Survival of the Fittest

Main Range #131

Released: 18 February 2010

Listened: 3/9/21

Although this is the second story on this disc, when it opens, several other adventures are mentioned, so clearly some time has passed. The Doctor and Klein end up in a hive of intelligent insects. The high concept here is that they communicate via scent, which the translation circuits can handle, but it’s apparently impossible to lie when you’re speaking in scent. Of course there are humans invading, and they’re pretty hostile. They’re masquerading as colonist scouts, but they’re really just after resources. It’s not clear if they ever knew the insects were sentient, and to be fair, that’s a heck of a communication barrier, but the Doctor isn’t letting them off the hook. Klein is mostly in accord with the Doctor and on the insects’ side, implying that she has learned to appreciate other perspectives, but she’s darkly thrilled to discover that there are fascist organizations in humanity’s far future. When she has to bluff her way as an authority figure, she’s remarkably good at it, but she’s disgusted with the Doctor when he carries the bluff into one of his elaborate plans, to try to get rid of the humans without hurting anybody. It’s a fairly tough situation for the Doctor, which gets worse when Klein seizes an opportunity to abandon him. It’s a decent, although short story, but it doesn’t really have a proper ending.