Exotron

"Why won't you obey?"

Writer: Paul Sutton
Format: Audio
Released: May 2007
Series: Main Range 95

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

'The Farokosh attack us - and my Exotrons defend us.'

On a distant colonial outpost of Earth, a group of terraformers is under threat from the planet's most fearsome predator: the giant carnivorous Farakosh. All that stands between the colonists and a grisly death are the Exotrons - huge robots equipped with devastating firepower, designed by the outpost's leader, Major Taylor.

But all is not as it seems. How are the Exotrons controlled, and where did the colonists find the resources to build them? The Doctor wants answers and Taylor is reluctant to provide them.

Meanwhile, outside the compound, the Farakosh are massing...

Verdict

Exotron was a very good audio adventure and quite an emotional story. It was another three-parter from the Main Range which is something I'm still not quite sure about but the format still works, it's just very different and also rather weird having two different stories as part of one release. I'm not sure if blogging them separately works but I think that's what I'm going to continue to do for now. Whether I do that for 100 or not remains to be seen. Anyway, onto the story and it paired the rare team of the Fifth Doctor and Peri for the first time since Red Dawn which really does seem an age ago now. I must admit I did miss Erimem but they do work well together and it's great to get a rare glimpse at what happened between Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani. I thought Peter Davison was excellent as the Doctor here and his relationship with Taylor really was one of the audio's highlights. They didn't get on at all and once the Doctor found out the truth about the Exotrons, their relationship only soured further. The conflicting interests between the Exotrons and the Farakosh was intriguing and I loved the telepathic theme that the story possessed. The former actually being wounded soldiers in perpetual agony was quite a shock as it really did just seem that they were robots. To find out they weren't was horrifying and I liked how that led us to learning more about the Farakosh, discovering that they were actually natural telepaths. The Exotrons tormenting them with their telepathy by interfering in their net explained quite a lot about what had happened before that revelation which was good and I also liked how Kucha managed to make contact. Paula was a wonderful character and I really enjoyed her relationship with Peri. That was another highlight but she also brought an emotional factor to the story with her past with both Hector and Christian. The cliffhangers were pretty decent but, even though I'm not sure why, they didn't seem as important in this adventure which was actually rather weird. Maybe I've been doing too many one hour stories! The conclusion was good and I thought it was good that Christian and Paula got to see each other one last time. There was a lot of emotion there which was a nice touch. Overall, a very decent audio story!

Rating: 8/10