| THE LAND OF THE DEAD by Stephen Cole |
| Story 4 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands briefly in Alaska, 1964, picking up a strange energy reading. Narrowly avoiding an accident, it moves forwards 30 years to find the energy still present. Trudging through the snow, the Doctor and Nyssa encounter a couple of huge, wild creatures, and barely make it to the safety of the nearby mansion of millionaire Shaun Brett. The building is Brett's personal masterpiece, which has environmental effects. Nyssa feels ill. The excavations to make the building have awakened very old creatures from the Permian times, who fed off energy and mutated. They resemble skeletal dinosaurs for a time. Brett becomes unhinged, and faces accusations from one of his workers, Tulung, over the incident 30 years before, at a dig. Tulung believes Nyssa is a spirit who will protect him, so when Brett plans to return to the dig, Tulung takes Nyssa. The Doctor tries to use unnatural materials to thwart the Permian creatures, to little success. At the dig, Brett theorises that the Permians broke through before, and his father abandoned Tulung's family to keep them entombed. But Tulung realises his father has dynamite, and it was he who sealed them all in. The Doctor reaches them at the dig as the Permians attack, realising that fire is the only way to destroy them. Brett sacrifices himself with the last stick of dynamite, but that only buys time for the others. Back at Brett's house, the Doctor prepares a huge fire, acting as bait to lure the Permians into the centre of the trap. It works, and the house is destroyed. The Doctor and Nyssa leave Tulung to it, but he feels comforted to have the answers about what happened to his father. |
| Review:- A deserted house, a reclusive and twisted millionaire, staff with a grudge, monsters from the dawn of time... well, you can't accuse it of being original, really. The Doctor and Nyssa unusually make a short landing first, then dip forwards for the main bulk of the story. Their initial visit to 1964 is arguably negligible, but it does provide a lead in to the nub of the drama about the events at the dig which took place 30 years before the events in the rest of the story. Potty rich man Shaun Brett has a charming yet familiar voice, and his journey from silky smooth and snide, to deranged and maniacal is all too believable. His fateful relationship with Tulung, and that that existed between their fathers generates a subplot that allows for a politically correct gambol through some Native American culture, at the expense of boring the audience rigid. Luckily, the main plot is about monsters from the dawn of time. The Permians, as they are boringly dubbed, appear to be vaguely skeletal dinosaurs, with the interesting quirk of absorbing energy which then allows them to evolve. With such a small cast, someone like Gaborik is doomed to give the nasties a chance to show off their ferocity. Their tendency to evolve allows for some tension in the final part, as the need to deal with them for good is made vital. Monica, the strident yet amusing interior designer makes a useful companion to the Doctor, whilst Nyssa struggles with a glib nod to her scientific training soon subsumed when Tulung casts her in the silly role of guardian angel. Though Monica has some frankly unnatural dialogue, she does still retain some warmth for the listener to latch onto. After a dull trot around the house playing 'dodge the monster', there is then the cathartic trip to the dig where it turns out that Tulung's father was a hero after all, and Brett's father's cowardice was understandable (though not forgivable, apparently). Then, it's back to the house for the rather weak finish, as the Doctor finally deduces that the antidote to the Permians might well be fire. Well, it clearly wasn't going to be snow, was it? The basic story is very simplistic, and unfortunately is presented often as being interminable. Together with dull trappings like jokes about interior decoration, this story has big ambitions but achieves them at the expense of a gripping narrative. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |