The Blazing Hour

Main Range #274

Released: 9 February 2021

Listened: 2/12/21

The second Main Range story had the Fifth Doctor and Turlough, so I guess it’s appropriate that the penultimate Main Range story does too. It has a small cast, as it was recorded under lockdown conditions, but it’s tricky to tell that. In terms of story, it’s rather dark. It takes advantage of the fact that neither the Doctor nor the companion are human, and drops them into a situation where the humans are screwing things up for themselves. It seems to be a period of human history where productivity and profit are more important than human rights, and of course they’ve got an energy source that’s insanely dangerous that they shouldn’t be using, and it blows up in their faces. There’s shades of Chernobyl there, but also the political situation of both the US and UK in 2020. Both characters are put in situations that prey on their weaknesses: Turlough, specifically, has to confront his basic cowardice (or self-preservation, you pick). But the Doctor is trying to play fair and get the authorities to work with him, whereas another Doctor would have simply taken charge and steamrolled any objections. As with many Fifth Doctor stories, victory comes at a price and the Doctor’s conscience takes a hit, but the body count isn’t as high as it could be. The story hammers a bit hard on the foolishness of humans, but it’s a decent story for that.