The Sands of Life

"Those creatures dictate what happens and when."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: February 2013

Series: Fourth Doctor Adventures 2.02

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I, K9

Synopsis 

Sheridan Moorkurk has just been elected president of Earth... but the harsh realities of who really runs the planet are just beginning to dawn on her. And what's more, she's starting to hear voices.

Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana encounter a mass of aliens heading to Earth... Aliens who have already made the mistake of upsetting the infamous Cuthbert, all-powerful CEO of The Conglomerate, by destroying one of his space platforms. 

Will the Doctor and Romana be able to avert inter-species war that will destroy all life on Earth?

Verdict  

The Sands of Life was a very good Fourth Doctor Adventure! It has been a long time coming for me to get back on track with the second series of this range and staggeringly it has been nine years now since I listened to the series opener of The Auntie Matter, but I now intend on completing the series consecutively following a Scribd free trial which has all of the stories. This one fits in nicely amongst the Season 16 Key to Time arc on television with the randomiser very much in play, but I liked that it wasn’t the focus here and we could get something that felt almost isolated for Romana I. It’s no secret that I much prefer her second incarnation, but it’s nice to expand on that singular television series for Mary Tamm’s incarnation. She does well here. Tom Baker is tremendous as the Fourth Doctor and I loved the confusion in the TARDIS with him referring to Romana as Leela and K9 as Sarah. He was almost regressing! Time slippage is a fun concept and I thought it was utilised well here. The threat of the Laan was on an incredible scale and the fact there were seven-and-a-half billion of them was frightening. It’s almost an unfathomable number and the revelation at the end that they were all returning to Earth for birthing was scary. We’d seen what one birth could do with the effect on Time, but the prospect of billions meant the very fabric of Time would be on an incredible wave. I thought the Conglomerate was a very strong organisation and its CEO in the form of Cuthbert provided us with a superb villain. I was really impressed with him and it was fun to hear David Warner get to play the bad guy as I’m just used to him being the Unbound Doctor now. He played it wonderfully well and made a really big impact. He was outspoken against the newly elected President of Earth, but he still tried to exert his influence on Moorkurk. He was quick to boast the importance of his company in helping economic and social policies, pointing out that despite a new woman in charge that nothing really changed. Politics really is just business and Cuthbert was exploiting that in a big way. I thought the three part format was unique and I had no idea prior to listening that it was this kind of duration. I knew it formed a story with the next release, so the part two cliffhanger was just how I figured things ended! It’s a good job I kept on listening past the end credits. The parrot in the TARDIS was amusing and I liked that Romana was the one in contact with the Laan telepathically. That was tried to be exploited which was to her detriment, but she was determined to get information about them rather than use brute force like General Vincent was trying. I’m not sure how I feel about this story being told over two releases, especially with a three parter here, but I’m intrigued to hear where things move from here with the Laan looking to be more of a focal threat now they’re within their sands and birthing is a real danger. Overall, a great story!

Rating: 8/10