The Hexford Invasion

"The aliens are coming!"

Writer: Paul Magrs

Format: Audio

Released: December 2011

Series: Serpent Crest 04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Mrs Wibbsey

Synopsis 

It's been many months since the Doctor was in Hexford, and Mrs Wibbsey keenly feels his absence. As her grave suspicions about her new neighbour grow, she is in danger of becoming ostracised from village life. When Mike Yates turns up at Nest Cottage with a visitor in tow, Mrs Wibbsey's life is turned even further upside down. Why has this strange new fellow appeared – and can he really be who Mike thinks he is?

With UNIT watching the skies, and a strange forest growing daily around the village perimeter, it comes as little surprise when an enormous spaceship slides into view and dominates the skyline. Who is watching Hexford, and what do they want? Never has Mrs Wibbsey needed the Doctor more. But can she cope with two...?

Verdict 

The Hexford Invasion was another great episode to continue my way through the Serpent’s Crest third anthology within the Nest Cottage Chronicles! This was not the follow on I was expecting to how things finished in Aladdin Time with the Doctor leaving Mrs Wibbsey to her own devices in Hexford, because it turned out he’d been gone nine months now! That was a big surprise and whilst it’s no shock that the Doctor got his timings wrong, I felt quite bad for Mrs Wibbsey! I thought it was great to have her as the narrator though and it seemed to add some authenticity to things which might have been missing in the past couple of episodes in this series. This story also saw a welcomed return for Captain Mike Yates! I must admit I wasn’t expecting to hear from him again this series so that was a really nice treat. He came with important business to Wibbsey though as Nest Cottage was being commandeered by UNIT! Wibbsey didn’t really have any time to question that and her reaction to the Doctor being there, but not the one she was expecting, was marvellous. It was such a treat to have the Second Doctor appear on the scene at the door. It was a brilliant surprise and whilst it played out in the episode that he wasn’t necessarily the true article, it was a delight whilst we thought it was. The reaction of the Fourth Doctor when he was told his second self was around was excellent. He even provided a completely valid and feasible explanation for why he might not remember the events from his second incarnation’s perspective because of all of the Time Lord involvement post-The War Games in erasing and altering his memories. I thought that was pretty excellent. It soon became clear the Second Doctor wasn’t who he said he was with his private outburst towards Wibbsey about her only being a housekeeper. That took her aback and it made me do a double take as a listener! I couldn’t believe it and I knew it just couldn’t possibly be the true Second Doctor. The in-story duration lasting over a fortnight was good and a fine use of scale which allowed time for the imposter Second Doctor to be building a perimeter with the planting of trees. I liked the emergence of the spaceship and it bearing the Skishtari crest of the serpent and the entire area was now cut off. No signals were getting in or out and that helped explain why no journalists were coming to report on the situation. That was a good point to make. The arrival of the Skishtari was strong and a fine way to setup the finale. They were looking for something, and it was pretty obvious that this was going to be their egg that was buried 150 years previously. Still, Hexford was essentially being taken and Yates and company were transported with it with the Doctor and Wibbsey left behind to now take the fight. Overall, a strong episode!

Rating: 8/10