| MEGLOS by John Flanagan & Andrew McCulloch |
| Story 110 Synopsis: The TARDIS drifts near to the planet Tigella. The planet is struggling with a schism between the religious Deons and the scientific Savants. All are ruled by Zastor, but he cannot take sides. He invites the Doctor down to Tigella, as he helped out 50 years ago. Meanwhile, on nearby Zolpha-Thura, the xerophyte Meglos has ordered the Gaztaks, a rabble of looters, to fetch him an Earthling, and has a proposition to make a fortune. Meglos possesses the human, changing his shape to resemble the Doctor. He also traps the TARDIS in a chronic hysteresis (a time loop). The Gaztaks land on Tigella covertly, and Meglos goes to meet the Tigellans. He is allowed to inspect the Dodecahedron, the source of the Tigellan power, but he steals it. The Doctor escapes the time loop and arrives on Tigella. Romana is kidnapped by the Gaztaks. As Meglos attempts to sneak out of the city, the Doctor is accused of theft. He protests his innocence, and deduces the work of a doppelganger, but the Deon leader takes command, expelling all non-believers to the surface, and setting the Doctor up to be crushed by a huge boulder. Romana leads the Gaztaks to the underground city, and unwittingly allows Meglos to escape. He sets off for the Gaztak ship in triumph. The Doctor is saved in the nick of time, and sets off for Zolpha-Thura, with Romana. Meglos uses the Dodecahedron to power up five huge Screens, which will create a beam of energy which he can use to obliterate planets - the Gaztaks suggest Tigella to go first. Impersonating Meglos, the Doctor manages to reverse the co-ordinates. Meglos finds out too late, and returns his control chamber underground, taking a couple of Gaztaks with him. The kidnapped human is released, and the Doctor offers to take him home. Romana says they've been summoned back to Gallifrey. |
| Review:- It's doppelganger time, as a super-intelligent cactus-esque energy being decides to invade a nearby planet to get his power source back. Both fantastical and science-fiction at the same time, this is a slight story with a slow pace. It is at least cosmopolitan, sort of, as we meet three new races, the Tigellans, the Gaztaks and the Zolpha-Thurans. The good, the bad and the ugly, though not quite in that order. The Tigellans work well as a race divided between the religious and the scientific, with the Dodecahedron being the plausible cause of the problem. As the audience is once again guided to support the Savants rather than the Deons, it's rather a shame that neither side seems to have much going for it. One wonders at Zastor's patience with the lot of them. The Gaztaks are fearsome vagabonds, so it's a shame they never turn up again ever. Grugger and Brotadac are an amusing double act, all the while scheming for the best profit for them (or displaying an avarice for coats). It's a shame they rather get left out for large sections of the story, but perhaps this shows them to their best advantage, rather than overusing them. Meglos is an intriguing new villain, whose arrogance is his downfall. Despite his amazing scientific skills, and his efficency of planning, it is his vanity to retain the Doctor's body that is his undoing, and his belief that he is superior to the Gaztaks which ignores the fact that he needs them, and they outnumber him. It is quite amusing, really, that Lexa and the Deons are mocked for their anti-science views, but Meglos uses science to cripple Tigella and achieve his nefarious aims. Perhaps the Deons did have the right idea. Amidst all his, the Doctor and Romana are mere bit players (Romana, especially, who seems to spend the middle of the story padding things out with the Gaztaks). His identity abused, the Doctor manages to remain strangely calm when he arrives on Tigella, and seems less than hassled when he makes it to Zolpha-Thura and has to stop Meglos very quickly. As for K9 and his dodgy batteries, the less said, the better. It's quite a straightforward story, and doesn't require viewers to understand too much science, so as a light nonsense, it's quite good. But it's forgettable. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book, and seen the video. |