The Monthly Adventures #022 - "Bloodtide" by Jonathan Morris

As we go through the Main Range, we’re bound to run into some pretty notorious writers that have gone on to make a massive name for themselves in Doctor Who expanded media. One of these names happens to be Jonathan Morris, who has become somewhat of a favourite of mine over my years, famous for his bleak writing and horror notes. His highlight that I’ve thus far experienced would absolutely be Protect and Survive, that is one bleak little horror story, but his first audio outing was here: a historical half-remake of Doctor Who and the Silurians.

Visiting the Galapagos Islands, Evelyn finds herself making friends with Charles Darwin as the Doctor discovers familiar enemies at work deep beneath the Earth surface and a secret that could change the course of history.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Bloodtide, aside from having an incredibly cool name, is not a stand-out story by any means. It traipses through a number of clichés and feeds off the plot points of a number of more iconic stories to build its narrative, but it is certainly an interesting entry. When I call it a remake of Doctor Who and the Silurians, I mean it traverses most of the same narrative beats except for basically any of the Hulkian political subtext; human accomplice, Silurians with conflicting morals, a deadly plague set upon the Earth people, you can see where Morris drew a lot of inspiration from easily. It actually does emulate a similar tone to that story, the Galapagos Islands make for a great setting and very naturally slide into that grungy, prehistoric atmosphere the Silurians give off. Not to mention the incidental score and the voices of the Silurians feel like a somewhat improved version of the 70s episode. However, I’d say that the most interesting part of this story by far would be our historical figure Charles Darwin. He is absolutely the best character here, which I can rarely say in stories with a person from history featured, as usually they’re just somebody for the Doctor to fawn over, but Darwin has a genuinely great little character arc and a really likeable personality. It’s not often the historical figure gets this much praise from me so I can definitely give Morris props for that. Also, he managed to make the Myrka an actual threat, so well done to him, he’s clearly a talented writer.

However, I’ll say again, Bloodtide is nothing special. The plot, which, as I mentioned before, is almost parasitically feeding off Malcolm Hulke’s original script, feels oddly aimless, like the Doctor and Evelyn just walk in on this situation and wander around in it until it’s over. I've definitely heard tighter stories. Also, the part three reveal that the main Silurian - Torka - genetically engineered the human race and is basically now our lizard god is really strange, because that feels like a step too far scientifically; a real “the moon is an egg” situation. Not every single event in human history needs to be a conspiracy, guys. Also, we just so happen to have some classic bad Big Finish accents. Jane Goddard as Greta was absolutely painful to listen to and her vague South American accent was teetering on offensive.

Overall, Bloodtide is not a special episode. Jonathan Morris would go on to write more interesting and more original stories than this in the future and this early work of his is definitely one of his weaker one’s. There are a couple diamonds in the rough - the episode is dripping in atmosphere and there are a couple great characters - but it’s not a story that will stick with you like some of Morris’ other works.

7/10

Pros:

+ Charles Darwin is a surprisingly interesting character

+ Emulates the feel and tone of Doctor Who and the Silurians incredibly well

+ Unique and interesting setting

+ The Myrka is actually quite threatening

Cons:

- The reveal that Torka engineered the human race was confusing more than anything

- The story feels somewhat aimless

- Greta was ceaselessly annoying