The Nine: The Dreams of Avarice

"I so want to play football with it."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: June 2022

Series: Fourth Doctor Adventures 11.03

Featuring: Fourth Doctor

Synopsis

The Nine isn't your average robber. A ferociously intelligent and murderous kleptomaniac Time Lord regenerative dissonance, he's a far more dangerous adversary than most security details are used to. So it's useful that the Doctor is on hand to stop him.

This time more than ever – as the Nine is about to pull off the greatest heist of his criminal career. Though could the consequences be far worse than the crime?

Verdict

The Dreams of Avarice was a decent start to The Nine second half of the eleventh series of Fourth Doctor Adventures! It’s an interesting move to continue having the Fourth Doctor travelling solo and I quite like because we never really got to see that on television, with one notable exception in the form of The Deadly Assassin. That allowed a quite humorous relationship to fill the companion void for this story with Detective Probert proving to be a tremendous character. His interactions with the Doctor at the start of the story were magnificent and just so brilliantly typical of the Fourth Doctor. I could just see that annoying big smile of the Doctor as he was being interrogated for his attempted theft. His rationale was pretty fun in that he was hoping to steal it to prevent an actual thief from getting it first, and of course that wasn’t going to be something that would sit comfortably with a Detective Inspector. As far as Probert was concerned, the Doctor had been caught in the act and he’d actually prevented the theft! It was hard to argue with the law officer’s view of events. I think it’s fantastic for us to get a new adventure with the Nine and after hearing him cause chaos in Ravenous, I like that he encounters an altogether different Doctor here. He’s a kleptomaniac in the best way as a villain but I don’t think he was utilised all that well here which is baffling to say considering what happened. I can’t quite put my finger on a specific but something didn’t click. As my rating shows, this is far from bad and was a strong story, but considering the depth and scale of what happens it ought to have been better. The cliffhangers were strong but it never felt like the Nine had one specific goal. He went from removing the dimensional stabiliser from the Doctor’s TARDIS to then moving motive from attacking the Doctor to housing the planet of Luxuriana within a globe in his own hand. His comment about wanting to play football with it was tremendous and something that disgusted even Thana. She was a whacky character and the Nine referring to her as his possession felt a little wrong. I know he’s a Time Lord and obviously a dangerous and deranged one at that so he saw her as inferior on a species level, but it didn’t always come across that way. I was intrigued by the Doctor’s comments about the Nine and even here in his fourth incarnation he seems to have an extensive history with him. That’s exciting and leaves the door open for future releases with past incarnations of both Time Lords. The possibilities for this character are endless and that’s the beauty of him. You could literally use any number and make it brand new as we’ve mainly focused on Nine and Eleven so far! I feel like we aren’t even close to scratching the surface. His desire to have the Crystal God was exciting and I liked the concept behind that. The Nine not being satisfied despite capturing a planet was audacious to say the least, but why stop there when you can have a god? Of course, he wouldn’t get that and it would actually be part of his downfall which was a pretty good conclusion. It did seem a tad easy for the TARDIS to be close at hand and back to normal to take everybody away, but I did enjoy the humour that came from Probert planning to just give the Doctor a community sentence. I mean, he did retrieve a planet and put it back in its correct orbit! Overall, a decent story with a strong idea and villain, but there was just a little something missing to take it to the next level. 

Rating: 7/10