Hothouse

"He's turning people into Krynoids."

Writer: Jonathan Morris
Format: Audio
Released: April 2009
Series: EDA 3.02

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Lucie

Synopsis

Somewhere in the south of England stands the Hothouse. Five vast, state-of-the-art biodomes, all steel and glass. Inside, rock star turned environmental activist Alex Marlow has a plan to save the world from climate change. By any means necessary...

There's something growing inside the Hothouse. Something that could turn back humanity's tide. A voracious aline vegetable called the Krynoid. The Doctor's going to have to stop it. Stop Marlow. Stop Marlow's fanatical acolyte, Lucie Miller...

Save the world. By any means necessary.

Verdict

Hothouse was a very good story to get me back listening to the third series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures. It was no secret that the Krynoids would be making a return in this story, so I have held off for a while before rewatching their first story and I finally got around to that a few weeks ago. I found the continuity from The Vengeance of Morbius and Orbis quite interesting and I liked how the Doctor was still clearly displaying the effects of the events in those adventures. He didn't even know Lucie was supposed to come with him on his TARDIS travels at the end! That was a humorous moment, especially with the Doctor having forgot how to drive and the TARDIS so far away from their vicinity in the rainforest. The way the story started was slightly weird by having Lucie and Bright in almost reversed roles. I wasn't sure what was happening until the Doctor slipped her an access all areas pass and all became clear. I thought she was very good being undercover, but I do wish it was for slightly longer! I wasn't a massive fan of the Doctor's relationship with Bright and I much preferred her when she was turned on by Marlowe and became a test dummy for the Krynoid infection. This audio ending up being a sequel to The Seeds of Doom was magnificent and I liked how it was said that cuttings were used to facilitate the operations that were going on here. Operations that were gruesomely turning people into Krynoids. Alex Marlowe made a fantastic villain and his inability to see the truth about the Krynoids and what he was trying to achieve worked very well. He'd advanced the genetic process of the Krynoids this time around though and it meant that the evolutionary process was even quicker than normal! That would prove disastrous. I was quite surprised to find that the whole scheme of Marlowe's was designed to attract the Doctor because he'd read his file and knew that he may be the leading expert on the Krynoids. That was a revelation I certainly didn't see coming but I very much enjoyed it. When Bright was implanted with the Krynoids and began the turning process, her reaction to being able to hear the rainforest was wonderful and that was a concept I adored. I thought this story did really well in incorporating animal life into the story and how impactful and important they were to the Krynoid's ultimate mission of wiping out life of any kind on the planet. Stefan was a very good character while he lasted and it was quite harrowing to hear him practically begging for death when the Doctor revealed that he, and everyone else, was beyond saving. There would be no reversal of the process. Lucie being stuck in a cell with Bright was very good as she didn't seem all that fazed which was very good. The Krynoids all attempting to escape was intriguing and showed how desperate they were when every single one on a pretty large scale was attempting to get out of captivity. The constant battle between deciding the dominant form out of Krynoid and Mankind was excellent and I liked how Bright was able to showcase that the former didn't always have to be victorious. The use of temperature and sound to defeat the Krynoids and destroy all of them along with their pods worked well, if not perhaps a tad quick. There really does not seem any way back for the Krynoids in the future! One other positive I have to mention is the use of news reports. They can be hit and miss sometimes, but I found myself very intrigued by what was going on. Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith worked marvellously well together as the Doctor and Lucie and it was nice to see them getting close to back where they were in the first two series. I look forward to more of that moving forward. Overall, a very good audio adventure!

Rating: 8/10