Dethras

"If you're not the conqueror, you're the conquered."

Writer: Adrian Poynton

Format: Audio

Released: April 2017

Series: Fourth Doctor Adventures 6.04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, K9

Synopsis 

In the control room of a World War 2 submarine something strange has started to happen. As the ship runs out of control, its crew begin to fall unconscious...

Finding the submarine in the last place they'd have expected, the Doctor and Romana are confronted by a mystery. Once fully populated, there are now only three men on board. And there's now also a chimpanzee.

What has happened to the rest of the crew? What are the strange noises they can hear outside the hull?

And most importantly, who, or what, is Dethras?

Verdict 

Dethras was an excellent Fourth Doctor Adventures audio! This really was terrific from start to finish and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, you really can’t go wrong with the pairing of the Fourth Doctor and Romana II. They just work so wonderfully well together and that was evident right at the beginning with the former enjoying the freedom of bypassing the randomiser in the TARDIS after their excursions with the Black Guardian. Romana was less pleased by the lack of using it though! They went for some completely random coordinates as a sort of compromise and arrived on a submarine which seemed like a fun setting. Franklin as a chimpanzee was an unexpected passenger, and the others on board weren’t entirely sure what they were doing there either after being under the sea and then waking up on a deserted ship, that was in space! Not the usual location for a submarine so that was fun stuff and established an intriguing mystery. Robert was a decent character and I thought the fact he could visualise Philip’s wedding just from a description was fascinating and the mystery in the air was palpable. The crew all seemed to have impossible knowledge which was fun and far beyond their scientific capabilities which only heightened my interest in what exactly was going on. The fact that very small things were coming for the submarine was interesting and they were living. But what were they? Franklin developing speech was a really fun moment that sparked some tremendous reactions. Flague knowing the acronym of TARDIS was unexpected and I liked that she wanted Dethras at a point where we didn’t know the significance of the title. The creatures were after it too. Philip and Robert actually transforming into the creatures was brilliant and that sparked a desperate teleportation away that left the Doctor teamed up with John whilst Romana and Franklin were nowhere to be seen, having transported to Flague’s ship instead after the emergency teleport reversing the polarity. The relationship between Romana and Flague was understandably tense. I liked the Doctor challenging John on being aware as he could tell from the fear and the fact he had locked everyone in to save them. He knew of the creatures because he was Dethras! That served as a good cliffhanger. Flague knowing of Franklin was good and I loved how we learned about Dethras as an almost Einstein of evolution. He was a legendary scientist who ran away and vanished because he unlocked hyper-evolution. He regretted it too which was pretty powerful. Flague was after her army of super soldiers thanks to Dethras’s experiments, something he inadvertently did with the submarine crew. He wasn’t aware they were not volunteers but that didn’t make it better for the Doctor. As far as Flague was concerned, these were people who wouldn’t be missed and would die anyway. Flague wanting an army and threatening Romana’s life if she didn’t get it was good and I loved the revelation that the crew were actually the creatures! It did make sense though. They had adapted and evolved which was the entire result of the experiment. Dethras planning to die by opening the air lock and taking his secrets with him was not met kindly by the Doctor as he needed to be responsible for all of those his experiment impacted. Flague finally realising the creatures were the experiments was a fun moment and it was clear she’d soon start dissecting them and treating them as nothing but a slave army. The Doctor needing the help of Philip and Robert was not something I anticipated but I really liked how the change of environment could revert back. The whole concept of hyper-evolution was tremendous and it explained how they knew the information at the start of the story with them tapping into the low level telepathy that the Doctor and Romana brought to the environment as Time Lords. The Doctor actually encouraging Flague to destroy their submarine was amusing and she actually did fire! The telepathic illusion showing the ship as being destroyed was excellent but I wasn’t sure why Flague was happy with the Dethras soldiers being destroyed. All of the experiments would now be safe and Franklin’s DNA had settled so he would be off exploring the universe which was a terrific thought. Overall, a brilliant episode!

Rating: 9/10