Return of the Electrids

"There was a cloning error, giving a character reversal. This clone is mindless, but moral."

Writer: Paul Crompton 

Format: Short Story

Released: September 1979

Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1980

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I, K9

Synopsis 

As the Doctor and Romana celebrate the extinguishing of the evil worm-like Electrids, the hysteria is dampened as the evil ones return.

Verdict 

Return of the Electrids was quite a decent little short story to continue along my reading of the 1980 Doctor Who Annual rather nicely. Sadly, with wretched mock exams this length of story has been all I've managed to do but as they near an end I do look forward to a very Doctor Who filled festive period as I embark on reading more novels and also continuing along with my Patrick Troughton adventures where I'm currently sitting at The Ice Warriors. That's an exciting story to be on from my perspective as the two missing episodes I'll get to see in animation thereby completing the story visually and then I reach the two stories that were found a couple of months prior to the 50th anniversary celebrations. Anyway, back to the story at hand and despite being pretty decent I didn't think the story quite lived up to the quality of previous stories in the same Annual such as X-Rani and the Ugly Mutants and Reluctant Warriors which I both enjoyed very much. I like the idea of starting off at the moment the Doctor and Romana were saying their goodbyes after defeating an evil race in the form of the Electrids. But with a force field in place preventing the TARDIS from dematerialising, and a sudden return of the Electrids, the Doctor, Romana and K9 would be going nowhere. Instead they'd have to defeat the worm creatures once more. I liked how much of a role K9 had in the story, he was used excellent and the speech really came across well in print which I think can prove difficult at times with the brilliant robot dog (of whom I recently purchased the magnificent figurine from Waterstones!). The Doctor actually asking Romana to check the controls for a fault was interesting as he is usually quite boisterous in defending the TARDIS and his ability to fly it. But what better second opinion than your companion and fellow Time Lord? The scenes in the tunnel where they were searching for the Electrids was pretty good although I wasn't convinced by the trap doors and the falling. Zani was a pretty good villain and I did like how, as a "loner", he raised the Electrids for his gain. I wasn't too struck on his clone and the way his downfall occurred. It lacked clarity which I think is essential. But overall, a pretty good little short story! There's just one story left for me to complete the Annual now!

Rating: 7/10