Hogan Reviews

The first series of Fourth Doctor adventures at Big Finish came to an end with the fun reveal of the Geoffrey Beevers’ Master once again facing off with Tom Baker’s Doctor, and later the, um, less interesting reveal that the Kraals were also back for another shot at Tom Baker’s Doctor… Yeah, I know which one would’ve made for the better surprise but I guess The Master was also more likely to push sales! Anyway, does this four-parter end the first series on a high? Let’s take a look…

The story opens with The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) arriving in Dark Peak, England and soon follow a mysterious trail left by what seemed to be a large serpent. The two get separated at the estate of a Col. High Spindleton (Michael Cochrane), where Leela ends up on his grounds and chased by the colonel in his personal tank (!) while The Doctor meets Mr. Carswell (John Banks) and his servant John (Mark Field) who are out looking for Carswell’s wife Julie (Becci Gemmell), who went missing in the area where the famed White Snake is believed to still be eating people. They soon find Julie, as she was picked up by their neighbour Demesne Furze (Rachael Stirling), and she offers to give The Doctor a lift to Spindleton’s estate to find Leela, but what he doesn’t know is that Leela has outsmarted the Colonel and is soon shown his hidden cave where his partner waits: The Master (Geoffrey Beevers), who soon tries to feed Leela to the White Worm. Leela of course escapes by fighting off and sliding down the back of the creature, but it made for a good Part 1 cliffhanger! Eventually The Doctor and Furze arrive and its soon revealed the latter IS the actual White Worm just taken human form and that it has the ability to create worm holes (get it?) While The Doctor enjoys getting swallowed by a gelatinous creature for the first time The Master eventually betrays the Worm and intentionally has it struck by lightning in order to create a worm hole that bridges the planet Oseidon to Earth and allows a full-on Kraal invasion.

That picture of The Master certainly makes it clear he’s wearing a mask and make up… No wonder future covers tend to use different ones!

Marshall Grinmal (Dan Starkey) leads the Kraal invasion and soon betrays and imprisons The Master (along with Leela), takes The Doctor back to Oseidon due to his role in stopping their original plan, and then actually allies with Col. Spindleton instead. This is where things get a little odd as its soon revealed that the Master we’ve heard this whole time is an Android duplicate the actual Master created with Kraal tech and so when that fake Master and Leela escape to Oseidon to rescue the Doctor (or further the actual Master’s plan) the fake Master is destroyed by the Kraal scientist Tyngworg (John Banks)… who is then later revealed to be a second Android created and programmed by the Master, a revelation that takes Grinmal by surprise. Turns out The Master has his hands on the “Z-Battery” the Third Doctor made to try and repair his TARDIS and wanted to mix it with the O-Radiation found on Oseidon in order to create “ZO-Radiation” which would heal his decay and renew him, but at the cost of both planets…

It’s a strange mix of light-hearted countryside twee and a little bit of rural horror for the first half, and then classic sci-fi runaround for the second half. Still, Baker, Jameson and Beevers are all on fine form and clearly enjoy bouncing off each other, so it makes for a fun time.

The Continuity:

Yep, that one picture of a Kraal you always see in those very few times anyone mentions them. Now to never see them again! (Well, apart from when I get around to reviewing the Android Invasion anyway…)

This version of The Master first appeared in the Fourth Doctor TV classic “The Deadly Assassin” where he was far more skeletal and decayed (and played by a different actor!) and then reappeared in “The Keeper of Traken” played by Beevers in makeup and therefore less melty. This story implies that The Master managed to partially reverse the effects of his decay at the end of Assassin, making the switch in actors/make up budget make sense in-universe. This incarnation meets The Doctor and Leela again in the audios “The Evil One”, the four parter “Requiem for the Rocket Men / Death Match” and the big cross-over event “The Light at the End”.  He also crossed paths with the Fourth Doctor later in his life in “Metamorphosis”, so… yeah. Tom Baker likes working with Geoffrey Beevers, what can I say?

As for the Kraals, they appeared in the Fourth Doctor TV story “The Android Invasion” and that’s literally it. No prior or future audio appearances, and no real comic or book appearances either. Almost as if they weren’t fondly remembered or something…

Overall Thoughts:

“Trail of the White Worm / The Oseidon Adventure” is a fun enough four parter with two different feeling halves but equally entertaining performances from the trio of Tom Baker, Lousie Jameson and Geoffrey Beevers. It has to be said that even for a Master plot it’s pretty bonkers and the Kraals are just comedic, fumbling invaders so I’m not really sure why Big Finish paid to use them in a story they were already paying for a bunch of top class actors, but hey-ho. Still a good “romp” though, for lack of a better term.

The Doctor and Leela manage to outsmart The Master by, get this, creating a third Master android duplicate and allowing it to get close to The Master right up until he let his guard down so it could then grab him and force him back into his own TARDIS and take off, giving The Doctor enough time to undo his plans and close the wormhole between the two planets. For the record Spindleton decides to stay behind on the Oseidon duplicate of his home rather than his actual one as a self-enforced penance for working with not one but two different aliens wanting to take over his planet. Fair enough I guess!