Lethbridge Stewart - Mutually Assured Domination

In 1969 there is a new player in the energy game, a company called Dominex which seems to have come out of nowhere promising great feats reconditioning radioactive waste for future energy. Atomic energy, however, is under suspicion and protest given that it can lead to weaponized radioactive materials, and protests rage across the nation and outside the very gates of Dominex itself. Reporter Harold Chorley is recruited by Colonel Lethbridge Stewart to get close to the action and see what is going on; the Colonel suspects alien involvement and he's right. Earth has been visited by a race called the Dominators, and they have brought along an army of lethal robot servants, the Quarks.

Mutually Assured Domination brings back the Dominators from their single appearance on Doctor Who which we have not quite reached yet in this blog, so any discussion about them and the similarities to their televised appearance would be wasted on this segment here. The Dominators do, however, attempt to be a bit more subtle here than on TV, posing as businessmen out to make an honest buck rather than just trying to take over the world through pure brute force. Their Quarks are kept out of sight for the most part to keep suspicion down, but the robots themselves are slightly rejigged from their original design, with additional mobility and far more weapons for destroying the unlucky hippie or soldier.

Lethbridge Stewart has been coming into contact with the aliens so much more now that people think he is starting to become obsessed in his drive to create a special taskforce to combat them. But after the London Event and Fang Rock, it is getting harder for the top brass to brush off his repeated proposals to create such a force; finding Dominex right under their noses is going to only cement his case. But Lethbridge Stewart isn't getting anywhere easily with this as Dominex have some powerful friends keeping him at bay. Enter Harold Chorley, the disgraced reporter who covered the underground terror of the London Event and was denied the chance to report the truth. But uncovering a scandal at Dominex, be it aliens of just dirty business, would be his way back into the trade. The two make uneasy allies but the mission is clear: expose Dominex for whatever they have going on.

Anne Travers is here again but she's not as involved as she has been previously; her work at the Vault keeps her out of most of the narrative but she's still there to give whatever advice and help she can. Maybe someone said something to author Nick Walters about Anne's role in The Beast of Fang Rock and how the tale seemed to be less about our brave Colonel and more about her; there's a feeling that she's mentioned here to keep the formation of the Colonel's team simmering but no more in case her presence overshadows him again.

Here, though, is a danger I was wary of as this series started: this is a major alien incursion, but when the Doctor and Lethbridge Stewart cross paths again, no mention at all. And in later times Lethbridge Stewart would tell someone that there had been two invasion attempts, this would make three. Bah. But on the other hand having had direct combat with an alien force would be why he's so cool about it when it happens again. And soon.

This is the last of the Lethbridge Stewart audio adventures; as I have had said before there are many novels and novellas but there's not enough time for me to dive in further just now. Maybe later. For now, there's a lot more Doctor Who...

NEXT EPISODE: THE GREAT SPACE ELEVATOR