The Lovecraft Invasion

Main Range #265

Released: 30 July 2020

Listened: 9/7/20

This story was intended for release in June 2020, but as a result of the Black Lives Matter protests at that time, and the fact that HP Lovecraft was a raging racist, some dialog was retooled, and its release was delayed until the very end of July. Given that the story never misses a chance to remind us how horrible he was, or have characters excoriate him for being horrible, or opine on the difficulty of separating the creator from the creation, I wonder what the script was like before the changes. There’s at least a small gap between the last story and this one, as the TARDIS crew have picked up bounty hunter Calypso Jones in the 51st century, where they’re chasing down one of those engineered psychic bioweapons that always seems to get loose, and this one has headed for Providence, Rhode Island, 1937, and HP Lovecraft, shortly before his death, in order to make his fever dreams into reality and destroy the world. That should make for a deeply scary story, but in fact there’s a streak of silliness running through it, because the story never takes the Lovecraft mythos seriously. Case in point: Flip knows about Lovecraft because she sat in on her cousin’s Call of Cthulhu gaming sessions as a kid. The story name-checks all the points you’d be expected to recognize even if you’ve never read Lovecraft (like me): Randolph Carter, Arkham, Miskatonic University, R’lyeh (which even the Doctor can’t pronounce), and of course Cthulhu himself. If you’ve ever wanted to hear somebody actually say “Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!” out loud, you’ll get your shot during one of the cliffhangers. Lovecraft, as a character, seems more pathetic than anything, which gives the story a feel of punching down. I’m a little disappointed that the Doctor doesn’t offer any hope for his redemption, but he’s a historic figure, so there’s not much you can do. The story ends without any indication of trying to get Constance or Flip home, or even Jones. I think I expected quite a bit more from this story than I got.