Defender of the Earth: The Thing in the Forest

"It's the perfect killing organism."

Writer: Trevor Baxendale

Format: Audio

Released: November 2023

Series: Tenth Doctor Chronicles 2.01

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

Norway, 1943. Resistance fighter Ilsa Johansen was sent to locate a British agent. Instead, she stumbles across the Doctor. Pursued through the woods by enemy forces, it'll take all their cunning to survive.

But it isn't just the Nazis that are hunting them. Something else stalks the forest. Something that could change the course of the war forever.

Verdict

The Thing in the Forest was a great start to the Defender of the Earth second series of Tenth Doctor Chronicles! This series has been a long time coming as with the knowledge of it being recorded during lockdown in 2020, that feels like an awfully long time ago. It’s also been quite a while since the last instalment of the Chronicles range with any Doctor, so this is a welcomed return. Even though we don’t have David Tennant featuring, it’s a real treat to be getting more Tenth Doctor stories. Jacob Dudman does a more than decent job as the Tenth Doctor but it’s a difficult role to live up to, especially when his impression of the two successors is considerably better. That’s not to say that the one here was bad by any means, but I wouldn’t describe it as uncanny. I like the umbrella title for this series as it’s a fine description of the Doctor in any incarnation, but this one in particular seems the most associated with Earth. I liked that the TARDIS dematerialisation was heard by Ilsa who turned out to be a strong character filling the companion role as this episode was firmly set somewhere in the gap we saw during the 2009 Specials. A companionless Doctor has a lot of potential as there’s not many restrictions in continuity, but I never got the impression that Ilsa would be sticking around long term. She was good though and the Doctor being mistaken as the British agent she was looking for was fun stuff. The use of the TARDIS translation circuits was a nice touch too and Ilsa couldn’t help but think he was a spy given how fluent he was in the likes of English, Norwegian and French. I thought that was an astute observation to be honest! I liked the relationship that was built and the tension that came when Isla and the Doctor stumbled upon the actual agent she was supposed to meet was really good. It seemed the Doctor was going to be in a bit of trouble there, but Ilsa didn’t carry much of a threat. They soon combined together when the alien noise was heard in the forest and the title soon made sense. I thought the Droaga (who knows if that’s the correct spelling!) was an interesting threat although I was immediately sold on it being not of this world. That did come later as the original crashed airman was knowledgeable on it. The humour that came from the Doctor quickly shunting down any potential of it being from Mars or Jupiter was delightful, but the secrecy needed to stop if the Doctor was to help. That was some good turmoil audibly evident in the airman. He did reveal the use of radio control to keep the alien creature under command and the Doctor soon soured when he learned about that. The Droaga was alien but that didn’t mean it was evil and all evidence seemed to indicate it was just looking to find a route home. That was quite sad but something that’s happened far too often. Torture through the control device sent the Doctor into action and it was quickly worked on to free that and revert the forest to normality. Overall, a very strong start to the series with a more than enjoyable fifty minutes or so. 

Rating: 8/10