‘THE PARLIAMENT OF RATS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Lung of Heaven and the Parliament of Rats with the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa

This story called ‘The Parliament of Rats’ is by Daniel O’Mahony. It features the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa. This isn’t the first time I’ve come across Daniel O’Mahony as a writer, since he would go on to write the Big Finish audio story ‘Return to the Web Planet’, starring Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton.

Reading ‘The Parliament of Rats’ is quite a contrast to hearing ‘Return to the Web Planet’. I enjoyed checking out the story in the ‘Short Trips’ anthology book, but I noticed a difference in how Daniel writes for the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in this short story compared to writing for them a Big Finish story.

There’s a lot of worldbuilding involving the ocean planet Lethe (Not to be confused with the planet Lethe in ‘The Juggernauts’ 😀 ) as well as the sailing ships and their crews, including the Lung of Heaven and the Parliament of Rats. It does make the story more plot-focused than character-driven.

If you’re expecting actual rats to appear in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, you’re bound to be disappointed. No Remy from ‘Ratatouille’ here. 😀 The crew of the Lung of Heaven is reasonably human whilst the Parliament of Rats crew are mutants. They could have easily been rat-like mutants to match the title.

The way that Nyssa is written is interesting compared to how she’s portrayed in other stories by Big Finish and me. She’s very kind-hearted for the most part, but sometimes her opinions can be initially harsh, as she makes Brunner feel like a coward at one point before she regrets it afterwards for a bit.

‘The Parliament of Rats’ rating – 7.5/10