‘PLANET OF THE DRASHIGS’

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Drashigs with the Fourth Doctor, Ann and K-9

The second story of ‘The Syndicate Master Plan’ season is ‘Planet of the Drashigs’ by Phil Mulryne. I enjoyed this two-parter very much. I listened to the first episode twice before I heard the second. 😀

This was due to me being busy at the time and catching up on blog-related stuff. I’m glad I listened to the first episode twice, since I was able to pick up the details being set up for the second episode.

Phil Mulryne is no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’. As well as being a writer, he’s also played characters in certain ‘Doctor Who’ audios. A bit like John Dorney who acts, writes and script-edits for Big Finish. 🙂

The first time I came across Phil Mulryne was when he performed in ‘Psychodrome’. He’s also written audio adventures like ‘The Contingency Club’ and ‘Fallen Angels’, which I’ve greatly enjoyed.

This is the first time I’ve come across Phil Mulryne writing for the Fourth Doctor. He writes very well for Tom Baker’s Doctor, who’s accompanied by Ann Kelso and K-9 in this quite grisly adventure here.

The Drashigs are ‘Doctor Who’ monsters I’ve enjoyed. They’ve appeared in the TV story ‘Carnival of Monsters’ and I’ve written the Drashigs in my own ‘Doctor Who’ adventure called ‘City of Monsters’.

Surprisingly, they haven’t made a comeback to TV. I wondered when they’d appear on audio by Big Finish, and I imagine it makes sense to have Tom Baker meet them following Jon Pertwee’s Doctor. 🙂

In this story, the TARDIS visits the alien planet of DrashigWorld. It happens to be a park where every known type of the terrifying predator has been gathered together to entertain and thrill their public.

Appalled by this set-up, the Doctor, Ann and K-9 help the people on DrashigWorld to survive an outbreak of Drashigs roaming about the place. Will more be discovered about the Drashigs in this? 😐

Compared to writing the Drashigs in ‘City of Monsters’, it was fascinating to hear how Phil Mulryne wrote and developed the beasties. It was amazing how he came up with various types of Drashigs. 🙂

Apparently, there are the wetland Drashigs, the albino burrowing Drashings and the Emerald Drashigs (the deadliest of the lot). I wish I had known about them before penning ‘City of Monsters’. 😀

It’s also intriguing how the Drashigs were able to telepathically communicate with someone like Vanessa Seaborne, so she could subconsciously do their work and they can acquire their tasty morsels. 😐

We’re also given a chance to explore the Drashigs’ minds, as they seem hell-bent on thoughts of aggression, hunger and the like. It seems the Drashigs aren’t really imaginative as one would expect.

The Drashigs are voiced by Dan Starkey (well-known for playing the Sontarans in ‘Doctor Who’). Dan Starkey has a wonderful talent of playing a variety of monsters from Sontarans to Kraals to Drashigs.

I must admit, I was disappointed the Drashigs didn’t sound exactly like they were from ‘Carnival of Monsters’ with those horrible screams they did. I suppose they do change with the times on audio. 🙂

Tom Baker continues to be excellent playing the Fourth Doctor in this audio adventure and I like the relationship he’s formed with Jane Slavin as Ann Kelso. They seem to get on with each other here. 🙂

Ann Kelso does ask a lot of questions, which does get on the Doctor’s nerves. But at least she’s very caring and she does form a nice bond with K-9 when she and the Doctor are visiting DrashigWorld. 🙂

Speaking of which, it was lovely to hear K-9 voiced by John Leeson in this audio adventure. It’s intriguing this is K-9 Mk II’s first chronological ‘Doctor Who’ appearance following K-9 Mk I’s departure in ‘The Invasion of Time’.

Fenella Woolgar guest stars as Professor Vanessa Seaborne in this adventure. Fenella is well-known for playing Agatha Christie in ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’ and plays Sister Hilda in ‘Call the Midwife’.

There’s also Jeremy Clyde as Lord Braye, Lizzie Rooper as gamekeeper Trencher and Andrew Ryan as Titus Wayland. Dan Starkey also voices the computer on DrashigWorld for humanity to interact with.

I greatly enjoyed ‘Planet of the Drashigs’. It was an intriguing experience to hear the Drashigs in a Big Finish audio compared to how I wrote them in ‘City of Monsters’ and it has been worthwhile indeed.

The CD extras are as follows. After ‘Planet of the Drashigs’, there’s a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Enchantress of Numbers’ with Tom Baker and Jane Slavin There are also behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew, including Tom Baker, Jane Slavin, John Leeson, Fenella Woolgar, writer Phil Mulryne, director Nicholas Briggs, etc.

‘Planet of the Drashigs’ rating – 8/10

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The previous story For the Fourth Doctor was ‘The Sinestran Kill’ (Audio) For Ann was ‘The Sinestran Kill’ (Audio)	The next story For the Fourth Doctor is ‘The Enchantress of Numbers’ (Audio) For Ann is ‘The Enchantress of Numbers’ (Audio) For K-9 Mk II is ‘The False Guardian’/’Time’s Assassin’ (Audio)
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