The next load of Fourth Doctor audio dramas have arrived, and sadly this double-bill fits into that all too frequent category of “dull and forgettable”. I guess because they have to make so many often one hours stories for Mr. Baker is why so many of his “Fourth Doctor Adventures” fall flat, but that’s not really an excuse when plenty have been good, and a few great. Oh well, let’s get my thoughts down before I literally forget everything about it…
“The Remains of Kaerula” sees The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) arrive in a network of caves on the titular planet where they meet Nim Karl (Barnaby Kay) and Paysh Toko (Anna Leong Brophy) who are “Rems”, a species on Kaerula that are currently rounded up in camps and treated extremely poorly by the Kaeruleans, specifically Commander Rholl (Robyn Addison) who is on their trail. The Doctor and Nim get separated from Leela and Paysh when the latter lets off an explosion allowing Leela to walk around the caves and encounter a horrifying creature, while The Doctor finds out the truth about the two sub-species: they’re not to sub-species at all, they are in fact one and the same. In the past the Kaeruleans had ruined the planet to the point where their only chance to escape was to plunge a hole in time and escape to the future where the planet had stabilised, a plan created by Nim himself, but not all Kaeruleans were able to make the jump and so when the “Rems” arrived in the future they were captured and enslaved by the descendants of those who managed to live out their lives in spite of the horrible environment.
It’s a fun twist, but that’s all there was to the opening two-parter, the rest was bland… well, everything, right down to the scientist “making good” and sacrificing himself to conclude his time experiment that was causing damage to the world, like the hellish creature in the cave Leela encountered, though not before it kills off Rholl. The Kaerulean leader Tuldra (Andrew James Spooner) gives in and announces to the Rem camp that the two sides will now work together going forward, so… hooray. The Doctor and Leela head off, but an error causes the TARDIS to get pulled back down to Kaerula but many centuries in the past, at the time when Nim Karl was on the verge of his time tunnel breakthrough.
“What’s the Brigadier doing on the cover?” Wait until next time!
This sets up the premise of “The Ruins of Kaerula” as our main duo (well, trio, but K9 doesn’t really do much…) get split up once again as The Doctor is stuck with the future Rems and Leela with the Kaeruleans who are living on large moving cities on the surface who will one day end up birthing the Kaeruleans of the future. While The Doctor and Nim deal with stuck up and desperate leader Devish Maldra (Delroy Atkinson) the latter’s assistant Safa Tuul (Zora Bishop) ends up being possessed by the “ghost” of former assistant Riadah Haat, who got stuck in the time stream and ended up being able to take over bodies rather than just… die during a prior experiment. As this is going on Leela meets Kujad Stak (Aaron Neil) who saves her from choking to death in the toxic outside and wants to know if the rumour of the people living in the mountain having found a way to save themselves was true.
Again, nothing particularly bad here, but nothing interesting either, to the point where its already hard to remember plot points and characters and its only been a day or two!
The Continuity:
Not really anything to say here. No continuity to connect it to anything, not really any themes that make me immediately think of another story either…
Overall Thoughts:
“The Remains and Ruins of Kaerula” has one fun and clever twist with the secret of the Rems in the first story, but that’s about it for anything clever… or fun, frankly. Often when things are bland I just give it a 3 and call it a day, but honestly? This was SO dull that I’m knocking it down one more because I definitely won’t be listening to this again…
Not much to say here, mostly because my memory is a little hazy on the finale, but The Doctor manages to expel Haat from Tuul and either manages to destroy it or send it back into the time stream to eventually perish, one of the two. The Doctor also helps Nim with his calculations allowing himself and a few survivors to make the jump into the future, thus keeping the timeline secure and allowing himself and Leela to go back to regular TARDIS travel.
Hogan Reviews 