Destroy the Infinite

"What can be so powerful that it makes a man forget the people that he loves?"

Writer: Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: June 2014

Series: FDA 3.06

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

The colony planet Delafoss is occupied by the army of a rapacious alien force known only as the Eminence. These slave armies of terrified humans are commanded by the dreaded Infinite Warriors - impervious to most forms of firepower, voices like icy death.

The Doctor and Leela arrive expecting to find Earth's most successful, unspoiled colony. Instead, they are confronted by a planet choked by industrialisation. And at the heart of if all, the construction of something that the Eminence intends will wipe out all human resistance once and for all.

For the first time in his life, the Doctor confronts the Eminence... and things will never be quite the same again. 

Verdict 

Destroy the Infinite was an excellent audio adventure and quickly became my favourite Fourth Doctor Adventure of the series! The only other two stories I've listened to from this third series are The Evil One and Zygon Hunt, both of which were very good, but this story had something extra and it was rather refreshing to have a new authoritative enemy. The Eminence were superb enemies and I can clearly see why they've been used on more than one occasion in stories I'm yet to explore. I understand they play quite a big role in Dark Eyes 2 with the Eighth Doctor and they also encounter the Sixth Doctor! It's good that their return was left wide open by this story yet they still seemed defeated. I loved the monstrous agression they carried in their voices. Despite them being gaseous entities, they were pretty ferocious! The description of them being some sort of mist was good and I liked how the Doctor quickly jumped to the assumption that they also used a highly advanced teleport system. The Doctor and Leela's arrival to Delafoss was magnificent with the former promising the latter one of the most impressive human colonies in the galaxy. But instead they were both horrified to find a society that had become overrun by industrialisation. I loved how Leela recognised that this would cause the destruction of the planet in the long term, echoing the current problem of global warming. The relationship between Leela and Davent was lovely and I liked how the latter immediately took a shining to the companion. I'm sure it had nothing to do with that rather revealing primitive savage attire she was wearing? Of course not. The references to The Face of Evil were nicely placed and I loved Leela's use of the janis thorn despite the Doctor's disliking. I'm sure he's rather thankful now though in that it saved his life! Tillegat and Sarla were terrific characters and I liked the humour at the door upon first meeting the Doctor and Leela. Their deaths, particularly Sarla's, were extremely shocking though and added a lot to the Eminence and their Infinite Warriors. The plot is pretty much explained in the story's title and I liked the ways that this was attempted. Leela taking command of her end of the stick, thousands of miles away from the Doctor, was splendid. I liked the similarities to The Invasion of Time with the Fourth Doctor pretending to be on the side of the enemy. His way of avoiding the breath of forever engulfing him was great - the respiratory bypass system of course! I was intrigued that the Eminence would accept as supreme commander so easily due to his vast knowledge and that they'd dawned him the ancient one. But he was one step ahead. He'd seen a horrific vision of the future and was determined to stop it from ever happening. He couldn't allow the Eminence to reside over the entire galaxy and beyond. With a lot of help from Leela, the Infinite had been destroyed and for now the Eminence were kept at bay. However, the Doctor wasn't in a celebratory mood. He still knew that the Eminence were out there but I got the feeling he knew they'd meet again and prevent the vision he saw from ever coming true. The closing conversation between the Doctor and Leela was beautiful and it was clear that the two were growing ever fond of each other. They really are great friends and that's brilliant to see in a Doctor-companion relationship. 

Rating: 9/10