For the Glory of Urth

First Doctor Adventures #5.1

Released: 27 April 2021

Listened: 5/1/21

In release order, it’s been a while since there was a release in this series, so hearing these actors again is welcome. As usual, there’s one sci-fi story and one historical, but the sci-fi is a bit off the usual path. The TARDIS crew have landed on a planet called Urth, which claims to have the last descendants of humanity living in a squalid city. However, it’s a dystopia of the fairly silly variety, not unlike “The Happiness Patrol” or possibly “Vengeance on Varos,” where the people in charge are so terrible that you wonder how they could have gotten there at all. Ian and Barbara don’t really have a lot to do in this story (aside from being generally appalled), and Ian’s “hero moment” goes decidedly poorly this time around. Susan has a lot of the action, as does Phyllida Nash as a blobby gestalt alien. The various revelations are interesting the first time through, but the ruling-class characters are annoying enough to discourage a re-listen.