The Children of Seth

"Tradition is no longer a right."

Writers: Christopher Bailey & Marc Platt

Format: Audio

Released: December 2011

Series: Lost Stories 3.03

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis

During one of Nyssa's experiments, the TARDIS's temporal scanner picks up a message: 'Idra'. Just one word, but enough to draw the Doctor to the Archipelago of Sirius. 

There, the Autarch is about to announce a new crusade. A mighty war against Seth, Prince of the Dark...

But who is Seth? What is the secret of Queen Anahita, Mistress of the Poisons? And what terror awaits on Level 14?

Verdict

The Children of Seth was not the greatest of Lost Stories audio adventures. For whatever reason, I just couldn't take to liking this story for the most part which was a shame as the first two stories within the third series of the Lost Stories range were very good. Sadly the loose trilogy didn't end on a high for my liking. I actually enjoyed the start with Nyssa experimenting in the TARDIS and I really think there could have and should have been longer. She has gone through a lot recently with the events of The Elite and Hexagora so seeing her on the repair here was really nice. Unfortunately, what followed wasn't to my enjoyment as things were very slow from the off despite not fleshing out the society of the Archipelago of Sirius in any way in my opinion. With the summoning from the mysterious Idra, it felt like this was a sequel of sorts and whilst it was clear that the Doctor had been involved there previously, there wasn't enough fleshing out of that previous adventure for me. Anahita as the Queen was somewhat decent and she was a good character for the most part with her relationship with Tegan being a particular highlight. Her history with the Doctor should have been alluded to more and it was clear that the Doctor wasn't in his current incarnation when that meeting took place, so I was a little surprised that she recognised him despite the change of appearance. The religious theme in the story was average and Anahita's book didn't seem to be as important as its role made out it was. The Doctor being given one on his last visit just seemed a bit too convenient and whilst I did like that all of the other books had been burned, it being banned and burned didn't seem logical if Anahita remained Queen. The whole revelation that Seth was just an idea seemed a bit of a let down for me because everything seemed to be building towards him. I didn't understand why Byzan continued with the same name from the Queen's theory as that just seemed incredibly lazy and really was a source of frustration for me. I thought it was a good dynamic to have the Fifth Doctor and Tegan together for most of the story given their testy relationship and that also allowed Nyssa to go off on her own where she can often shine. I liked that she was subjected to a memory wipe and the dream reality, if that's what it could be called, went on too long for me and there really should have been a lot more focus on Nyssa thinking she was the Doctor. That could have been really great but we didn't get her in much action which was a shame. I also thought Tegan's ability to talk her back into remembering her true identity as Nyssa was far too easy. It just wasn't believable for me given that we had listened to two hours almost of her forgetting herself! Shamur was an okay character and I liked his role in the story for the most part, but that echoing and booming did go on a bit by the end! I didn't think the cliffhangers were overly exciting and they didn't really have me wanting to get the next part on straight away. That's a big negative in my eyes. I have certainly focused more on the negatives with this audio, but for me that rating is very low! All of the performances were to a high standard but sadly this was a story I just couldn't get behind. 

Rating: 5/10