Read primarily by Carole Ann Ford who played Susan, the Doctor's very first onscreen companion, the story follows the 1st Doctor and Susan 4 months after arriving on Earth. It's also the first in a 11-part story featuring all the Doctor's up until this point for the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who.

It's a pretty okay story. Not mind-blowing or anything, in fact while there is technically some villains in this story they're sort of divorced from what is the real actual threat which we don't learn the origin of--I assume we will find out more about in the following 10 stories.

I feel like the creators of the story just kind of came up with a title because there are no "Hunters of Earth" in this story. What the primary threat in this story represents is sort of an in your face allegory for racism versus tolerance. Which is fine it just needed a different title.

But I liked it, short, sweet, and easy to digest.

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.