Hogan Reviews

The third and final part of the Eighth Doctor “Echoes” boxset started off really good, it has an interesting world with a unique hook to it that I was interested in seeing how it played out, but sadly the ending was such a non-event that it kind of took all the wind out of my sails… Let’s take a look!

The Doctor (Paul McGann), Liv (Nicola Walker) and Helen (Hattie Morahan) arrive on the planet Ran-Zoan after The Doctor gets fed up of his companions calling great galactic wonders “a bit meh” due to having travelled with him for so long. The planet you see have one of the “Wonders of the Outer Galaxy” on it, the “Slow Beasts”, massive skyscraper-sized creatures that move one millionth the speed of regular lifeforms, meaning the people who have settled there, the Renn, are able to move their tent-like city out of the their way with ease as a single step takes a year. It was a really fun concept, like a harmless version of manga/anime Attack on Titan. The leader of the Renn, Mathryn (Derek Griffiths) offers The Doctor and his companions to stay the night and have a guided tour of the Beasts the following day but at night Liv spies a protest being held through the settlement claiming “Sky’s don’t burn” and Mathryn’s top scientist Iri (Maya Saroya) among them.

While interested The Doctor and co put it to the back of their minds as they head off on the cheesy guided tour only for Helen to notice what looked like tears in the eyes of the beasts, which was then even more alarmingly followed by a blink, something that should take hours to happen. The “Slow Beasts” then suddenly start not only moving but actively stomping on some of the tour guide cars leading to The Doctor driving and leading the rest back to the relative safety of the Renn settlement. As they confront Mathryn and Iri about it the former declares that “nothing will save them from the Slow Beast’s revenge” while Iri is soon arrested for taking part in the protest from the previous night, but seems to be the only clue as to what’s going on, with just a few hours before the Beasts arrive…

Like I said, it was a really interesting and fun story, sadly the negative I have to talk about is all in the spoilers because it’s the ending of the story!

The Continuity:

Another look at the overall cover… wait, are the Slow Beasts supposed to look like elephants? That REALLY wasn’t made clear in the script…

This story is completely stand-alone, can’t think of any continuity links at all.

Overall Thoughts:

“Slow Beasts” was two-thirds really fun world building that ends on a real dud of a finale. I really enjoyed the concept of the titular Beasts and was interested in how things would play out as everything turned very Attack on Titan-y with the settlement staring down an invasion from hostile giants but… yeah. Not really much of an ending. Oh well!

After Liv and Helen mention a low rumbling noise that suddenly stopped The Doctor sends the TARDIS back five years and has it stay in one place and record the sound and then plays it back at one millionth the speed faster and finds out it was the Slow Beasts talking, referring to themselves as the Cha-Harr and lamenting that they’ve been held captive in their own bodies and want help. Meanwhile Iri was tried, sentenced and immediately put back into her position as Renns believe in second chances, but it becomes clear her memories had been altered. Everything soon becomes clear when Mathryn is confronted and Iri’s lab’s data is scanned and it turns out that during what the other Renn’s believed to be the four-yearly “night of the burning sky”, when the planet’s three suns align and its not safe to go outside, Mathryn and his inner circle bombard the planet with a chemical that drastically slows down the metabolism of the Cha-Harr in order to both keep them as a tourist attraction and make sure the Renn get to continue to live on the planet because it’s a great place to live, basically (plus their spaceship crashed…)

With the Cha-Harr barrelling towards them Iri regains her memories and admits to administering a counter-acting chemical to the “Beasts” and The Doctor rigs a machine to talk back to the Cha-Harr and tells them that the Renn are going now so there’s no need to attack and … they stop and don’t attack. Mathryn then leaves with the other Renns in their spaceship while Iri stays behind to live on Ran-Zoan by herself, and … that’s it! All the build up to come sort of dramatic final scene and the Cha-Harr just stop attacking because The Doctor asked nicely and then the main villain of the piece just gets to fly off to another planet with no comeuppance. What a bizarre non-event of an ending!