Storm of the Horofax

An alien pod is discovered by a naval vessel on routine drills; the occupant, Arianda, is rescued from the sea and held for questioning by the Doctor and Jo. Arainda claims to be a historian, come back in time from the future to observe Earth in this time period, but her ship is leaking radiation which can undo time, and the crew of the ship are soon forgotten. The Doctor and Jo take Arianda to the mainland with them but when they do an invading party of Horofax are not far behind. The Horofax themselves are also from the future, and their leader has chosen this point in time to make a move and start to undo the future of humanity.

As I listened to this one I realized I had heard bits of this before somewhere, and then I remembered that the bit here where Jo's past is manipulated to change the present version of her is pretty much the same as when future companion Donna Noble has her entire life overwritten just by taking a different direction while driving her car. It's nowhere near as grand as what happened in Turn Left and it is easily remedied by comparison, but still... come on Big Finish you're supposed to be the source of originality now that the TV series is such garbage.

And for some reason I couldn't really think of anything but Sontarans whenever anyone said Horofax. Something to do with the way their armour is described, probably. But unlike the Sontarans the Horofax are not a whole different alien species but more of a cult made up of members of other species. The conversion process is pretty brutal, although I can't really see how after witnessing his family murdered a man would suddenly serve the very force that did the killing. It's all a little too "I am Negan" for me, which is right around where I stopped watching The Walking Dead. As for Arianda, I found her to be a bit too smug for my liking right from the get go. She's obviously lying about something, and the Doctor knows it. She wants to make Jo her new best friend though and already knows who she is before she arrives with the Doctor. And how many times did I actually hear her called Ariana? Maybe she's a dangerous woman.

There are no real direct references to a past episode to link this one to; Jo does mention the Axons and her early days with UNIT but they're not presented as if they happened yesterday. Storm is the second adventure in the third volume of third Doctor adventures so it can serve as a follow up to The Conquest of Far (Nightdreamers or no) in the emerging pattern of one space adventure and one Earth adventure. Yes I realize that I have not mentioned the second volume yet but there is a reason for it which will emerge soon.

This adventure concluded, it's time to return to the printed page once again, back to the Virgin Publishing Missing Adventures...

NEXT EPISODE: DANCING THE CODE