Doctor Who and the Pescatons

"Fish who can build a spacecraft and fly off to other planets."

Writer: Victor Pemberton

Format: Audio

Released: July 1976

Series: Radio Play 01

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane

Synopsis

The Fourth Doctor and his companion Sarah battle against some of the most heinous foes to emerge from the outer universe: The Pescatons. The Doctor finds himself in the capital city of London, where the popultion is bewildered and trembling beneath the violent onslaught of a merciless invader. 

Who or what is the mighty Zor, whose green slanting luminous eyes glare out from the dark of night like giant emeralds? What is the powerful alien force that is bringing Earth's civilisation to a standstill, threatening to annihilate everything in its path?

This is the story of a dying Planet, of a Deadly Weed, and the merciless Creatures themselves. It is a Challenge to the Doctor – a frightening race against time...

Verdict

Doctor Who and the Pescatons was a bang average audio adventure, but one of those that feels like a privilege to listen to given that it's nearly five decades now since it was first released! I've known about the existence of it for a long time now as it's fair to say that it has a reputation amongst fandom and I've even read the novelisation over a decade ago, but it was delightful to actually dive into a Classic era audio that was released during the peak of the television run for the Doctor and companion that feature. It's a weird quirk but I can remember the exact train journey where I read the novelisation but I'd be lying if I said I remembered a huge amount of the book's details! So in that regard it did largely feel like a new story which is a good thing, especially as the audio came before the novelisation. It was wonderful to hear both Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen in their prime taking on the roles of the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith for audio, but it's clear that this is one of the first efforts from Doctor Who in doing the audio format. I think the decision to have a lot of narration is a flawed one and that made the story very descriptive which I don't think was beneficial at all. When we have basically a full cast adventure, that amount of narration should not have been necessary. Sure, it was good to have things from the perspective of the Doctor as that's actually quite rare but it just became overboard. After reading the novelisation, I was pretty surprised to find that this story was barely forty-five minutes long. It's clear that it's trying to be a two-parter in the vain of an on-screen serial and we had a decent cliffhanger to boot, but the very concept of the Pescatons is just a bit meh. It doesn't strike me as the best design and it certainly feels more tailored to a younger audience. That's not anything I have a problem with as I'm sure the story was catered more for the young fans, but for me personally it just wasn't it. Their being somewhere of a cross between fish and humans sounded fascinating but I'm not sure it actually was. It's barmy and ludicrous which is fun in its audacity, but it doesn't feel like a heinous foe as the synopsis describes! I'm not the biggest fan of when the Doctor has an unseen or unheard history with somebody important in the story and that's the case here with Zor as the leader of the Pescaton pack. I think the reliance of the rest of then species on him is good but it did make the resolution incredibly predictable which isn't the best! The scale and speed of the Pescaton invasion was unexpected and I think the incidental music could have been a little more impactful in selling the desperation of the situation. It was planet wide! I think the nature of the Doctor's narration meant there was little for Sarah to do which was a shame. It also felt a little out of place for her to question the Doctor's age because he'd encountered the Pescatons in the fifteenth century. They literally travel in a time machine together and have done for some time by this point! That felt like a glaring mistake. The Doctor playing the piccolo to bring about the accidental resolution in defeating the Pescatons with sound was amusing and I think something this incarnation in particular can get away with. Sarah's confidence in going against the Doctor's wishes and ensure he played again to test her theory was great, even if then the ending was already established as predictable. Overall, an intriguing listen more than anything to a story that sadly did leave a decent amount lacking. 

Rating: 5/10