Night of the Vashta Nerada

"The night came alive. The darkness that devours."

Writer: John Dorney
Format: Audio
Released: July 2017
Series: Classic Doctors, New Monsters 2.01

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis

Funworld was set to be the happiest planet in the galaxy. A planet of joy, of euphoria, of laughter and delight. Except construction was marred by reports of a predator and then, a few days before opening, all communications ceased.

Owner Georgia Donnelly is desperate to open the resort and has hired Amanda Steele's crew to find out what happened on the planet. They're the best. But even they might not be up to the task.

Joined by the Doctor and being picked off one by one, they slowly start to realise that something terrifying lurks in the shadows.

Verdict

Night of the Vashta Nerada was an excellent audio adventure and a terrific way to kick off the second series of Classic Doctors, New Monsters! I love the concept of this boxset and after a pretty strong first series I was very eager to begin series two. This time around we hear the Fourth Doctor encounter a monster that we first saw in the new series and an obvious choice for this boxset was certainly the Vashta Nerada. What I liked about this story that differed from those in the first series was that this seemed to be the Doctor's first encounter with the deadly foe. That didn't happen last time around but with only past knowledge being mentioned, this was the first time the Doctor had tackled the Vashta Nerada. And I really enjoyed that. It was intriguing to note that they were only hunting the humanity in this story because they had been provoked by the building of Funworld. Previously a forest planet, Georgia Donnelly had come and wiped out an entire ecosystem and replaced it with a funfair. The Doctor's thoughts about that were good because he wasn't best pleased. This story seemed to take place shortly after The Hand of Fear which is a good placement with the lack of companions in this series and I liked how it was referenced. There were some expected similarities to Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead but this definitely did have a fresh feel as well. Amanda Steele was an interesting character and her refusal to do what the Doctor asked of her on this planet was frustrating. But she was adamant that she would get her prey. Little did she know that she was the one who would end up being hunted and feasted upon. Phelan was a wonderful character and I loved how the Doctor offered her the chance to travel with him. He could see that she didn't want to be there but she owed her life to Steele so she was willing to help. Her psychic ability and how she could interact with the dead's memories was intriguing and her death was extremely emotional. The same could be said of Grosta. He was made of stone but that didn't hinder the Vashta Nerada from wanting to tear him apart. The idea of the Vashta Nerada not being seen until they came together as a swarm was brilliant and it just really reminded you of how deadly and efficient a hunter they really are. They wanted revenge and that was rather frightening. The ending was again emotional with Amanda sacrificing herself and using some kind of Sontaran poison to wipe them out. She poisoned herself and once the Vashta Nerada swarmed on her, she took them with her. The Doctor commenting to himself 'Ah well" when he hadn't managed to save anyone was quite a shock but as a whole, this was a superb story. A strong opening to the series!

Rating: 9/10