The Melting Pot

"Violence is all we have left."

Writer: Christopher Cooper

Format: Audio

Released: September 2021

Series: Eleventh Doctor Chronicles 2.03

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor

Synopsis

Arriving on Piir to sample the local cuisine, the Doctor finds a society wildly different from the one he remembers. With violence brewing on the streets, the Doctor will have to get to the bottom of what has gone wrong on Piir, before the world tears itself apart.

Verdict

The Melting Pot was an average continuation of the second volume of Eleventh Doctor Chronicles. This was one that just seemed to be there and didn't really do a lot but also didn't really disappoint at the same time. It was a bit of a weird listen as I just seemed to plod along and I think the tone was set right from the off with how things started with the beastly creatures and the Doctor arriving to pick up a spoon to lead into the opening titles. It was a somewhat uninspiring pre-titles scene. The setting of Piir was decent and I liked how glum it was presented with the rain pouring and the assumption that anything could be done on the planet with it being lawless. That set things up nicely but I don't think it was fully capitalised upon which could have been really fun. I wasn't a massive fan of the native species on Piir and the little blurp sound effect that accompanied almost all of their speech got really annoying by the time the audio ended. I had vibes of The Web Planet which isn't a great thing as far as I'm concerned! The idea of a scent-based life form was good and referring to the youth as cubs was a nice touch, especially when they had gone missing. The Doctor's bow tie being taken as the symbol seemed a bit weird and when it turned out that the faith was of the sandglass it made more sense but just seemed a bit silly to me. Stem made for a decent villain as Elix's uncle who was a lovely character, and the mythology of the Raal was akin to The Macra Terror, except there really was no such thing as the Raal. Them being blamed for the missing cubs by Arvin was pretty good but I wasn't a big fan of his character as he was too childish for my liking. His being in league with Stem and retelling the Doctor's intentions wasn't much of a surprise but it was still fun to hear. I loved the Doctor pouncing on the fact the Raal had never been seen before and that set him running to fix what had gone horribly wrong. He'd been to this planet two hundred years previously and it was a paradise, but now it was far from it! Stem rallying the troops I guess you could say against the Raal seemed to be a sudden development but the idea of them taking back what was theirs and disregarding others was good. Arvin's task all along in getting the Doctor to the tower that was central to operations was so he could get in and the Doctor had inadvertently aided the cause. Stem's whole desire being money and wanting the minds of the planet was a good concept but I don't think it was fully explained. Gonch was a decent character towards the end but it was all about the Doctor discovering that the Raal were an invention to allow the colonists to gain control over the native species and cast a system in place to give all advantages to the privileged. It worked well and made sense. The Raal and the Piir were all one people which sparked a reaction and the Doctor releasing pheromones at the end to show the Piir what they'd created and forgot was good and they felt very bad indeed. Overall, an average little audio! 

Rating: 6/10