Mission of the Viyrans

"You are patient zero."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs
Format: Audio
Released: November 2007
Series: Main Range 102b

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

The Doctor and Peri take a holiday on the planet Gralista Social, but soon discover they aren't the only time-travelling aliens in town.

Verdict

Mission of the Viyrans was a decent story to conclude the 102nd release from Big Finish's Main Range and finally sees the three-part/one-part format of releases come to a much needed end. It seems weird to me that when trying something new, Big Finish did so in such quick quantity and I think they should have just tested the grounds first instead of the majority of the past ten or so releases being in this format. I haven't liked it despite the quality of story that has accompanied it and I'll now be very glad for it to come to a close. This story was a little bit of a weird one and I thought it was quite intriguing for the story to alternate between the time frames in which things occurred. There was the arrival of the TARDIS which we heard around halfway through the story and I liked the comments about the name of Gralista Social, the planet on which they had arrived. The Doctor didn't actually feature that much but he was once again suffering from something of a memory loss and he was quite sure that the party he and Peri had attended the previous night had actually been somewhat later than that. Peri was the firm focus of this story as she was the one that had been infected by the virus that she thought was actually just a fly. The Doctor disregarded it but that would prove to be quite fatal. The Viyrans were an interesting race and I thought the post-credits scene was very good in explaining just why the Viyrans were experimenting on Peri and her memory. If it hadn't been for that scene, I think the story would have got a slightly lower rating, but thankfully that somewhat saved things. The idea of the Viyrans being a race concerned with covering up their mistakes and eradicating any of the memory that came with it was pretty good but I thought their methods were a little boring. For a Doctor Who story, it needed a bit more oomph and action but I did think the dialogue between the Viyrans and Peri was good. I was quite surprised by this story seemingly taking place after the departure of Erimem, which was hinted at in The Mind's Eye, and Peri was certainly feeling the effects of it. I look forward to hearing her departure and it seems that it is quite imminent. Overall, a decent story!

Rating: 7/10