicates steal the TARDIS, so that provides the motivation for our heroes to join the space war. Bulis makes many rookie errors. He introduces characters, gets the reader to like them, then once their function is over, kills them off in ways that do not really add to the story. He introduces too many characters early in the novel, doing things that identify their characteristics, but otherwise do not contribute to the plot. The motivations for getting The Doctor and crew involved are thin and selfish, which he tries to elide. The stakes of the plot just are not strong enough. Try as he might to stay within the bounds of physical laws, his space battles are still conceived more like air battles, based on "maneuverability." And there is too much "gosh, wow" over military hardware for my taste. One good aspect of this novel is that Bulis avoids cramming his novel with winks and nods to Doctor Who fans. There are very few references to other Doctor Who stories. Fans of military sf might like Shadowmind, but it really did not work for me.
| What: | Geronimo! (The Doctor Chronicles audios) |
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| By: | Jay Hunter, Burlington, Canada |
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| Date: | Monday 24 July 2023 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I'd like to begin by complimenting the voice work of Jacob Dudman and Safiyya Ingar; Jacob brings such fantastic work to the Eleventh Doctor, simultaneously embodying Matt Smith's performance with his own spin on the role! And my stars, the biggest of compliments to long-time Doctor Who fan Safiyya Ingar for her incredible performance as the fantastic Valarie Lockwood. Through listening to this as well as the second box set Valarie has quickly become my favourite companion in all Doctor Who media, she's fiery, kind, funny, sarcastic, and sassy (Like mixing Amy, Donna and a little bit of Bill), and an all-around amazing addition that keeps the Doctor on his toes.
The stories written by Alfie Shaw, Georgia Cook, and Rochana Patel are fantastic and wonderfully written. Each one brings something new and exciting for Valarie and the Doctor to challenge and its finale is a big favourite of mine (Such a cool concept!). I'd recommend this story to anyone; whether a long-time Big Finish listener or someone looking to get into the extended Doctor Who universe (Audio edition). This boxset truly feels like it belongs up there with the show and its titles.
| What: | The Witch Hunters (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | C G Harwood, Dunedin, NZ, New Zealand |
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| Date: | Monday 17 July 2023 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Wonderful, absolutely wonderfully. If your gonna start reading this series then I can't recommend this one more.
| What: | Kaldor City: Storm Mine (Kaldor City audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 26 June 2023 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Two years after the final Kaldor City episode, Magic Bullet Productions put together this story as a kind of coda. The death of Russell Hunter, so important to the Kaldor City series, meant that they really could not do a second series. Instead, they offer this story, a kind of tone poem on the themes and images of the previous series. The basic situation is that Blayes wakes from a coma 18 months after the events of "Checkmate." She was apparently discovered in the wreckage of a flyer out in the Blind Heart Desert and carried into a storm miner. The storm miner has been hopelessly circling the desert waiting for the all-clear from Kaldor City, which has been under quarantine for the last 18 months. This storm mine was itself involved in an accident in which some of the robots, apparently activated by the Taren Capel program, went rogue and killed most of the crew. Only three crew members are left, the unnamed commander (the always great Philip Madoc), chief mover (John Leeson, great in a non K-9 role), and the unseen chief fixer, who apparently has the voice of Justina from previous Kaldor City episodes. (On a side note, could it be that this episode is the dream-vision that the Fendahl Core / Justina offers to a dying Blayes, just as it had offered a dream-vision to a dying Iago at the end of "Checkmate"? Sadly, the story does not contain enough clues to determine for certain.) Blayes is haunted by the badgering voice of Iago, who is otherwise not a character in this story. As the story moves along, it gets stranger and stranger, apparently heading toward the emergence of robot V23 as a new generation of self-aware machines and possibly the next phase of evolution. The problem for me here is the same as I had with "Checkmate," only doubly so: too many questions and not enough answers. What was Blayes doing in the desert? How did she get there? Why is everyone on the sand miner so cagey? Why is Blayes having these arguments with a ghostly Iago? Who is the Chief Fixer? Instead of resolution, we are left with poetry and visions.
