Okay story. Nothing much of note happens.

This story takes place just after Susan leaves. Before Vicki. The party of Ian, Barbara and the Doctor land in a swamp on earth. They might be close to Ian and Barbara’s home, so they rush out to check their surroundings. But when they step out, the tardis suddenly disappears.

From what I’ve seen of Ian Potter, he tends to put stories in pretty unique positions. He’s also the one who wrote several stories before “an unearthly child”, but now he has a rare moment where the Doctor is alone with Ian and Barbara. This approach can be a bit of a gimmick. But this is actually a great location for some extra tales, since it allows for new dynamics, while not inherently undermining aspects from the TV show.

After a little exploration of the Swamp, Ian and Barbara get taken in by a woman called Janet McKay. She is often seen as a good witch by locals, so magic is her jam. It turns out the doctor is also with her!

Apparently the tardis landing went awry, and the doctor landed a few years before Ian and Barbara. He actually waited a few years for them, reading some books and generally just killing time until they’d show up. It’s a rather sweet note, that doesn’t get as much attention as it should. The doctor was rather reluctant to let Ian and Barbara go in “The Chase”, so it would be nice if this built on the idea of leaving them behind.

Instead, we’re focusing on another local threat. Mud monsters are appearing in the swamp and homing in on them. A discussion arises. Should these monsters be fought with science or magic? Or are those two actually the same? It turns out the story doesn’t really have any interesting takes to add onto that discussion.

Mud monsters in a swamp is hardly an original concept too. And I know this story bases that concept on Scottish myths, but that doesn’t make it less standard. It’s just living mud, and that concept has been done to death. Adding some very, very slight real-world mythology does not make it original, even if it fits. There’s no real layers to the threat, even if they’re given some alien origins.

And that’s true of the whole story really. No layers. While it touches on some interesting points, both characterwise and storywise, it refuses to expand. It’s really flat and has no real sense of threat. It feels like this story is written to be a 6, rather than something completely new. It was made to be passable.

And I suppose it is passable. But should you really listen to a story if it's just “fine”? Shouldn’t it show a little more spunk? Look at how many stories this show has. Why go for the complete middle of the road stuff?

The fact that it has the tiniest of good ideas in there makes this even worse. We could have had some real new ground covered here, if the story decided to have a real goal. But it doesn’t. It takes some ingredients, but doesn’t use a recipe. Just throwing it all in there. And sadly, that hasn’t led to anything of value. This story is, fittingly, completely bog standard.