Twilight of the Gods

The TARDIS makes a bumpy landing on a lush world with vast flower forests and plentiful insect life. Upon exiting the ship the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria are separated due to the military clash between two rival factions of the Rhumon species as they claim the planet for themselves. The Rhumons are divided by beliefs; one side is a fanatical religious order and the other devoted to the pursuit of science, and between them they have subjugated the peaceful natives of the planet - the Menoptera. The Doctor realizes that this is Vortis, many generations after its liberation from the Animus, and the planet has strayed from its previous location in space and become embroiled in this conflict - but there is still a dark power operating behind the scenes of the conflict, something else which is a danger to everyone on Vortis as its power grows and spreads.

As one of the Missing Adventures line from Virgin, Twilight of the Gods goes into the tempting realm of revisiting previous story locations and letting authors toss their own take onto classic tales. It's not secret that the giant ant Zarbi of the original Web Planet were being groomed to rival the Daleks in popularity so to see them again on page is just fulfilling that destiny to a point, although they themselves are hardly in Twilight. No longer the controlled foot soldiers of the Animus the Zarbi have fallen back to secondary species status behind the Menoptera and Optera (the latter of which have yet to evolve up to be able to fly) and they appear on maybe four pages of the whole book. What we have here in simple terms is a tale of colonization and of course the age old division between religious fanaticism and devotion to science driving the factions doing the colonizing. The Menoperta, however, are no strangers to this sort of thing and are not taking it laying down, preparing their own resistance and readying to fight back as they did generations before.  When their previous saviour returns to help them once more, their own prayers are answered.

I suppose author Christopher Bulis felt this was a surefire hit, and the editors at Virgin backed him, but there seems to me a bit too much happening for the story, and a result it's just a mediocre result, at least to me. The whole collision between the Rhumon people is meaty enough to be a story all on its own without this diversion into colonialism and the mild commentary on how bad it is to impose one's religious views upon other peoples; Combat Rock did this so much better but had the benefit of being written after this one and having more leeway with its graphic content to really push home the horrific. As for the premise of the return to Vortis, it's not like it's not an interesting notion and worthy of exploration, but look the Menoptera are victims again, they're being enslaved again, they're getting ready to strike back but aren't ready... again. It's a return alright, right back to the same plot elements as before. But, you ask, surely not everything? Not the Animus?

Spoiler alert: that's back too.

The only new thing that has been added here is Bulis throwing his own spin on the peoples of Vortis, which is probably not what Bill Strutton had in mind at all when he wrote The Web Planet. Was it his intention for Vortis to be revealed as nothing more than a galactic ant farm? I doubt it. I do so dislike authors who do this sort of thing, and unfortunately there's a lot of that in Doctor Who when it comes to the expanded universe (and on TV ever since 2010 but that's just sheer vanity and arrogance on the part of the executive producer). The temptation to go back and revisit older things and "answer the questions" is dangling there like a transparent carrot (thank you, Alanis) and Bulis, like so many others, bit it. He even goes as far as to make reference to the a sonic modulator device of the Doctor's which he muses he must remember to carry more often, which is the famous sonic screwdriver which made its debut in Fury From The Deep. Bulis isn't the first one to do this; so far there have been two other references to the device in expanded universe lore where authors want to be the first to either reference or reveal the device for nothing more than their own glory.

The only place Bulis really succeeds here is with Victoria. He did Barbara proud when writing for her in The Sorcerer's Apprentice and here again the stronger female character gets some good innings, this time going undercover and disguising herself as a Menoptera to try and rescue the Doctor and Jamie despite the fact that she is scared stiff and is finding herself once more terrified and out of her depth. The seeds of her departure are being sewn here on page, but I'm not particular about that so much as it's an obvious reveal; Victoria has been thrown into some terribly dangerous situations since entering the TARDIS and it's going to become too much for her one day.

That day is out there, but not just yet.

NEXT EPISODE: LETHBRIDGE STEWART - THE FORGOTTEN SON