The 8th Doctor Adventures #1.5 - “Phobos” by Eddie Robson

There’s something about the classic Doctor Who adventure, y’know? Nothing experimental, nothing crazy, nothing challenging, just a fun, monster of the week outing; not spectacular, but definitely engaging enough to keep your attention. Phobos is not a popular story by any means, currently sitting at a whopping 2.87/5 on TARDISguide and my only query is to why that is because, whilst I certainly have a number of issues with this story, it’s still a good time.

The moon of Phobos has become a leisure park, home to adrenaline junkies seeking an authentic hit. But there’s something deep within Phobos, something ancient and hungry, and it’s waking up.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Phobos is not a special episode, Phobos is not a script that does anything innovative with the concept of Doctor Who, but it is a fun creature feature written by a very talented writer. Eddie Robson is one of those Big Finish writers that lands somewhere between your run of the mill scribbler and John Dorney, consistently good with a couple hidden gems. If I had to give this story anything, it’s that you can clearly tell Robson’s an experienced author, this oozes style with smart, snappy dialogue and a couple really fun moments. This is most evident through our side cast, who, after Immortal Beloved’s gallery of moping bits of cardboard, are a truly refreshing group of believably flawed and likable people, with a great cast helping to bring them to life. McGann especially excels here, in full Doctor mode and able to go from charming to threatening in a (double) heartbeat.

As for the story, this is where we begin to see some catches in this script but at least for the first half it’s not terrible. Our setting is the wonderfully vibrant Lunar Park - an extreme sports venue on the Martian moon of Phobos. Some readers might know that I have a soft spot for isolated, snowy settings so the remote glacial resort made for an excellently creepy setting. And that’s just what this story is for a while: creepy. We have monsters lurking in the shadows, old ghost stories coming true, bodies turning up in the tundra, there’s a nice atmosphere that builds up to the debut of genuinely quite chilling monsters. For the first thirty minutes or so I was baffled as to why Phobos was such an unpopular story.

Unfortunately, the conclusion really misses the mark in my opinion. The downfall of Phobos begins with the reveal that the monsters are actually robots being controlled by the park’s owner in an attempt to stop people coming to the park because underneath it lies an ancient God of Fear. Now, this sounds like it could be a fun idea but in practice it would be a lot more interesting and tonally consistent if the monsters were the products of an ancient Fear deity rather than a septuagenarian with too much time on his hands. Also doesn’t help that the supposed fear entity is incredibly underwhelming, introduced suddenly and awkwardly in the third act. It also feeds on fear, but only fear that is enjoyed (a lá, the extreme sports that make Lunar Park so popular) and is allergic to actual, concentrated fear. So it’s a God of Fear, that’s allergic to… fear? Well, that’s incredibly boring. And in the end, the conclusion is just the Doctor shouting at the entity until it kindly goes away so all in all it just felt like a let down.

In addition to all this, the story gets really muddled in the third act trying to shove in some emotional core that really wasn’t needed. There’s this moment where the Doctor loses his temper (although after a very tame threat that didn’t seem to warrant it) and he has a speech about all the horrible things he’s seen, which seems to be trying to do something with Lucie beginning to doubt the Doctor. It’s not done well here and has been done better elsewhere. Even besides that, there’s stuff like the really underdeveloped relationship between fugitive Amy and the hulking alien Farl, or the park manager Kai getting multiple people killed and then being let off scot free at the end without even a single moment of consideration. Rarely have I seen a story that could be improved by removing narrative depth from itself.

Phobos should’ve been a fun monster flick but in the end, it shot itself in the foot by trying to be more than it was. Eddie Robson is a writer with a lot of ability, clearly, but sometimes people need to step back and let things be. Phobos is absolutely not deserving of its abysmal rating, but I’m not going to sit here and tell you it’s a masterpiece.

6/10

Pros:

+ First half is fun and decently creepy

+ Engaging and likable sidecast

+ Excellent performance from our leads but especially McGann

+ Fantastic and evocative setting

Cons:

- The conclusion is decidedly lazy

- The main antagonist is underwhelming

- Tries and fails to deepen its storyline

- Opts for a far inferior plot than the one we were teased

I’m not sure I needed a ‘Doctor Who does Scooby Doo’ story. I’m not sure overtly referencing the user of the Scooby plot formula in the script made the lift and shift any better. The ending sees The Doctor overloading the mind of the enemy with his powerful thoughts - it’s something we’ve seen many times in the show before. I’m also not a fan of McGann’s big speech written in the style of Tennent’s Doctor - it felt too indebted to then contemporary television show.

Regardless - it’s still cozy fun.

