Colony of Fear

Main Range #273

Released: 19 January 2021

Listened: 1/21/21

This 2021 release features the Doctor traveling with just Constance (because Lisa Greenwood was unavailable due to Covid), which doesn’t match its predecessors in release order, so it needs to be inserted in a previous run. The TARDIS lands on a colony that’s familiar to the Doctor, and where the colonists are being attacked and infected by parasitic space wasps, which eventually threaten to take them all over. That’s normal base-under-seige, but there’s also a character who knows the Doctor of old, but the Doctor can’t remember him. We eventually find out that it was the Second Doctor who knew him, but the Time Lords apparently wiped his memories. That’s never fully explained, and I find that somewhat annoying. It’s a bit paradoxical for a Big Finish fan, because I’m OK with them introducing new companions and giving them a dozen Main Range appearances, but I’m not OK with them having a new companion turn up who’s never been mentioned before or since. The body count in this one is unusually high, which is also a negative. The major and minor characters are well-drawn with distinct personalities and motivations, but the plot itself is somewhat rote, which leaves this as something of a mixed bag.