The Roots of Evil

📝8/10 = VERY ENJOYABLE!

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

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “THE ROOTS OF EVIL (2024)”

Steve Cole writes a prequel to The Seeds of Death (1976), where a man called Latz agrees to do a job for Harrison Chase, joining forces with Chase's future right-hand man Scorby to break into a UNIT facility to retrieve an alien plant called the Eloko. There we learn how its attack inspired Chase to hunt down other similar plants and how Scorby begins working for him. The story also shares a connection with Day of the Daleks (1972), and it's straightforward, exciting, and written to fit well within established characterisation.

I like how this story teaches us some basics in planteology through Chase's passion for plants.

Poor Latz is a former UNIT soldier serving as nothing but alien food. Scorby is the highlight of this story, as his greed and rash decision-making end up making a bad situation worse, even if Latz tries to contain him. I love how Scorby is described as “a tall, rugged man with a face as sour as his body odour.”

The tail end turns into a Gothic horror adventure as the Eloko begins spreading and terrorising the characters and spreading its roots into poor Latz's brain.

RANDOM OBSERVATIONS:

• This story shares its name with another 4th Doctor era short story, written by Philip Reeve and featured in the recent 15 Doctors, 15 Stories anthology (and its previous editions).