8️⃣🔽 = ENJOYABLE: GOOD!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“WHEN DOCTOR WHO GOES BIBLICAL!”

The seventh Lost Story release is adapted from The Song of the Space Whale by Pat Mills (yes, the same Pat who wrote several comic strips, such as the original The Star Beast), a four-part adventure originally written for the Fourth Doctor and then the Fifth Doctor, before the final version was planned for Season 22 with Six and Peri.

The beginning of the story—with the Doctor and Peri encountering singing space whales that are lured into a trap—reminds me of The Beast Below (the TARDIS Wiki claims that these are, in fact, the same species of space whale!). And the first few scenes certainly do a good job of pulling me in, because I always root for beautiful, helpless creatures pursued and exploited by man. And the creepy spore-like creatures hunting the crew are eerily close to the monsters in The Last of Us or the recent survival horror video game Still Wakes the Deep.

The adventure gets underway right away, once the TARDIS gets stuck into the spaceship hunting the space whales, with the Doctor claiming to be an investigator to find out what's going on and why. Things go haywire right away as creepy creatures hunt the crew onboard the ship—and Peri gets to fight them right off the bat. This is a fairly traditional but surprisingly effective base-under-siege story, with a twist that a lot of it is set inside a space whale.

Part 3 slows things down a bit as we move inside the whale; here we receive some exposition. The people on the spaceship sit around doing nothing all this time, and this removes some of the tension that has been built up so far.

Fortunately, Part 4 amps up the tension again, and it’s a thrill ride until the end.

John Benfield (Captain Greeg) appears in the traditional role of the ignorant and rash leader and seems to relish the part. Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant are delightful, and Byrant gets plenty of fun material to work with (such as the lines “I’m not mental, I’m environmental!” or “I feel patriotic! Spores and stripes forever!”).

The spore monsters are underused, and that’s a pity because they are effective in their limited appearance! The two security guards, Carl and Dave, provide unusual comic relief and could have become fan favourites if they had appeared on TV.

The sound design, music, and editing help maintain a good flow and create a believable atmosphere.

The story balances between tense monster encounters and genuinely funny moments and poignant moments of social and environmental commentary. This story isn’t afraid of going from beautiful moments to tense action and the typical Doctor Who runaround. It can also be a bit too eager about its sci-fi concepts, which weighs down the exciting aspect of the adventure somewhat.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• The Doctor apparently met Jonah (the guy inside the whale) once and confirms that he was vegan.