The Doctor and Leela land on a jungle planet only to get caught between humans and Zygons…
This second season of Baker/Jameson audios reaches its conclusion with a well-constructed tale that brings some of the themes of the season full circle and works as a good sequel to Terror of the Zygons.
The foetus-like aliens have come to the fore in recent times, with mentions in the new series before their starring role in the 50th anniversary special (which writer and director Briggs notes actually came about some time after this story was recorded). They’ve got good voices for audio, and some very distinctive sound effects connected to them which help tell the story – if you know their first TV appearance, you’ll be a few steps ahead of other listeners on a couple of occasions.
Tom Baker and Louise Jameson are on fine form – the interrogation scene with Michael Maloney’s Saraton recaptures the ease of similar scenes with Uvanov from The Robots of Death, and their discussions with Gillian Kearney’s Mina on the subject of identity are the sort of debate that we should have seen more of Baker doing on television.
The score for the story is also great fun – Alastair Lock seems to be channelling Geoffrey Burgon’s use of instrumentation and rhythmical motifs from the 1975 series, providing something rather different from the usual musical accompaniment.
This season has experimented with putting the Doctor and Leela at loggerheads, examining her past, and bringing them together as a stronger unit. Roll on their next adventures soon!
Verdict: A strong conclusion to an enjoyable season. 8/10
Paul Simpson
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