The God of Phantoms

"We are all play things of the gods."

Writer: Philip Hinchcliffe (adapted by Marc Platt)

Format: Audio

Released: August 2021

Series: Philip Hinchcliffe Presents 04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Leela to a colony world in the distant future – but they are not the only visitors to this place. The people of this planet are seeing the ghosts of their lost friends and relatives. And the ghosts are stealing people. 

Trapped in the middle of an escalating conflict, the Doctor and Leela investigate the source of the spirits and find a diabolical machine, a terrible secret... and a foe long since forgotten.

Verdict

The God of Phantoms was a decent story to serve as the fourth series of the Philip Hinchcliffe Presents series for the Fourth Doctor and Leela! I thought this was a solid outing and it definitely had the feeling of the era in which it takes place, but it did go a tad too long. When every single part is longer than half an hour and there are six of them, this is going to take some discipline and concentration when it comes to keeping interest. It was good and the cliffhangers in particular were pretty strong to keep the interest and me wanting to listen to more, but it did feel like it was a long time coming to the somewhat predictable final part and what would happen. The atmosphere though was great throughout on the colony world with it being a place that felt scared. That was something that impressed me. I loved that we had a Time Lord Emissary contacting Leela regarding events in this story as that gave it something of a bigger picture. The Time Lords actually having a history with Flindor was intriguing and I liked the idea of them doing research on the all powerful Flindor as a God was terrific and his boastfulness when it came to his claim of having created himself was excellent. I wasn't wholly struck on the voice, but I do like playing with the idea of gods and deities. The God of Phantoms just sounds good and freaky and that title is no surprise given the story that happened. Its past with the Doctor was really good and I thought it was brilliant that the Doctor had defeated it previously, but the impact was so much that the Time Lords had to wipe his memory of the encounter. The Doctor himself was shocked by the occurrence, but not outraged much to my surprise. I thought it was a fun concept for the Doctor to have to take him on again and eventually we reached that point. Leela was great as the companion as always, and her having no hesitation in letting the Doctor know about her discussion with the Emissary was marvellous. I'm so glad she did not keep the secret because why wouldn't she want the Doctor to know? The cliffhangers were good and I particularly loved the moment where it appeared the Doctor's death was confirmed. Hearing that godly voice proclaim itself as the Doctor from Gallifrey meaning he was dead put a smile on my face. How would you come back from death? Leela thinking she was dead during the story was fun stuff too. I thought Hookham was a fine character and his believing himself to be Flindor worked well. It obviously went much further than that by the end though as the god consumed. I thought the comment from Leela about both settlements worshipping the same god but fighting was great because what were they actually in a disagreement over? It was a more than reasonable question! She felt a lot more mature in the story and with the horror theme and enigmatic atmosphere, there was definitely much less humour and comedic value to her character in the companion role. I don't think that hurt things much, but it would have been welcomed to get a little more light relief. Especially given the length of the story! The inclusion of the relic as the Gallifreyan device that saw Flindor's creation was decent and made sense with the Emissary's presence. The Commune were a strong factor in the story and I do think the way things conclude is pretty good and worthy of the build. Overall, a really atmospheric story and some good stuff from the Doctor and Leela, but I think this just went a bit too long to reach a higher rating. I can't fault it too much other than though. A good listen! 

Rating: 7/10