Review of Harvest of the Sycorax by dema1020
21 June 2024
Harvest of the Sycorax is a bit of a shame. The Sycorax aliens are a pretty cool design visually and had some neat aspects to them showcased in The Christmas Invasion.
Unfortunately, I feel like this audio tries way too hard to essentially duplicate the same circumstances and structure of The Christmas Invasion. Copying the very cool translation bit from the original television story feels repetitive more than a treat for fans. Giles Watling is fun as the Sycorax Chief but the Seventh Doctor never really has a chance to shine here since following the set-up and structure of Christmas Invasion puts the Doctor in the backseat of too much of this story.
All told, it doesn't really work at all, which sucks because at the very least our actors are competent as are the sound effects and music, they just aren't really in service of anything all that meaningful or memorable. The idea of a different setting and the Sycorax taking advantage of blood-based treatments could have been very cool and does have moments of intrigue to it, I just wished it was better used for something more original.