The Slaying of the Writhing Mass

"Please ensure you have a good view."

Writer: Eddie Robson

Format: Audio

Released: January 2022

Series: The Further Adventuress 1.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Charley

Synopsis

The Doctor and Charley become trapped in a temporal traffic jam, caused by time tourists come to witness the pivotal event in the history of the planet Ileiko: the Slaying of the Writhing Mass, the alien entity that enslaved the Ileikans in their infancy.

The legendary hero Salan killed the Mass with a single stone, setting the Ileikans free. But what was the Mass, exactly? And what if the legend was wrong?

Verdict

The Slaying of the Writhing Mass was a good continuation of the The Further Adventuress from the Eighth Doctor and Charley! I'm enjoying this extra batch of stories with one of my all time favourite audio pairings and this was another good addition. I thought this one started in a fun way with what appeared to be a school trip through time en route to witness one of the most important events in history on the planet Ileiko. It was fun to have time tourists and that's a concept I'm a big fan of and can have a lot of potential. Alicantis as the teacher was a good character and I liked how she was used as the way to explain the historical event of the Writhing Mass and how it was played. The TARDIS answering a distress call was good and not exactly new, but it being stopped from fully exiting was a surprising little twist. It was blocked and the reason was traffic! That was so much fun and I was honestly expecting more of a shocked reaction from the Doctor. The Ileika planet made for a good setting and having a slaying as a tourist attraction seemed a little off, especially for children on a school trip! It was proving popular though as there was an expansion in place to increase time capacity and that explained the traffic. The concept of the Writhing Mass itself was interesting as a cobbled together mess of multiple creatures, and another fun idea was the TARDIS landing within the walls of the school trip's ship. Constella ended up hovering above the TARDIS pool and she soon ended up causing chaos by initiating a dematerialisation and I think more should have been made of the insinuation she wanted to change history. I didn't think the collision course cliffhanger was overly exciting though as it seemed a little vague. Things improved when we learned of the project and how it was dumping waste into the past, putting at risk so much for temporal instability. There was always going to be something coming back to bite there. Constella realising that the Doctor had a vibe was a nice touch, although I have to admit I wasn't thrilled with her character. The androids imprisoning the Doctor and co was a fun developing, as was the arrival of Loarie from the future. She returned to stop the construction project which had backfired in a big way resulting in her being thrown into the TARDIS and burned by raw energy. That was quite the image and she did sound broken in some way. Her efforts to try and kill the legendary Salan were good for a mission and I liked the idea of destroying a myth. There was a hole in history anyway, so what bad was changing the past? The temporal waste from the construction being the reason for the Writhing Mass being a horrible amalgamation wasn't a big surprise, but the description of the fusion was horrid. The sudden way in which the Doctor crashed the ship into the Mass was good and it seemed to wrap up the causal loop. Except, Loarie threatened the Doctor and we found that Salan never actually existed at all with Loarie and Charley always a part of events. Constellation sending the signal that the TARDIS originally answered was good and I liked how Loarie destroyed it to try and wrap up the paradox. Bringing things full circle with the future school lesson and there now being no way to time travel to the Slaying time, and Constellations mentioning how an alien slayed it and that Salan was a myth to fit the story was very good. Overall, a decent continuation of the series!

Rating: 7/10