The Monsters of Gokroth

Main Range #250

Released: 17 April 2019

Listened: 2/15/21

The 250th Main Range story doesn’t get a special anniversary treatment, but it does have an unusual twist in that Mags, a secondary character from “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy” on TV, is brought back as a temporary companion. The Doctor says that it’s been quite a while for him, longer than it’s been for Mags, and that he’s in the habit of checking up on unfinished business. Mags is a werewolf, and she’s been away from home long enough that her lupine changes are no longer regular, which she thinks makes her unfit to be around people. She’s come to Gokroth because she heard that there are monsters here. There’s actually quit a bit going on: a village that fears the monsters in the woods, an alien scientist in a castle doing research to try to cure the monsters (unless maybe she caused them), an alien hunter who wants to capture the monsters and put them in his traveling menagerie, and the monsters themselves, who aren’t as savage as they appear. The resolution is fairly complicated, and it takes a while to get there. It also seems to be one of those stories where the Doctor leaves just as the real work is beginning. Mags seems fairly promising as a new companion, and this story seems to represent a shift from the arrogant inscrutable Doctor to one who’s trying to clean up some of the mess he left behind, even if he’s still keeping his cards close to his chest.