An Ideal World

"You're a process, madam."

Writer: Ian Potter

Format: Audio

Released: October 2018

Series: Early Adventures 5.02

Featuring: First Doctor, Vicki, Steven

Synopsis 

Light years from Earth, a vast human spaceship hangs in orbit over a cloudy alien planet. The crew have been travelling in cryosleep for many years, looking for a habitable world to settle, and have at last located one with potential. 

However, they're not the only people to have arrived in this place. The TARDIS has landed on the planet's surface. The Doctor, Steven and Vicki explore and quickly find themselves separated. 

But it isn't merely the hostile environment and rogue terraforming drones they'll have to deal with. Somethign else is living on this world. Something deadly and waiting to consume. 

It's an ideal world. But ideal for whom?

Verdict

An Ideal World was a great Early Adventures story! It's been a while since I listened to the excellent series opener of The Dalek Occupation of Winter, but I love the idea of this fifth series being like a continuous series of the 1960s somewhere between Season 2 and 3. It's easy to forget that we actually only got a few on screen adventures with this TARDIS trio so to extend their journey together here was most welcomed. I thought the basis of the story was very good and I loved the disagreements at the start with Vicki being convinced that they had landed on Earth. That was far from the truth though as the Doctor pointed out they were trillions of miles away, so naturally they would encounter some colonists with claims to T19. The concept behind that planet was fascinating and how it developed from initially being one home to smaller species and the Doctor, Vicki and Steven actually causing harm to it rather than the other way round which is usually typical of Doctor Who stories, and then to being all one linked ecosystem. It was one mind and that was something Kay was keen to exploit and explore. The way the story echoed its era was fantastic as the Doctor was written out for a lot of the story with the way he was infected. That was strong stuff and much of the third part focusing on scientific experiments with both Vicki and Steven's blood to find something to fight off the infection in the Doctor's blood was terrific. I liked how it was loosely acknowledged that the Doctor's blood was different without dipping too much into Time Lord folklore that hadn't been established at this point in the era. It was delicately done and I appreciated that. Learning that both Steven and Vicki had nano machinery within their blood was really intriguing to touch upon the future of mankind, and it was fun to leave ambiguous whose blood was more advanced. Steven being willing to give his blood to help the Doctor when it was one of his technocytes that developed to fight the infection but not the Doctor himself was terrific. It was a really nice moment of potential sacrifice. Heathcote was a really strong character in the story and his determination to help save the Doctor was more than admirable! He worked extensively to find the right technocyte and I liked how the Doctor was thankful when he eventually came around, but humorously told Steven he should be more careful with how he places his blood amid the risk of infection! Glorious. The Doctor showing no remorse towards Kay for the supposed good she was doing was really good and I do wonder if there will be any conflict going into the next story after Vicki and Steven disagreed with his actions towards her. That was a fun dynamic at the end! I liked how the Doctor made a reference to The Rescue when it came to human colonists and Vicki was quick to retort back that he didn't have the full picture. Traherne was another decent character in the story and her being quick to blame Steven for the terraforming. She was important in helping save the Doctor and Vicki though as they'd found an air hole but didn't have much time left with oxygen. The Doctor using a stream to send the pair into the cave was also quite the image! Overall, a really intriguing story that was perhaps slightly too long and the cliffhangers didn't have much of an impact other than the final one with the TARDIS getting wrapped up in something, but still a terrific listen! 

Rating: 8/10