Nocturne

Main Range #92

Released: February 2007

Listened: 12/24/20

Although I’d be hard-pressed to describe this story as “fun” for Ace or Hex, it’s not crushingly awful, which makes a nice change. In fact, it’s a rather straightforward story. The TARDIS lands on the planet Nocturne, which is an Earth colony during wartime, but Nocturne is only involved in the war as a way-station to and from the front. As such, it has a strict military government, but also a thriving Bohemian artist community, which is why the Doctor likes to visit. Unfortunately, somebody has created a creature of living sound that’s terrorizing the artists. I kept expecting a twist in this story, but there wasn’t one to be found: There’s a pair of twins, one of whom is responsible for the monster, but nobody swaps identities. The monster doesn’t “hide inside” anybody for shock effect. There are robot servitors everywhere, and the Doctor doesn’t trust them (odd, since he’s not prone to robophobia), but they don’t get corrupted or subverted. The monster isn’t a misunderstood creature with a right to life; the Doctor just stops it. It’s about a non-twisty of a Seventh Doctor story as you’ll find in the main range, and that’s kind of refreshing.