Hunters of Earth

October 1963 one month before Unearthly child.

Mr rook, the principal at coal hill tries to enter the scrapyard before Ian or Barbera gets the idea. Rook is very skeptical of Susan. Susan really doesn't know current history.

Susan gets a boyfriend and rides the tube as The Doctor aquires parts to repair the TARDIS.

Susan and The Doctor experience prejudice for being Foreigners.

Mr Rook knows that Susan and The Doctor are aliens and captures him. Radio waves manipulate the youth to attack Susan with predudice and bricks.

Rook isn't a villain, he just thinks The Doctor caused the events of the past 4 months, it was just a bomb mixing with radio They nearly die to the mob.

Unearthly child incoming.

I was very impressed by Hunters of Earth, which surprised me given the middling reviews of it. We will have to see what I think of the rest of the Destiny of the Doctor set, as I have yet to listen to any of it, but I do like the ambition of this project and so far am enjoying myself.

There's enough here to suggest an interesting broader story, but Hunters of Earth nicely stands on its own. I think the politics of the story are really interesting, with this whole idea of "aliens" not being welcome in the UK and how blatantly that fits with the real world, even with the extra layer of Susan and the Doctor being actual extraterrestrials.

I think Nigel Robinson and Carole Ann Ford do a great job of getting you into Susan's head for this. There's a real feeling of terror as she gradually comes to find Earth less and less welcoming, while the world slowly seems to be turning on her. There's lots of great little nods to the future of the series as this is still very early in her time on Earth before the original show's pilot, and it feels like Susan even gets to be a real Time Lord here.

Susan is definitely a big part of this story, but I do like the Doctor's theft-based behaviours trying to get a hold of items to repair the TARDIS. That was a lot of fun and worked well as a secondary story. Cedric was a little more boring to me but also worked well to put a face on the xenophobia and broader human population Susan is struggling with.

I've seen other reviews compare this to Quinnis and I agree in a sense that it leads into Unearthly Child pretty well, but Hunters of Earth feels like it has way more substance to it than Quinnis ever did. I really liked this one and it leaves me hopeful for the rest of Destiny of the Doctor (although we'll see how that pays off).

The First Doctor #30

'Hunters of Earth' (2013) from Destiny of the Doctor.

A pretty great pre-Unearthly story here. Once again nice to see Susan interacting with school peers, and Cedric is a good little character that she spends time with. The contemporary stuff like radios and music discussion is fun and makes it all feel rather grounded. I like The Doctor stealing parts for the TARDIS and how that links in to the rest of the story. Very glad to have another story that focuses on Susan's telepathy, and it's quite present here, with her mind being stronger than others so as to avoid succumbing to radio wave possession, and she even momentarily extends her powers beyond herself to weaken said signal on others. Quite a nice almost superhero-like moment. I especially enjoyed how the villain is incredibly vague, as it's only the first part of an eleven part series. It'll be cool to experience the rest of the story over a very long period of time as I go through all of the Doctors over years and years.

This is a really strong story, especially to listen to now in the context of things like Black Lives Matter. It's an adventure that sees Susan's friends at Coal Hill School mind controlled by a mysterious piece of alien technology, and subject her and her grandfather to abuse because they are aliens and 'don't belong here'.

It's a unique take on immigration with a Doctor Who twist, the Doctor and Susan obviously being from Gallifrey and not Earth, so residing on the planet away from where they really come from. The way that Susan's friends and the gang of youths turn on the Doctor and Susan is nasty and abhorrent, and you really find yourself feeling for them.

I loved the stuff with the sinister teacher at Susan's school too, Mr Rook, who at one point I actually suspected to be the Master because of the mention of him carrying a fob watch and was surprised when he just turned out to be a human being who previously served as a colonel in World War 2.

Overall, a very strong start to this collection of special fiftieth anniversary stories.

The range Destiny of The Doctor is very much a longer Companion Chronicle story. The episode starts amazingly, the atmosphere is on point one night the Doctor gets followed home. Mr Rook one of the teachers of Coal Hill School, Susan recognising him as he walks away. Cut to the next day at school I feel the story perfectly describes the way Susan acts at school to how I envisioned in the books. She bumps into Mr Rook at school, taking extreme interest in her setting up this big over looming character watching her though out the next scene. A school boy Cedric walks up to Susan and invites her to Rosa's with a group of friends, one being Mavis. I love the dynamic of Susan and her for just these two scenes. Rosa the owner of the cafe comes over and talks bout what its like being an alien, alien meaning not from England in this context. Mavis changes the music to something more modern, the music turning to static. Mavis jumps up and attacks Susan in an out of character way saying, "get back to where you came from" Rosa turns the music off and Mavis returns to normal she is taken away by some of Cedric's friends. Later the Doctor walks into Rosa's as the radio plays a message from the Doctor from the future saying, "its all in the beat" after the message, Cedric asks to walk Susan home the Doctor forbidding it. I love how protective of Susan the Doctor is in this audio.

After the Doctor goes to a shop called Magpie Electronics ran by a man called Bernie to get some parts for the Tardis. He leaves but Mr Rook was in the back and heard everything now knowing the Doctor is defiantly in Totters Lane. On the way back the Doctor is confronted by some youths, while Susan enters the junk yard. The junk yard was ransacked with words on the wall saying aliens out. The Doctor soon enters the junk yard after the confrontation saying they suddenly stopped, apologised and said they could give him a lift home.

the next day Susan and Cedric meet up heading to the train, but there soon cornered by people looking for Susan the matter made worse when Susan gets a headache and this mind control thing seems to have effected Cedric too. as the music stops though the mind control stops, Cedric had no idea what happened. Later Cedric and Susan listen to a record talking about his uncle in the army while the doctor picks up his pieces from magpie electronics. Its a trap however planned by Mr Rook, trapping him in the shop warehouse thinking the Doctor is an alien. I love how much of a presents Mr Rook has, as he's trying to enlist the Doctor to help in the cold war. Mr Rook going off nothing but superstition but when he threatens Susan the Doctor becomes more on edge. Meanwhile Susan and Cedric are chased again, a huge hunt. While running noticing Rosa's being attacked too. They run into magpie warehouse and revelation, Mr Rook is Cedric's uncle. Cedric is revealed to be a spy for him, This further creates distrust around people for the 1st doctor. Soon they work out the mob don't mean Aliens as in the Doctor and Susan but aliens as in people not from the uk. They also remember the message of its all in the beat realising something is in the sound waves is manipulating people minds. So the Doctor builds a old fashioned radio reviser to find the signal, turns out the sound was using the Beatles to control everyone, with help of Susan and her transistor radio the doctor works out a plan. The mob push into the warehouse advancing in, Susan manages too hold them back but not for long. The Doctors plan works though saving the day. I love how edge of your seat these final parts are very zombie film esc, I also love how Susan stands her ground and doesn't forgive Cedric as he doesn't deserve it Susan again is left alone an unearthly child of coal hill school. The Doctor also convinces Mr Rook to forget about them both and leave the area as they do.

I loved this story honestly one of my favourites of the S0b era so far might be because it feels like that small gap in between this and the TV series is starting to fill. Overall pretty good story,