Vengeance of the Stones

"We came here in peace. They are the aggressors." 

Writer: Andrew Smith
Format: Audio
Released: March 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 03

Featuring: Third Doctor, Brigadier

Synopsis

Two RAF fighter jets are on a training flight over North East Scotland when one of them is plucked from the air and promptly disappears. UNIT are called in, and the Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart are soon on the scene. They enlist the help of a local military officer - a young lieutenant by the name of Mike Yates.

The Doctor discovers a link to the recumbent stone circles that are plentiful in this part of Scotland. The stones are thousands of years old, and are soon revealed to hold a terrible secret. Then Mike Yates disappears, abducted by an alien race that has a grievance with humanity. Their intention is to harness the power of the stones in order to take their revenge. For the Doctor and the Brigadier, the race is now on to save their new friend Mike and the entire planet Earth.

Verdict

Vengeance of the Stones was yet another very good audio adventure from the Destiny of the Doctor series. It's slightly making me regret that I didn't listen to these stories each month as part of the lead up to the 50th Anniversary celebrations because they really are terrific! This time it was the turn of the Third Doctor to take centre stage and I was quite surprised to see that Richard Franklin was the lead performer. I had expected it to be Katy Manning but it was a pleasant surprise it has to be said because it gave us a very much unexpected look into how Mike Yates came to join UNIT which I thought was just magnificent. I really was a big fan of the chronological placement in the era of the Third Doctor. That era was neatly presented in this audio with the writing of both the Third Doctor and the Brigadier nicely done and I also enjoyed that Bessie got an appearance. Yates was rather impressed with the nifty old car. The title intrigued me before I listened to the audio as I was questioning whether stones could actually take vengeance. Were we getting some sentient rocks? Thankfully that wasn't the case and the connection with the stones and vengeance was very decent. Garlin was an excellent villain and the fact that the Armidians, his race from Tharos, had landed on Earth four millennia ago meant they had been present for some time! The Scottish setting was superb and I really did like how they made a story out of all the circular stones present in the region. It was well done and I'm sure fans who are resident there would have enjoyed it a lot. The little flashback to the way the Armidians were greeted by the robust cave-like version of humanity 4,000 years prior was intriguing and it set things up for the current situation nicely as the four out of ten Armidians who survived the onslaught had to go into hiding through suspended animation. The Doctor tried to reason with Garlin as you would expect but he failed to realise that humanity had evolved and still wanted his revenge. He was using the Tharon stone to gain immense power and wanted to use it to kill every human on Earth. Quite the maniacal villain! The similarity to Doctor Who and the Silurians with the Brigadier going against the Doctor's wish when he wanted to broker a peace was good but not quite on the same scale as that adventure. Mike Yates was brilliant throughout and his role in the story was terrific. Even when he went missing! The Doctor was prone to that as well though but once the threat was averted, I'm sure his failure to save Garlin wouldn't have sat well with him. Overall, a great audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10