Last of the Gaderene

What seems like a simple revitalization of an old World War II aerodrome promises to being prosperity to the village of Culverton. Legion International's project is met with enthusiasm from the locals until black uniformed security troops begin to appear on the village streets like some kind of occupying force. An old friend of the Brigadier's gets in touch to voice his suspicions, which brings UNIT along with the Doctor and Jo onto the scene, and their investigation uncovers a stealthy massive invasion of Earth already well underway.

It's the UNIT era down to a t this one - all the hallmarks of a good old fashioned invasion of Earth are here to enjoy: the Brig is skeptical, the Doctor is suspicious, the aliens are malevolent and well connected, and Jo never does anything the Doctor tells her to do to stay safe in the crisis. And true to what Jon Pertwee would have wanted had this been a televised serial, the Doctor gets a go in the cockpit of a WWII spitfire.

It's also the late days of the UNIT era; the Doctor has the TARDIS working again, his exile lifted some time ago, and now he is spending more and more time away from Earth but always comes back to it. So far. While I was reading Catastrophea before I lamented at how I don't like the whole retcon angle where the Doctor knows his companions will soon be leaving him (in that case, Jo), but here we have the same being done with the Doctor himself; the Brigadier is no fool and has seen how desperate the Doctor was to escape exile, and now that he has his freedom back he knows it will just be a matter of time before he is gone for good. That bit I do not mind; it's only logical that it will happen and the Brigadier is just seeing the writing on the wall. To start predicting a companion leaving when there is no clear evidence of it just looks like an author being smug.

The Gaderene are described as a parasitic race and resemble something between a lobster and a squid - horrific really when it is revealed exactly how they co-exist with a host.  And surprise surprise they are trying to escape a dying world and Earth looks like a good place to move to, despite its inconvenient human population. This sort of thing has happened before though, but there are only so many ways it can be presented in the end. And what good is an alien invasion without a thoroughly malevolent spokesperson, in this case a large fat woman named Bliss.  What a bitch. And it's not just the little parasitic monsters to be wary of - there's something bigger and scarier growing out in the marsh nearby.

And of course what story set in this era would be complete without the Master somewhere in there?

Less is more sometime when it comes to design

I can't remember exactly what happened to my first copy of this book - I think eBay might have had something to do with it - but the BBC Book people reprinted it back in 2013 for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who with a simplistic yet striking new cover and a corresponding audio version read by series regular from this era Richard Franklin (Mike Yates). I sat back for about 8 hours over a few days and enjoyed hearing his storytelling; having been on the series he does passable impressions of his former co-stars and is accompanied by a minimal audio score and some background sound effects; indeed the meowing of a couple cats in one scene set my own off on a hunt for intruders in her domain while other sounds made me wonder if my windows were open and something was going on outside. It's not quite a Big Finish experience, but it's still a good time.

When I was setting out on this journey to read and watch and listen to all the Doctor Who material I have I figured that around here I would be returning to the televised series and seeing Jo Grant off (it's no secret she is leaving soon, the bloody expanded universe authors keep telling us) but her departure has been delayed by more material released by Big Finish and the BBC Audio people. So Jo is still with us for a bit, and I'm about to put a couple Short Trips audios on a flash drive and take them on the road for a listen today.

NEXT EPISODES: THE OTHER WOMAN and THE TIME TUNNEL