Wirrn Dawn

Eighth Doctor Adventures #3.4

Released: 18 April 2009

Listened: 10/15/21

Big tones of Starship Troopers in this one, which frankly is a pretty obvious way to go with the Wirrn, but Big Finish had never used them before this. The Doctor and Lucie stumble into the middle of an all-out war between Wirrn and humans, during the post-abandoning-Earth era. For once, they both realize just how dangerous the situation is and plan to leave, so of course they’re promptly separated from the TARDIS. For all that it’s got a big war going on, the story seems very compact, with only a few other characters. And the Doctor doesn’t really do very much. Nick Briggs puts an interesting spin on how to handle the Wirrn if you can’t fight them, but also has the Doctor basically shrugging and going “In nature, creatures do what they need to survive” instead of sticking up for humanity as he usually does. The Extras indicate that’s an effect leftover from his time on Orbis, but he was pretty normal in the previous story. Keep an ear out for Daniel Anthony (Clyde Langer in The Sarah Jane Adventures) playing a young soldier, and doing a nice job of it. Overall, though, I don’t think one lands quite the way it was intended to.