This review contains spoilers!
The very first Dr Who Annual story is evidence of how the Zarbi were being pushed as the 'next big thing' in Doctor Who. Not only do they feature in the first story, but they also adorn the cover (along with their Web Planet bedfellows, the Menoptera) and feature in the board game later in the Annual. They also appeared in the Chad Valley Give-a-Show Projector toy and in the pages of TV Comic.
The Lair of the Zarbi Supremo finds the Doctor travelling alone and arriving on Vortis after the events of The Web Planet. He immediately recognises the planet and sets about exploring to track down the source of an emergency mayday signal he has received. He soon discovers a crashed Earth spaceship which contains an unconscious spaceman and his son, Gordon. Gordon teams up with the Doctor to track down the rest of the crew who have gone missing. The Doctor and Gordon then discover robotic Zarbi suits inside which are dead Menoptera! Using these they infiltrate one of the gigantic termite mounds and discover they are in the Lair of the Zarbi Supremo where both the Earth crew and other Menoptera are being held captive!
It's quite the rollercoaster ride and both manages to feel in keeping with the TV story but also not. There is a real attempt to develop the Zarbi, particularly when the Doctor enters their base, with descriptions of their society's castes such as soldiers and workers and, bizarrely, a gigantic Zarbi Queen.
At the centre of the lair is the Zarbi Supremo - a 20 foot high Zarbi who it seems can communicate telepathically. It plans apparently to invade planet Earth. Contrary to the Doctor's protestations that it is nonsense, it seems Vortis has been piloted somehow, to the orbit of Jupiter.
The robotic Zarbi, big enough for the Doctor and Gordon (and Menoptera) to get inside are a weird idea - but also something which appears in the TV Comic story set on Vortis. It's obviously something which was a popular idea.
The Menoptera aren't very developed beyond their TV appearance although there is the suggestion that the elders of their race are wingless (which is a bit odd as in the TV story, losing their wings was a sign of slavery and torture).
The end of the story is really odd. The rescued Earth men want to take the Zarbi's technological advancements for Earth's benefit and try to shoot the Doctor and the Menoptera. The Menoptera fly the Doctor to safety and promise they'll be flying Vortis away from Earth. Poor old Gordon is more or less forgotten about (although he as been reunited with the crew even if they have turned out to be a bunch of ungrateful arseholes).
There is a reading of this by William Russel on both the DVD and Bluray and I may well give it a listen at some point. Overall, though, it's not a bad story and I gave it 3/5.
deltaandthebannermen
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