Phantoms of the Deep

"You're not alone down here."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: April 2013

Series: Fourth Doctor Adventures 2.05

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana I, K9

Synopsis 

On their mission to explore the Mariana Trench at the very bottom of the ocean, the deepest and most inhospitable place on Earth, the crew of the deep sea vehicle Erebus make an unusual and startling discovery.

A battered blue police box.

As the Doctor, Romana and K9 join them on their journey, the submariners soon discover that the TARDIS is not the only unusual find lurking on the sea floor. 

Super-intelligent squid, long-lost submarines and their miraculous occupants are only the start of their troubles. The Goblins are coming. And they won't let anyone out alive.

Verdict 

Phantoms of the Deep was an excellent episode to continue the second series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures! This was a really thrilling story  that had me captivated from start to finish. It was fun to start with Romana not exactly being thrilled that the TARDIS had landed on Earth once again and I mean she did have a point when it came to supposedly using the randomiser to keep off the track of the Black Guardian. It wasn’t entirely believable but at least this time around they weren’t landing on the planet’s surface. The TARDIS being found under a pressure of ten atmospheres and some eleven kilometres below the surface in the Pacific Ocean was excellent because that felt so dangerous. It’s obviously topical news at the moment with the recent implosion of the Titan on its voyage to the wreckage of the Titanic, so the threat of water pressure that deep was palpable. I always feel that real life natural threats like this one carry more weight and when Romana and Terri were ejected by the possessed K9 for the cliffhanger I was certainly shocked! I know that Romana and K9’s adventures do go on but that was superb and left me wondering just how they were going to survive. It was really impactful and certainly did leave them in a helpless position which I enjoyed. I thought the crew of the Erebus were fantastic and the reaction when they saw the police box hut exterior of the TARDIS in the water depths was tremendous. Of all the things to find! The crew seemed to think they were hallucinating with the Doctor and Romana emerging, but that was not the case. They weren’t having a shared hallucination. I thought the near future setting of 2040 was excellent and felt futuristic with the technology of the sub but also not so removed from our time. Radio communication was still a thing so that was nice to keep simple. Patricia was a tremendous character as a marine biologist and I liked her relationship with the Doctor. She was handy in explaining the situation and the science behind the submarine and pressure of the water which is almost unfathomable. Even Romana was quite admiring of the technological advancement for a level five planet. The discovery of Jack Hodges was really good and whilst the saviour of an air pocket was more than feasible, it keeping him alive for a century was not! That was a strong revelation and he was very shocked to find how much time had passed since the ship went down, as you might expect! I thought the goblin phantoms were an intriguing element of the story too and it fitted the loose horror theme for them to be the remains of those who sunk with the ship back during World War Two. The scale of the story there was brilliant with the passage of time proving pivotal. It was lovely to have K9 repaired and I liked the continuity with War of the Laan to have him back in action now. His ability to translate the logical communication of the squids was terrific and instantly showed his value. I love having the little robot dog around because he does offer so much. Maybe a bit more humour would have been beneficial here though? The squids helping the Doctor to save himself from the immense pressure of the ocean was great and I thoroughly enjoyed the community effort in ridding their minds of the phantoms, as they simply were just illusions. Overall, a fantastic episode!

Rating: 9/10