The Sinister Sponge

"Stuck inside a cabbage!"

Writer: Paul Crompton 

Format: Short Story

Released: 1976

Printed in: The Amazing World of Doctor Who

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah, Harry

Synopsis 

The Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane and Harry arrive on Inscruta, a planet that the Doctor has previously visited. But things aren't as pleasant as the last time he was here and something sinister lurks in the clouds...

Verdict 

The Sinister Sponge was certainly an intriguing read, that is for sure. I was immediately drawn to the story's title and I think it just has to take the award for being the most ludicrous, ridiculous and obscure story title of all time! I believe it was originally printed in the 1976 Doctor Who Annual but as was the case yesterday with A Fresh Start, I was actually reading in The Amazing World of Doctor Who which houses a number of reprints, mostly from that aforementioned Annual. Whilst I'm in the same vicinity as my cousin, who luckily found the collection of stories at a local car boot sale, I'm going to make the most of the resource as I'm not sure if it will be here the next time I visit. That won't be far away but I'm not taking any chances! It's great that this collection will give me some more stories featuring Harry as companion as he always seems to be a Classic era companion that I seem to forget despite him appearing in such classics like The Sontaran Experiment and Genesis of the Daleks. I'm not sure why I become forgetful when it comes to his tenure in the TARDIS but despite him not being bad in the slightest, I think he just failed to make an impact. He never fully seemed to settle in when travelling with the Doctor which was a stark contrast to Sarah and that's why she became arguably the most popular companion of all time. She didn't feature much at all in this short story but when she did her relationship with Harry was great as always. I thought the characterisation of the Fourth Doctor could have been improved with Tom Baker's likeness not captured as effectively as it could have been. The artwork that accompanied the five pages of text that this story was comprised of was a little hit and miss to be honest. Things didn't always seem entirely relevant to the page on which they appeared and on the fourth page the artwork actually interfered with the reading of the text which was a big negative in the layout of the story. In saying that though, the story itself actually was pretty good and that's something I must admit I wasn't expecting with the story name. When I looked at the contents at the start of the page I just laughed at how absurd the story title was. Whoever could conjure up a Doctor Who story about a sponge? It's barmy but it somehow managed to just about work. The Doctor being reunited with Elkalor was very good and I liked how the natives of the planet were highly sensitive to sound. I liked that the women were not affected in the way that men were and that had allowed the wives of the people of Inscruta to take control of things. Sarah enjoyed that rather a lot but the Sponge that had caused this was rather apologetic. I can't believe I just typed that sentence but that's what had happened. We later learned that the Sponge creature had changed the atmosphere and in doing so had caused the male of the species to be greatly effected. The Doctor soon saw to an elixir to cure the disease and also would provide a way home for the Sponge. Overall, a pretty decent short story that had a good plot, quite a bit of humour and excitement but was also completely ridiculous! Just look at the story title and my opening quote to see that.

Rating: 7/10