Trapped within E-Space, the Doctor, Romana and Adric are searching for a Charged Vacuum Emboitment – the gateway back to our universe. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack… Then, by pure chance, a brand new CVE rips into being. Its makers are The Farrian, a warlike race who possess the technology to break into E-Space. But they have come to invade and plunder this new territory, and the riches of the planet Ballustra are their first target.
THE COMPANION CHRONICLES: THE INVASION OF E-SPACE
For some reason, Season 18 is by far the least-explored era of all “classic” Doctor Who in the spinoff media. Apart from a Short Trip or two, Andrew Smith’s “The Invasion of E-Space” marks Big Finish’s first foray into that era – and despite its pedigree and its potential, it is unremarkable and unmemorable in every way.
There’s so much going on in season 18 that could be turned into great audio drama. An increasingly funereal mood hangs over the season, including the ever-present themes of entropy and decay. Tom Baker’s performance is at its darkest throughout. The music is finally taken away from Dudley Simpson and rapidly becomes more atmospheric. Many fans dislike this season for various reasons, but it is impossible to deny that it is among the most unique in the long history of Doctor Who. So with Andrew Smith, author of “Full Circle,” on board, you would expect “The Invasion of E-Space” to fit right in, right?
Well, you’d be utterly wrong. If various characters didn’t make reference to E-Space, there’d be no reason to think this story was set there. Nothing from season 18 is present: there’s no atmosphere, there’s not even a hint of decay in the plot, and the sound design is generic and unmemorable. It’s a simple invasion story, one that is so easily solved that Smith is forced to keep the Doctor unconscious for the entire first episode in order to keep the story going. I’m not kidding: generic aliens have opened a portal into E-Space so that they can invade and steal minerals. As soon as the Doctor wakes up, he flies the TARDIS through the portal, destroys the portal generator in about thirty seconds, and flies back into E-Space. The aliens are forced to leave. The end. Oh, and Romana and Adric are the aliens’ prisoners, but they escape at the first opportunity and then the Doctor saves them.
Of course, I’ve said before that a complex plot is not necessary for great drama, but the characters are all two-dimensional. The aliens are invading because they want raw materials and they are evil! Romana is haughty! The Doctor grins at inappropriate times! Adric is… well, he’s so poorly written you forget he’s even in the story! If you’re in a hurry, you could probably skip every other track and not miss anything. The framing device threatens to be interesting, as it sounds like two characters giving evidence at some sort of inquiry, but that goes precisely nowhere. Same with Romana’s brief mentions of the Tharils and her work in E-Space – why couldn’t we have a story like that instead?
As usual, there’s nothing particularly bad about “The Invasion of E-Space.” Lisa Bowerman directs competently, Howard Carter’s sound design is similarly workmanlike, and the story moves along fast enough. But it’s just another generic, boring Doctor Who story, and that’s unforgivable in Big Finish’s first trip into one of the series’ most unique eras.
Pointless.
5/10