‘The Planet of Witches’ (Audio)

‘THE PLANET OF WITCHES’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

An Adventure in E-Space with Witches

Will the Fourth Doctor, Romana, K-9 and Adric ever get out of E-Space?

I enjoyed Volume 1 of Series 9 of ‘The Fourth Doctor Adventures’ by Big Finish very much. I found both ‘Purgatory 12’ and ‘Chase the Night’ very compelling stories. I was looking forward to how the Fourth Doctor, Romana, K-9 and Adric’s journey in E-Space would continue in the next set of stories.

Volume 2 of Series 9 of ‘The Fourth Doctor Adventures’ sees Tom Baker back as the Fourth Doctor with Lalla Ward as Romana, Matthew Waterhouse as Adric and John Leeson as K-9. In the second set of E-Space stories by Big Finish, it seems that our Season 18 TARDIS team may get closer to home. 😀

It’s intriguing how Big Finish can find ways to extend the E-Space set of stories in ‘Doctor Who’ with Tom Baker’s Doctor through short stories; audiobooks and full-cast audio adventures. Maybe one day, I might come up with my own Fourth Doctor adventure with Romana, Adric and K-9 in E-Space.

I wouldn’t say the Fourth Doctor, Romana, Adric and K-9 audio adventures match superbly to the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan and Adric audio adventures I’ve enjoyed. But they’ve been thrilling enough and I’m glad there are more worlds to explore in E-Space with it being a small pocket universe.

The two stories in Series 9: Volume 2 of ‘The Fourth Doctor Adventures’ are follows. They’re ‘The Planet of Witches’ by Alan Barnes and ‘The Quest of the Engineer’ by Andrew Smith. Here are my unique thoughts on what I make of each of the two stories in turn. First, it’s ‘The Planet of Witches’.

This is a four-part adventure by Alan Barnes featuring the Fourth Doctor, Romana, Adric and K-9 team. They visit this misty yellow planet which has so many swamps – the dead marshes perhaps? 😀

This is a ‘Doctor Who’ story that could match the same gothic style as ‘State of Decay’ with witchcraft and everything. The human spaceship involved in this story even originates from N-Space.

The story was originally meant to be directed by Nicholas Briggs. Whilst he had partial direction over it, he became sick before the recordings could start. So the recordings were handled by Ken Bentley.

I did enjoy ‘The Planet of Witches’ when I heard it over the Easter holidays of 2020. But I can’t say it was a winner for me compared to the previous two adventures. This was a decent tale for my liking.

I suppose my reservations for this adventure comes from with it being quite all over the place. The tone was uneven for me, going from being slightly comedic to gothic horror to pure sci-fi all through.

It’s like the audio was struggling to find a way to tell the story in a coherent manner. But with so much going on, the surprises felt underwhelming. It was a challenge to keep up with the tale’s pace.

With that said, I don’t find the story dreadful in any sense. The balance of tone for this adventure was not quite right for me. I would have liked a lot of suspense featured throughout this audio story.

Whilst the story has elements of witchcraft in it, there are also elements of Grecian myth especially with Tiresias being introduced. I suppose that’s reflected in Romana and her ‘Horns of Nimon’ outfit.

Tom Baker remains very enjoyable as the Fourth Doctor. I like how he balanced the quips and good humoured nature of his character throughout. There are times where he can get bitter about things.

According to the CD extras, it was intriguing to hear Tom Baker’s thoughts on the character in that the Doctor never became depressed. I wonder if it reflects in the moods he had during Season 18. 😐

Lalla Ward in ‘The Planet of Witches’.

Lalla Ward is equally enjoyable as Romana, but I couldn’t help get a sense of her being moody at times. This is especially in interacting with the Doctor and K-9 and addressing the evil Mistress Smite.

She did seem to be off with Adric at times, even belittling him. I wonder if this leads to Romana’s attitude to Adric in ‘Warriors’ Gate’. Romana also got very upset when K-9 was sucked into a swamp.

K-9 voiced by John Leeson does get to have an active voice in the story. At first, I thought he was going to be out of an episode, reflecting how he was mistreated during Season 18 stories at times. 😀

But it turns out K-9 was restored to life by Tiresias and gets possessed somewhat by the entity, I believe. K-9 also gets to spin around a lot in the story, especially when confused on Romana’s orders.

Matthew Waterhouse in ‘The Planet of Witches’.

Matthew Waterhouse is very good as Adric in this adventure. He does get kidnapped by the twig-like Familiars in this adventure when he’s been recognised as a Class A person, having a high intelligence.

Adric gets chosen by Tiresias to help. He’s asked to bring the TARDIS to Tiresias. This is in exchange for a way out of E-Space. His trusting of Tiresia as well as being fooled by K-9 may bring his downfall.

The story also features Abigail McKern who plays Crone, later revealed as Mistress Smite as well as the voices of the Moirai. Abigail McKern did ‘The English Way of Death’ before this audio adventure.

Lauren Cornelius and Samuel Blenkin in ‘The Planet of Witches’.

There’s also Lauren Cornelius as Anjlis and Samuel Blenkin as Tanhar, two younglings like Adric who are accused for being witches. There’s Michael Simkins as Raxxil, who happens to be a witch-hunter.

And there’s Samuel Clemens as Yggra as well as Tiresias. He also does the voices of the Familiars, who are tree-like Wicker Men servants of Tiresias. I did wonder if they’re the story’s main monsters.

There was a chance that the Fourth Doctor, Romana, K-9 and Adric might have found a way out of E-Space via a CVE. But K-9 deleted all information regarding the CVE on Romana’s instructions. Typical!

From left to right: Samuel Blenkin, Lauren Cornelius, John Leeson, Michael Simkins, Abigail McKern, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse and Christopher Naylor.

‘The Planet of Witches’ is a decent Fourth Doctor audio adventure for me. I wouldn’t call it great but I enjoyed hearing Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse and John Leeson as their characters.

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of Discs 1 and 2, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew. The interviewees include Tom Baker, Lalla Ward, Matthew Waterhouse, John Leeson, additional director Ken Bentley, etc.

‘The Planet of Witches’ rating – 7/10

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The previous story For the Fourth Doctor was ‘Chase the Night’ (Audio) For Romana was ‘Chase the Night’ (Audio) For K-9 Mk II was ‘Chase the Night’ (Audio) For Adric was ‘Chase the Night’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fourth Doctor is ‘The Quest of the Engineer’ (Audio) For Romana is ‘The Quest of the Engineer’ (Audio) For K-9 Mk II is ‘The Quest of the Engineer’ (Audio) For Adric is ‘The Quest of the Engineer’ (Audio)
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