Dust Breeding

Main Range #21

Released: 18 June 2001

Listened: 11/23/20

The big draw for this release when it came out was the character of “Mr. Seta,” played by Geoffrey Beevers, which is a pretty open secret to anyone familiar with later Big Finish -- it’s the Master -- but at the time it was his first appearance, so that was a pretty big deal. It’s also specified to be a post-”Survival” Master, stripped of Tremas’ body and “de-generated” back into his crispy incarnation. That retcon wasn’t really necessary, but probably seemed so at the time. As for the story itself, it’s a slow boiler, to allow time before the Master’s reveal, so we get a lot of high concept -- a planet made of dust, a psychic entity hiding in Edvard Munch’s The Scream, and buried Daleks that can be heard screaming in the background for several episodes. Caroline John (normally Liz Shaw, and wife of Geoffrey Beevers) plays a wealthy art patron with an absurd “Italian” accent that sounds nothing like her, and is honestly fairly over the top. Writer Mike Tucker does some good work, but some of the names are pretty suspect: I don’t know why a psychic entity would be called a “warp core,” and calling the other monsters “Krill” just makes them sound like something harmless that whales eat. They were established in a novel, and Ace references those events here. Bev Tarant from “Genocide Machine” makes a return appearance, mostly to give the Doctor another character to explain things to, as Ace is becoming experienced. Everything kind of wanders along until a big pile-up at the end that falls a little short of satisfying. The set-up is interesting, but the execution isn’t quite there.