The Scorchies

Jo is an unwilling guest star on The Scorchies Show, a television puppet revue which is a hit among the younger set. The Doctor disappeared while investigating the program and Jo has followed, but she is required to sing a song, make a thing and tell a story if she wants to stay alive. These are not the children’s entertainers they are made out to be: the Scorchies are from another world and they move from planet to planet burning them down as they go. And now they have come to Earth. And they say they have killed the Doctor.

It’s more or less a case of Doctor Who and the Muppets from Hell here, which is such a creepy concept I don’t really know if I love it or hate it. Just look at that cover. Sheesh. The writers’ directions were actually to make the Scorchies a lot like Muppets, right down to the songs they sing (yeah this one has a soundtrack) but without going too over the mark for obvious reasons. I’ve never really liked the Muppets anyways – some of them are plain creepy, and I thought the episode of Angel called Smile Time was disturbing enough… but now here they are in Doctor Who.

The Scorchies are aware of the Doctor and know the threat that he poses and when they think they have dealt with him they rejoice at having succeeded where other aliens have failed, rhyming them off in song. They’re that confident of their prowess that when UNIT shows up outside the studio they rush outside to fight the soldiers head on. Brazen for puppets for sure, but also alien murdering puppets so that’s bound to boost their confidence. Their song rhyming off the Doctor’s past foes though includes the gel guards of The Three Doctors so we’re looking at a point in Jo’s final season after the Doctor’s exile has been lifted, and as it is not necessarily being told as a hindsight story it really doesn’t have to wait until after Jo’s departure to be enjoyed like some of the others.

Katy Manning does overtime again on the voice front, providing not only for Jo and the Doctor but some of the Scorchies themselves. I think she actually pulls off more characters than her co-star, Melvyn Hayes. Oh the magic of audio.

Katy Manning is no stranger to hard work on the audios and she has really put in her time adding to her era of the show with more from Jo Grant, but there were other members of UNIT around with their own stories to tell, including a certain sergeant Benton…

NEXT EPISODE: COUNCIL OF WAR