After a great opener and a pretty good second part Rutans vs. Sontarans comes to a bit of a halt with “Grave Moon”. There are some good bits here and there but mostly it’s just sort of meandering around for a while before a few revelations and then it ends. Honestly it felt more like an Eighth Doctor story too as I can’t really think of anything The Sixth Doctor or Peri really did during the story, whereas at least McGann did some things, a bit. Ah well, let’s take a closer look anyway…
The Doctor (Colin Baker) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) arrive at what should be a spar on a moon with natural healing pools but as these things tend to go it ends up being quite the opposite as the healing pool they come across is rancid. Meanwhile he hear a delightful farmer couple and their friendly neighbour John (Paul McGann…) worrying about their failing farm and how to continue on. It doesn’t take long for The Doctor and Peri to meet the female of the farmer couple Ooland (Rachel Bavidge) and eventually her husband, but stories of him coming back to life make The Doctor stop and think. As Peri talks with Ooland The Doctor meets the so-called revived husband and finds them struggling to keep their human form as they’re a Rutan, and further more they’re a Rutan who had been cut off from the hivemind and accidentally copied the dead body of Ooland’s husband.
As you might have guessed the Rutan is Melmoth from the previous story (Abi Harris), and they seem to genuinely care about Ooland, though once Peri finds out she makes sure it’s “wife” is aware of just what her husband truly is. As all this is going on some farm inspectors turn up, but who they are inspecting on behalf of comes as a surprise to everyone…
Yeah, writing that up you really can feel how uninteresting the majority of this story is. Oh well, can’t win them all. At least it wasn’t bad, just a bit dull…?
The Continuity:
Nice cover, not sure what the Eighth Doctor is reaching out towards, but I hope he gets it!
Not much to say here, apart from connecting to the other Rutans vs. Sontarans stories. Peri does recognise Rutans and Sontarans, placing this after the Lost Story “The First Sontarans” for her.
Overall Thoughts:
“Grave Moon” is sadly quite dull, with The Doctor and Peri not really doing much and a not very convincing Rutan love story mixed in. Hearing the Eighth Doctor watching his old self / Peri from afar and reminiscing was fun, and there were some good ideas tucked away here, but in general it’s a bit flat.
The inspectors turn out to be Rutans themselves, and we soon find out they have taken over several other farms to use their healing pools as a way to heal the injured from the war. Melmoth panics because they don’t want to loose Ooland and is angry when the Rutans wish to use the fact they’re cut off from the main Rutan Host to their advantage. Meanwhile the Farmer John Doctor calls in the Sontarans and watches on as The Doctor and Peri leave after making the moon an unattractive proposition for both parties after a major ship crash, so it can eventually heal and become like its old self again with the few remaining farmers, Ooland included, taking their property back.
Afterwards The Eighth Doctor secretly confides with Melmoth, egging them on to continue their research once again.