The Juggernauts

"You have not been rescued, Doctor. You have been recruited."

Writer: Scott Allan Woodard 

Format: Audio

Released: January 2005

Series: Main Range 65

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Mel

Synopsis 

In a small mining colony on the dark distant planet of Lethe, strange events are occurring - the results of which could dramatically affect things on a universal scale. For within the dingy corridors of the artificial biosphere, the lone survivor of a devastating crash has expertly wormed his way into the lives of the colony's personnel.

A scientist known as Davros.

Separated from one another across space and time, the Doctor and Mel find themselves in very different predicaments: Mel has been employed on Lethe, while the Doctor has been imprisoned aboard an alien spacecraft. Both situations are inexorably linked, however, and at the apex of the two sits Davros and the terrifying possibility of a new threat even more powerful than the Daleks!

Rescuing Mel and stopping Davros should be the Doctor's primary goals, but could it be that this time, Mel does not wish to be rescued? And might Davros actually be working on something for the benefit of the civilised galaxies...?

Verdict 

The Juggernauts was a very good audio adventure and saw me return to my blogging of the Main Range audios from Big Finish. After the cliffhanger finish of The Next Life with the Eighth Doctor returning from the Divergent Universe to a welcoming party of Davros and the Daleks, I was a little surprised with the scheduling as we got a story featuring them immediately, but instead with the Sixth Doctor! I was surprised by that because it meant that Davros featured in two consecutive audio stories that were completely unrelated. I liked how this followed Revelation of the Daleks and explained how Davros escaped capture following his departure from Necros. The theme of this story wasn't too dissimilar to that though as we had the insane creator of the Daleks once again harnessing human body parts, only this time it was for the Mechanoids! Now, if I was thinking of past enemies and monsters from the show's past, the Mechanoids wouldn't be anywhere near the top of the list of whom I'd expect to return. They of course featured alongside the Daleks once before in The Chase which the Doctor neatly referenced and I was quite surprised that the Daleks foresaw them as a threat to their existence. Davros was working towards the destruction of the Daleks and somehow that ended up with the Doctor working for his most deadly and hated enemies. I really thought Mel was terrific in this story and she hasn't appeared in as many audios as I'd have liked during the 65 story run that I've so far blogged of the Main Range. She didn't get a lengthy runout on screen so hearing her in the audios is just brilliant. Bonnie Langford is wonderful and really brings her character back to life in a tremendous way. Her relationship with Geoff was interesting and I liked the simplicity in the way she kissed him. She really could see herself being more than friends and even giving her travels with the Doctor up to be with him. Her period on Lethe was good and I liked how she came into her own after spending three months without the Doctor. She was delighted with his arrival though, even if she wholeheartedly disagreed with his take on her beloved Professor. That actually turned out to be Davros in a well hidden disguise and I liked how he had everybody fooled. I was reading DocOho's review on this story prior to blogging and I must say that comparing Davros to Hitler really is absolutely spot on. He's insane, possessed and just downright evil. He was trying to kill his creation and was going to some extraordinary lengths to do it. Mel questioning why the Doctor hasn't defeated the Daleks and Davros once and for all was quite a challenging position for the Doctor to be put in and he was painfully reminded of that fateful decision he made in Genesis of the Daleks by deciding not to kill the Daleks before they were born. I thought the pace of the audio was good and started fast which I like and although the cliffhangers weren't exactly brilliant, the story as a whole was very good. I question the motives of Davros but the way he was apparently murdered at the orders of Mel was quite incredible. It might go some way to explaining his state in Remembrance of the Daleks which is good. Overall, a very good audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10