Big Finish Lost Adventure #2.05, June 2011
In a continuation of Crime of the Century, the Doctor, Ace, and Raine head to Margrave university to investigate the science lab there. They’re greeted by UNIT – Brigadier Bambera and her troops – with the things the Doctor asked to be brought to him. The most interesting part of this story is not the aliens, they’re eventually named as the NumLocks, but the vegetation. The vegetation’s never described but I definitely get a sense that they’re the Doctor Who version of the triffids. They don’t have the stick-like appendages for communicating but they definitely communicate and walk and lash out and eat people. Cool stuff!
But even they can’t save this story from itself. It’s a generic plot though the pieces are thrown together in a non-generic fashion. Evil genius student who cares little about others. Undercover folks. UNIT. Aliens with a tag line for the ages, which I won’t give away here because it’s too integral to the plot. So they’re pulled together in a plot that just harrumphs along, giving us some surprises but mostly it seems like a vehicle for Raine to become part of the team. Though she then goes off on her own at the end, probably to do more than think and the Doctor and Ace will have to rescue her when they come back to pick her up. Despite the cool factor of the plants and a few other details in the story, it just never really comes together well for me. Not a bad little story but nothing too thrilling in the end.Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Beth Chalmers, with Angela Bruce
writer: Andrew Cartmel
director: Ken Bentley
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