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| Needs to be Twice as Long |
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| What: | Kaldor City: Checkmate (Kaldor City audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 26 June 2023 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
With the introduction of the Fendahl from "The Image of the Fendahl," the Kaldor City series adds a new complication, and with the plot already hugely convoluted, the close of the main series just does not feel like a close, or even like a setup to a series 2. The story gets a bit more surreal than previous Kaldor City episodes, and toward the end, one has trouble determining what is a dream what is an actual event. The story should have been twice as long to work out all the twists that had been happening for the previous five episodes. I know that preparations for the emergence of the Fendahl had already been placed in previous episodes with the two Wallbank paintings, but it still seems to me to take energy away from the driving force of the five episodes: the plot - counterplot politics. Thus, many of the most important questions are left hanging. Instead, the story finishes on the dream-vision of an apparently dying Iago, which may or may not be the final offering of Justina to him before she fully becomes the core of the Fendahl. The introduction of the Fendahl also requires that the audience be familiar with the Doctor Who episode from which it originates, as, per the needs of story economy, much is assumed and little is explained about it. The rest of the Kaldor City series left the references to Doctor Who as treats for the cognoscenti, and a person could easily follow the plot and setting without any prior Doctor Who experience. For me, the shift in direction sets aside what was most interesting about the Kaldor City series in favor of something much less interesting. On the plus side, the acting remains first-rate, and the cast is really all-star. Trevor Cooper and Brian Croucher particularly stand out to me as they play off each other so well and so naturally that I could replay their scenes together just to admire the acting. My final thoughts are that the program is very well performed, but does not bring the kind of closure I was hoping for.
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| Things Are Coming to a Head |
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| What: | Kaldor City: Taren Capel (Kaldor City audios) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 26 June 2023 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This episode of Kaldor City starts drawing the various strings of the convoluted plot together. Uvanov is now in a much weakened position, struggling as hard as he can to keep his position and remove his number 1 rival, Landerchild. This same Landerchild, meanwhile, has been plotting to take out Uvanov, using sources ostensibly under Uvanov's control, such as Blayse and Cotton, to do so. Blayse, meanwhile, has now clearly gone rogue, and seems to be trying to take over the Teranist cult as her own fighting force. Why she is doing this is unclear, but perhaps she realizes that her position is fully compromised and she will never escape her role as a pawn in Uvanov's schemes alive. Iago and Carnell are now clearly plotting against each other, using all the other characters to do so. Iago is also worried that behind the Teranist cult is an attempt to revive Teran Capel's plan of a robot revolution in Kaldor City. To top it off, Carnell has been trying to set Uvanov and Landerchild against each other, but now realizes that he has lost control of his strategies. Into this mix we add a new character, Paulus, played admirably well by David Collings, who seems to be Poul from "Robots of Death" having now become the spiritual leader of the Teranist cult. For anyone who likes political intrigue, dealing and double-dealing, and the growing sense of a society falling into ruins, this episode will be like candy.
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| Utterly awesome great fun |
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This is such an exciting representation of two classic comic strip stories. Tom Baker is on such fine form and the stories are larger than life and full of brilliant characters that for comic strips are pretty well developed too. The Iron Legion feels like a Doctor Who movie we sadly neve got on screen, but its The Star Beast with its great great villain and characters that really steals the show for me. This boxset in fact is absolutely one I would classify as fun in the extreme. These two stories are so great now they have been audio realised and these are dare i say even better than the original comics. Wonderful 1979 nostalgia and thats for sure.
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| Great Start to the 60th Celebration |
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We are off at the races from the very start and there is not time to catch your breath.
The mystery builds from the start, what has happened to the Doctor and which Doctor is it.
Tom is in fine form as always and a big shout to Sadie Miller as Sarah Jane.
Rufus Hound has made the Monk his own and I must add Jemma and Ingrid fit in well in the story.
If you haven't got this yet please go get it, you wont regret it.
