Space travellers are warned to keep away from the area of the planet Asphya and its unremarkable moon Erys. Not the best place to materialise the TARDIS, then – as the Doctor discovers when his ship is raided by the imp-like Drachee, and his companion Flip is carried away…
But the TARDIS isn’t the only stricken vessel in the region. Aboard a nearby space yacht, the Doctor encounters a woman who holds in her head the secret of Erys – a secret suppressed by amnesia, or worse.
Flip, too, is about to learn Erys’ secret. But once you know Erys’ secret, you can never escape.
THE BROOD OF ERYS
After kicking off the 2014 monthly range with another disappointing Philip Martin script, Big Finish turned to another 1980s TV writer: Andrew Smith of “Full Circle” and, for BF, “The First Sontarans” fame. A solid writer, Colin Baker, no returning characters or villains – “The Brood of Erys” sounds like a recipe for success, right? Wrong!
I’ll start with my chief complaint, and it’s one that I’m making more and more often of late: there is absolutely nothing thought-provoking or interesting about this story. The title tells us to watch out for something involving children, but while multiple parents and children are seen throughout the story, the script never does anything to gather these elements together into a coherent theme. The Drachee long for independence from their “parent,” Erys. Sarra’s memory is gone and she doesn’t remember her father or her children. Her father is trying to save her; she’s trying to save her children. Even the Doctor’s parenthood is raised near the conclusion. But Smith doesn’t appear to be saying anything, just throwing a bunch of parents together and calling it a theme. Flip is the only character in the story with neither a parent nor a child present, which should make it easy to describe her as an outsider and perhaps work that material into the theme – but nothing of the sort happens, as once again she simply gets generic companion lines and moments.
At some point during a story, its existence should be justified. This is generic science fiction writing with a Doctor Who exterior; there’s nothing here that we haven’t seen dozens of times before. What’s wrong with nuts-and-bolts Doctor Who, you ask? Simple: Doctor Who has been around for fifty years. In that time, we’ve had thousands of Doctor Who stories: hundreds each of television episodes, novels, audio plays, comics, and other media besides. We have enough generic Doctor Who. We don’t need more. It’s one thing for the TV series to have the occasional uninspiring story, because they have to produce thirteen episodes every season whether they like it or not. But Big Finish isn’t married to releasing dozens of Doctor Who stories every year – so why do we get stories like this?
Then there’s the conclusion, which feels tacked on at best. The Doctor and Erys share a long conversation in which the Doctor reflects on his decision to leave Susan on Earth in the wake of the Dalek invasion, using that as an illustration of why parents need to let their children make their own ways in life. Had any of this been mentioned earlier in the story, it would have been surprisingly effective; as it is, it comes out of nowhere and lacks effectiveness. And there’s another mention of going back to find out what happened to Peri, something that effectively marginalizes Flip – so are we going to do this or just hint at it? This seems like the sort of thing that Big Finish will mention but not resolve for a year or two – kind of like Flip’s apparent recklessness! Going to pay that off anytime soon?
The production is fine, though either director Nicholas Briggs or sound designer Steve Foxon needed to rein in the non-speaking Drachee voices – they’re giggling comedy aliens while their leaders are played perfectly straight. Overall, “The Brood of Erys” is a thoroughly uninspiring Doctor Who story that covers old, well-trodden ground. After 15 years of Doctor Who releases, this isn’t good enough. And because I am nothing if not childish, I will close on this note:
Mo’ like BORED of Erys!
4/10