I guess the ratings and reputation of Phobos should have warned me, but some people really like this one and I was hoping I might have been one of them.  I was left deeply disappointed by this audio, however.  Something about the adrenaline junkie characters just rubbed me the wrong way - I found them very loud, tropey, and annoying. They're bad characters in a horror movie in a story that kind of had the sophistication of Scooby Doo.

I never bought this setting.  I feel like the idea of a story taking place in a theme park centred around adrenaline would be a lot more interesting but I didn't really feel like the audio brought me into it.  We have so few characters and none of them feel real to me, and the whole idea of the theme park seemed at odds with the snowy mountain setting and fear-based content.  The story just really doesn't seem to come together in a coherent way I could grapple with.

There's an interesting idea buried here all about a fear god feeding on these people but I found the execution of it all just terrible.  Sure, it winds up having the Doctor pull a Rings of Akhatan years before that episode was made, but the show does that moment so much better.  It's a cool moment here but it feels underplayed and everything else going on here leaves me feeling hollow.  It just takes us so long to get to anything I found interesting and not just this shallow mess.  I think that's why the Doctor's big moments in this story felt really underwhelming to me - they don't feel earned in a story that simply wasn't engaging with me.  I had trouble simply caring about this fear god when all the other characters feel entirely unnecessary for the story, nor do they get any real pay-off in the form of any sort of narrative arc.  Considering that the fear-god thing feels entirely abstract and in-personable as a main threat, I'm left feeling like this was kind of a waste of my time. From my experience, Phobos has serious narrative issues and deserves its relatively low grade.

Wow! People don't like this one, do they??

Me, on the other hand, I had fun with it! It's nothing too amazing, but it's fun. You've got some great side characters, an interesting concept to start with Phobos, and I think this one is funny! I enjoyed the unraveling of this mystery.

I also, in particular, enjoyed the 8th doctor in this. I liked his speech. I liked that Lucie is starting to get more of an idea of just how ancient the Doctor is, how much terror he's seen.

This is a fun, inconsequential, run of the mill Doctor Who story. That's all it had to be, and frankly all I expected from it. I had a smile on my face most of the listen, and I kept going "people don't like this one?! What??"

But, hey, I'm glad I liked it. It's one of those moments of "I'm glad I made up my own mind about this". Because truly you have to. I've skipped stories before because of low ratings, only to come back to them later and find, oh, I liked it, or it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

I wasn't very into Blood of the Daleks or Horror of Glam Rock, but Immortal Beloved and Phobos has me interested again on continuing this season. I look forward to more!

I remember once reading an Agatha Christie interview where she discussed the rumor that she wrote backwards and only adding the elements that allowed the mystery to be solved after the rest of the book was written. That's what Phobos feels like. The twist of the fear entity  feels artificial and it doesn't feel integrated with the plot naturally. There's very little build-up other than a single scene or two of Kai trying to cause fear. the fear entity is a great concept, its Lovecraftian in nature, and it has the power to feel threatening - if it were explored properly.  Yet only introducing it in the last 10 or so minutes meant it couldn't be explored. And the 'rules' governing its behavior felt bizarre (I'd give them a pass if the rest of the story were better) and Kai's goals seem convoluted  - surely there were better more efficient ways of making people feel afraid? Furthermore, the way the Doctor defeats the monster feels lazy.

Then there's the side plot about Farl and Amy. This was just fine. It didn't really feel resolved though. Their family drama felt unexplored and unresolved with no ending. Also, the racism directed to Farl feels like a poor plot point considering he seemingly conforms to the expected stereotype of his species. There's also Hayd and Drew. Drew's queerness is just lazy. Its thrown into the script with no build-up and no resolution. I get 2006 was a different time but it still feels pointless and unexplored (like many elements of this story).

Overall, I can picture a world where Phobos was a much better story about fear, where it explored its characters and their fears. Farl and his families prejudice, Kai and his fear of the entity as well as losing Eris, Amy and raising a child alone, Drew and his love for Hayd. Instead with have a story that is serviceable but feels rushed and like its missing solid 10 minutes.

Also the fact Amy just accepts Lucie is a time traveler feels absurd. I get this is set half a century in the future, but that still feels like something that's just silly. Focusing on Lucie in this story, she doesn't feel like herself. She feels poorly characterized. My best example is the joke about the House of Lords. That's not something I can see her saying. It feels out of character, like the author thought of it and without wondering if it was something she would say.

I will praise it for being fine. The dialogue feels relatively natural for most of the characters, its not drawn-out, it does show more of the Doctor and Lucie becoming friends. But, just because it is serviceable doesn't mean its good.