This month’s Once and Future is the first to feature a future incarnation of The Doctor from what I still believe is the Eighth Doctor’s perspective as David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor makes an appearance (or is it the Fourteenth?! … Right, Big Finish don’t have the license…) While you can tell how this was written after the Once and Future strand had already been planned out, as admitted by the writing team themselves, it ends up being one of the better stories, once again having a very self-contained plot full of randomly thrown in characters but at least this time the story was good fun! So let’s take a look…
Oddly the story starts with the First Doctor (voiced by Stephen Noonan) appearing on what he believed should be the barren Planetoid 50 but instead he finds an overgrown version of Victorian Earth, complete with a lady called Jessamy Moore (Hannah Genesius) writing in her journal. She tells him that the Martians invaded in massive Tripods and have devastated most of the world and she’s planning on making for a human resistance stronghold. Before The Doctor can make any obvious connections to the popular fictional work this world is clearly based on he’s zapped by a Tripod ray and regenerated forwards instead of degenerating, becoming his Tenth self (David Tennant). The Doctor talks about Martians not being like this and agrees to walk to the resistance base with Jessamy.
A simple but effective cover for the regular edition.
Meanwhile we hear Missy (Michelle Gomez) as she is being served by Jenny Flint (Catrin Stewart), who is clearly hypnotised. Missy eventually walks down to some cells where she’s keeping Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh) prisoner via the threat of killing Jenny. She lets her out and even surrenders her sword back to her so she can complete a “special” mission on her behalf. The Doctor and Jessamy on the other hand soon run into Strax (Dan Starkey) after he set up some sort of ill-conceived defence network but it’s short lived as the trio are soon attacked by a Tripod. They’re saved at the last moment by Vastra, who then shortly teleports away with The Doctor in hand…
The story is a fun one, mostly because Tennant’s Doctor bounces off both Missy and the Paternoster Gang really well, and the story is just the right mix of silly and real intrigue to keep you going. I will say though that this is my first time hearing Stephen Noonan as the First Doctor and I wasn’t that impressed, though given the recording time I wouldn’t be surprised if it was his first time recording in the role, so maybe he’s better in his own sets…?
The Continuity:
The usual not as interesting and a bit of a mess Special Edition cover…
Beyond the Once and Future strand itself, there isn’t much here. Well, obviously the Paternoster Gang (formed in the Eleventh Doctor TV story “A Good Man Goes to War”) and Missy (first appearing across the Twelfth Doctor’s first season) are continuity, but I mean beyond returning characters there isn’t much to put here!
Overall Thoughts:
“The Martian Invasion of Planetoid 50” once again barely moves the Once and Future arc forward but at least the self-contained story was actually fun this time. The Tenth Doctor, Missy and the Paternoster Gang all bounce off each other really well and the plot was a good laugh as well. Still not convinced about Once and Future as a whole but at least this was a fun story in isolation…
The Doctor is taken to Missy, who eventually reveals herself as a future version of The Master, although also reveals that she is suffering with the same degeneration gun effects as he is and in an attempt to fix it she was “zapped” forward into a future incarnation, the tech was left in blast that hit The Doctor. She also reveals that turning Planetoid 50 into a version of HG Wells’ War of the Worlds was just to keep her mind focused and busy, nothing more nothing less, but the Tripods have gained their own sentience and are trying to attack her. The Doctor frees Jenny from Missy’s mind control (and stops Vastra from killing her captor) before hatching a plan involving Missy’s Tissue Compression Eliminator that eventually ends up shrinking all the Tripods down to the size of small toys. Before she departs Missy gives The Doctor a hint, “Find the Union”, and so The Doctor heads back into the TARDIS, going to drop everyone else back on Earth (so I guess Missy somehow scooped people up from the real Victorian London to popular her false one?)
A final scene has The Doctor, now in his Third body (Tim Treloar) release the tiny Tripods on the actual Mars at the time when the planet was dead so they can live out their lives ironically on the actual Mars. He also exclaims that he’s back to his older selves so at least that’s dealt with, which is odd as the next release stars Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor! I guess we’ll see, again from extras we know the Ninth Doctor story was written after this also due to unexpectedly having the actor available, so it might stick out even more, plot-wise…
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