White Ghosts

Fourth Doctor Adventures #3.2

Released: 14 February 2014

Listened: 3/5/22

The second story is intriguingly linked to the first, as the Doctor forgives Leela, she takes a stronger hand in her own education, and we see what can push the Doctor close to the ultimate sanction. They land on one of those permanently dark planets, which Big Finish is fond of because they wouldn’t work on TV, but are great on audio. The danger starts almost immediately, as violent, speedy plants grow with any tiny bit of light, and there’s a missile headed for the planet as well. Writer Alan Barnes has a brilliant insert where we hear a battle from Leela’s internal point of view, with her instincts doing the narrating, more or less. But it’s vampires, and the Time Lords’ instinctive hatred of them, that dominates the closing part of this story, and provides a contrast to Leela’s treatment of the Sontaran clones from the previous story. No breakthroughs yet, but I wonder if there will be. On the side, Leela’s reading skills are improving rapidly, and she’s learning the difference between reality and fairy tales.