The Sons of Kaldor

"I am a huntress, never the pray."

Writer: Andrew Smith

Format: Audio

Released: January 2018

Series: FDA 7.01

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

Finding themselves in a seemingly deserted spaceship on an alien world, the Doctor and Leela stumble into some familiar foes – the Voc robots from the planet Kaldor – and... something else. Something outside. Trying to get in.

Reviving the robot's Kaldoran commander from hibernation, the travellers discover that they've found themselves in the middle of a civil war. The ship was hunting the Sons of Kaldor, an armed resistance group working with alien mercenaries to initiate regime change on their homeworld. 

But now the Sons of Kaldor may have found them. The Doctor and Leela will have to pick a side. Or die.

Verdict

The Sons of Kaldor was a great start to the seventh series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures! I have jumped around the first six series of this range (excluding the first series) and with them predominantly being standalone adventures, that method has served me well but I must admit that I have been very excited to get started with this boxset and having nearly a full working week of lunch breaks with the Fourth Doctor and Leela! Having the infamous Voc Robots of The Robots of Death return is a fine way to start a new series and I liked the little references to that televised serial that were dotted throughout. There was a good start with the enigmatic feel and the issue of K9 needing repair was fun, but I do hope he isn't out of operation for the entire boxset! Arriving to a crew in suspended animation isn't a new thing for Doctor Who but it's rarely something I do not enjoy. It just works and has a somewhat intriguing feel to proceedings and it's a fun dynamic of the Doctor and his companion being the only ones active until the inevitable capture by someone shady hiding in the shadows. And that happened to be the case here after he and Leela split up and found themselves taken in by the Voc Robots. The writing for this TARDIS pairing was just delightful and I thought the humour that came with the eeny, meeny, miny, moe game and the Doctor ignoring the supposed destination was magnificent. I also loved his conversation with her about not wondering off and Leela's acceptance of that whilst not wanting to be talked to like a child was great. I thought the setting of the ship was excellent and although we don't get the visual benefits of the Voc Robots, their voices were still a good way to provide the subtle creepiness that comes with their mere presence. The moment where the Robots revealed they didn't even know their mission or why they were where they were was intriguing and added to the atmosphere and I liked how there was clearly more than met the eye. They got their minds wiped every two months to prevent enemies extracting their data logs which I thought was good and I enjoyed everything that came with Commander Lind being awakened. She had been asleep a lot longer than she expected with the fact that what she thought was four months was actually two years a brilliant moment. Whilst she had been asleep, the Robots had taken control and that was fascinating. The whole premise of the concept of self for the Robots was tremendous and I loved that V26 was indirectly giving the orders that Lind instructed. The Doctor picking up on V26 repeating them was brilliant and her reaction to having lost control was something I'd describe as calm horror. Rebben Trace made a very good villain and the plot centring around the Sons of Kaldor was nicely done. I thought the attempt of lineage to the founding families of Kaldor and hoping to restore rule there without Robots was impressive and finding out that the war had already been fought and lost as far as Lind was concerned was excellent. A Second Republic had already been declared on Kaldor with robots forbidden. That was a daunting prospect. SV9's revea as actually being in control of events all along was a good twist and I liked the idea of evolution in a robot. The Doctor likening the human body to a robot with just different components was terrific. The cliffhanger with Leela threatened by the hatch opening and the Ferelin arrival was decent, but the resolution was a bit naff. I also thought the conclusion to this adventure felt a little anticlimactic in that it wasn't hugely eventful, but leaving the small crew of Robots behind with the Doctor thinking it unlikely they'd survive was an intriguing finish to what was as a whole a really good little audio!

Rating: 8/10