The Planet of Dust

"I mean to give these plants the ability to think for themselves."

Writer: Paul Crompton
Format: Short Story
Released: September 1978
Printed in: Doctor Who Annual 1979

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

The Doctor and Leela answer a distress call but find that the call was phoney and had been continuously emitting in error. Beshi is a giant that has made this planet of dust his own domain, much to the expense of the local plantation habitation...

Verdict

The Planet of Dust was not the greatest story in the world and sadly demonstrated the often fluctuating quality of the short stories that appear in the Doctor Who Annuals. After a very successful Famine on Planet X yesterday, sadly the same level of quality could not be maintained and we got quite a dull little adventure. It had its moments and was good in part but as a whole, this was not of a high standard which was quite a shame. There just didn't seem to be much at all that was excitement and I'm really not sure what this story did or could offer to justify having an extra page which took the count to eight. That's rather high for a Doctor Who Annual story as they're usually just seven so I was quite surprised to see that it was longer as I really didn't think it was warranted. I was quite glad that Leela had a bit more to do in this adventure but that was soon trodden over by the fact the Doctor had to leave her for two days while he went in search of the missing component of Beshi's spaceship. He made an intriguing villain and I quite liked that he was basically a giant and his one step was rather a lot compared to a step of the size that the Doctor or Leela would be used to. However, I thought the whole plot and threat was poor. The progression of the two days that the Doctor had to fix Beshi's spaceship flew by and there was hardly any tension or excitement when there really ought to have been. It didn't make much sense to me and with the Doctor stating that Beshi had been stranded for well over the year he claimed, it seemed far too easy for me for the plants to just go and find the component. I didn't understand why they couldn't use their telepathy to do so before the Doctor arrived on the planet. The telepathic aspect of the story was something I did really like and the Doctor being able to have a conversation with plantation was rather humorous. Beshi's plan of using plantation to aid his existence was interesting but it wasn't elaborated upon enough to be quite effective. The story's ending was really tame and underwhelming with the Doctor just fixing the spaceship, Beshi leaving and then the plantation returning to the surface upon the departures of the outsiders. Overall, it wasn't the best and whilst there were some decent elements, there was definitely room for improvement.

Rating: 5/10