LIVE 34

Main Range #74

Released: 25 September 2005

Listened: 12/6/20

This story is something of an experiment, with a rather unusual format. The entire story is presented as a series of radio news reports, some broadcast news, some in-depth special reports. There’s no theme music at all, and each episode begins and ends with the static of a tuning radio. The Doctor, Hex, and Ace have landed on a planet being controlled by a corrupt government, and have gotten involved in a resistance effort, as they often do. Because of the format, you hear far less of the leads than you normally would in such a story. The Doctor is interviewed in episode 1, Ace in episode 2, and Hex in episode 3. Otherwise, they don’t appear, which must have been a nice break for the lead actors, but it means the guests have to do a lot more work. The format takes advantage of the idea that the government is engaging in propaganda and partially controlling the media. That was probably chilling enough in 2004 when the story was released, but it’s positively eerie in 2020, as the story involves a fixed election. Because we’re not seeing the main characters closely this time, there’s no way to tell what they’re thinking, so we don’t know if the Doctor was being particularly manipulative, or if the companions were in on the plan this time. It’s a pretty dark story, though, which is going to become a theme in this part of the era. It’s memorable because of the unusual format, but it’s also a decent story as well.