An extra story on the Destructor Contract tape. The Doctor finds himself aboard a ship with only one occupant – a strange creature called Vilgreth who shares the Doctor’s passion for engineering and tea.
An extra story on the Destructor Contract tape. The Doctor finds himself aboard a ship with only one occupant – a strange creature called Vilgreth who shares the Doctor’s passion for engineering and tea.
Following on the heels of The Destructor Contract is a very short story called VILGRETH.
Blurb I’d promised Greg some kind of holiday. As it turned out, I never quite managed to fulfill my promise. Conglomerate, the Scionovores, Askran and the Daleks saw to that. Still at the time I was determined to take Greg to Ormelia. But as usual, I was having trouble with the helmic regulators…
Vilgreth is basically a tape filler. Not that it is a poor story, just that it probably exists for no other reason than to fill what would otherwise be dead air on a casette. In fact, it’s a very good little story. If it sounds a little familiar, it’s because it was rereleased by Big Finish as Last of the Titans, with Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. I don’t say adapted, because with the exception of maybe 3 words, it is literally the same play. And much as it pains me as a 7th Doctor fan to say this, Sylvester’s performance did not match Briggs’ version.
Since this is a short story (about 25 minutes), I’m just going to write a very short summary and short evaluation. The Doctor lands on a space ship while Greg is asleep. This takes place before Greg leaves, obviously. He runs into a little lizard telling him to watch out. Then he runs into Vilgreth, a hulking creature that seems to be part machine, part reanimated corpse. He’s a nice fella, but it turns out that his ship eats planets for fuel. The lizard that the Doctor had run into earlier was an agent who planted a bomb on board the ship. The Doctor escapes, but Vilgreth, the loveable brute with a fondness for tea, goes down with his ship. *sniffle*
Evaluation
A very tight play. With the exception of the lizard’s cameo (how often do you get to say that), it’s a two hander, starring Nick Briggs as the Doctor and Nick Briggs as Vilgreth. A nice story.
Overall 9 out of 10
I’d have given it 10 out of 10, but I hate depressing endings.
NEXT TIME
There’s a threat of Trilexias in THE TRILEXIA THREAT!