The mystery continues........... `
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| Zombies, Germans, and Marines, Oh My! |
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| What: | White Darkness (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 8 June 2023 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
"White Darkness" is the first NA novel meant specifically to be a historical. Our heroes arrive in Haiti, 1915, where yet another insurrection is toppling yet another petty dictator, the US Marines are about to invade before occupying the country for the next 20 years, and the various countries involved in WWI are trying to protect their interests. McIntee tries to work in a few Doctor Who elements to make this more in line with the TV series of 1989, while also continuing the story arcs of the NA series. The Doctor Who elements involve a strange relationship between German forces conducting a secret research project into chemical weapons (giving this novel strong similarities to the TV serial "The Curse of Fenric"), and the local magician, who has somehow contacted one of the Old Ones, and thus incorporating elements of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. In the latter matter, McIntee introduces us not only to the Old Ones, but also to the Necronomicon, and an American scientist working in Haiti named Howard Phillips (the H.P. in H.P. Lovecraft), who looks quite a bit like H.P. Lovecraft. This is just one sample of the large amounts of chum that McIntee throws at fans.
A problem area in this novel for me is that McIntee never provides a clear idea of what The Doctor and crew are doing there. So, yes, the TARDIS misses its mark and lands them in a trouble spot. Then, however, McIntee does not provide a good reason for the TARDIS team to stay. They get separated from the TARDIS, but get it back fairly quickly. There is no obvious problem for them to solve, since the bloody events in Haiti are, as The Doctor reminds us, fixed history. The presence of the Old One and the plan of the evil Mait (whose name, Lemaitre, strongly hints at The Master, though in fact he is not The Master), are not apparent until 2/3 of the way into the novel. So, I never felt certain about just what the trio are supposed to be accomplishing. At the end of the novel, this one, like so many other of the NA novels in this early run, turns into a military shoot-out, bodies piling up all over the place. So, the plot overall, feels like events made up just to keep the story going so that McIntee can reach the required length.
Some better aspects of the novel involve the way McIntee characterizes Ace and Benny, especially Ace. It is a welcome relief from the previous two NA novels, "Deceit" and "Lucifer Rising." Neither of the characters are so short-tempered and just generally dislikable as in the previous novels. Ace, in particular, is not quite so ready to kill and destroy. McIntee is the first to introduce the idea that maybe, just maybe, Ace isn't all too happy being a trained killer. She is a bit more like the Ace of old in this book, and that is a welcome relief. The Doctor in this novel is clearly improvising rather than scheming, and that, too, is a welcome relief.
This audio launches the Kaldor City series, a Doctor Who tie-in without The Doctor. The tie comes from the TV serial "The Robots of Death." In the Kaldor City series we get a deep look into the culture of that particular world. Returning from the Doctor Who serial is Uvanov, played by Russell Hunter, who has now gained enough money and power to become head of the government, the Chief Shareholder. It's a position he has a tenuous grasp on. The society of Kaldor City is basically a corporation melded with Renaissance Italy, but only in its political makeup. The ruling board of shareholders are like the various dukes and princes of Renaissance Italy in their power, social position, and constant backstabbing politics against the other board members. Into this boiling political volcano nearing explosion comes an outsider, a professional assassin named Kaston Iago, played with suitable menace by Paul Darrow. He manages to work his way into becoming Uvanov's bodyguard, but why? And, working behind the scenes is the psycho-strategist Carnell, a character from "Blake's 7." The story has plenty of cross and double-cross, with the question always hanging, who is working to whose plan? The cast is outstanding, with Peter Miles, Brian Croucher, Trevor Cooper, and really all of them doing great work.
| What: | The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind (BBV Audio Adventures in Time and Space) |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 28 May 2023 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Pip and Jane Baker pick up where they left off after "Time and the Rani." Here, the Rani is a prisoner of the Tetraps. They are coercing her into working on a project to speed human reproduction so the Tetraps can use the resulting animals to feed on their blood. The Rani, meanwhile, is working on an escape plan, and uses the human captives to help her on the escape, but feels constantly thwarted by the humans' emotional and moral reactions. If only they would focus on the practical matter, the whole thing could go without a hitch. There are a couple of very preposterous elements to this story. One is the speeding of human gestation, from nine months to just a couple of weeks. Even if one could work this by biochemical means, the physical toll it would take on the mother's body means she would probably die long before the baby was ready to birth. Secondly, the Tetraps' scheme is so impractical that it makes no sense they would ever employ it. They feed on blood. They already have native species of their own planet that they use as their food source. Yet, they expend vast energy and resources to steal beings from other planets to supply the thing they are already getting. Kate O'Mara is great as The Rani. The rest of the cast does as well as they can with the material.
