The Planet of Witches

"The light of reason is dying."

Writer: Alan Barnes

Format: Audio

Released: February 2020

Series: Fourth Doctor Adventures 9.03

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, Adric, K9

Synopsis

Whilst attempting a detailed scan of E-Space, K9 detects the trail of a large spacecraft. Seeking a lead for their escape, the Doctor sets out on its trail towards a misty yellow planet.

Arriving just in time to witness a crash-landing in the planet's swamps, the Doctor and his crew discover a number of escaping prisoners fleeing from someone claiming to be a Witchfinder... whilst terrifying 'familiars' float around them.

For this is the planet f the witches... and the witches may just know the way home.

Verdict

The Planet of Witches was a very good story to kick off the second volume of the ninth series of Fourth Doctor Adventures! I thought this boxset kicked off very well with a fun and intriguing little tale. I loved the idea of K9 trying map E-Space and give the TARDIS some aid in getting back to N-Space, and they got pretty darn close to a CVE here. The humour that came with Adric's concerns about the food machine not working was actually quite serious and it was intriguing to know that they were still reliant on it. Brilliant continuity. Anjilis was a terrific character and I really liked her pairing with Tanhar, as well as her initial position with Inga on the crashing ship where witches were present and magic took place. I was really impressed with how this adventure took the medieval nature of a witch story and applied it on a cosmic scale. Where they made planetfall was an eery setting with swamps and a yellow mist providing a telling atmosphere. I liked how the Doctor and company witness the crash landing and hearing from the passengers within and their challenge of staying onboard or jumping was excellent action. They inevitably met up with the TARDIS quartet and K9 in particular had a fun outing on the differing land masses to navigate across. Romana's reaction to having to carry him was terrific. I thought the first cliffhanger of the Wicker Men arrival was pretty weak as they didn't have much bearing on the long term direction of the story, and the focus was rightly on the witches. Raxxil being a Finder was very good stuff and I liked how that was taken onto an interstellar track. Explaining the magic through scientific lingo like teleport and graviton beams was really fun, but not as fun as Adric being designated as an A-class brain whilst the Doctor was D-class! That was nicely done. The Moirai was excellent and a little bit of a weird concept but the moment they were revealed as androids and serving Tiresias with the same outer skin was chilling. I thought Crone made for a good villain and her developing into Smite was well done, and I found the concept of the brain patch to limit intelligence very odd but quite funky and worked for this type of story. Her role in the second cliffhanger and the apparent death of K9 was superb as he was shot and thrown beneath the swamp. The emergence of Tiresias was good and I liked how he repaired K9 but the cost was the robot dog becoming part of the neural pathway. Smite's position as leader of the Knights of the Fire was good and I liked how she wanted to head heavenward to N-Space. Tiresias being built on Earth was a good revelation and the potential of him having the CVE location and needing the TARDIS as safe passage meant quite the bargain was had. Romana struggling with the Malevolentity and the whole religious aspect of Smite's belief was terrific, but for me the highlight was the conclusion where the Doctor thought he was in cahoots with K9 regarding the coordinates of the CVE being wiped from his memory, but when he got back to the TARDIS and wanted them retrieved, K9 had wiped them anyway! That was tremendous stuff. I thought Tiresias blowing up Smite and not being trusted was a fitting end to tie things up, and the Doctor sacrificing the CVE location unbeknownst was just marvellous. Overall, a strong opener! 

Rating: 8/10