‘WAR IN THE ABYSS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The Klatriss in 1970s Antarctica with the Third Doctor and Jo

The third story of ‘Time Wake & Other Stories’ is ‘War in the Abyss’, featuring the Third Doctor and Jo. The story is read by Jon Culshaw and is taken from the 1973 ‘Doctor Who Annual’. I enjoyed Jon Culshaw’s reading of ‘War in the Abyss’, as he does a very good voice for Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor.

However, whilst Jon Culshaw’s reading is good, I found the overall annual story quite disappointing. It builds up to being a decent Third Doctor adventure with the Doctor and Jo tackling an invasion of alien robots, but it falls by the wayside when the story ends quite abruptly with little action involved.

The story has the Doctor and Jo trying to find Jo’s uncle, who seems to be trapped in Antarctica. Jo’s uncle in this story happens to be called Major Grant and we do get to meet him in the story. I’m not sure if this is one of many uncles Jo has in ‘Doctor Who’ and if this uncle had gotten her into U.N.I.T.

In stories like ‘The Touch of the Nurazh’ and ‘Taken For Granted’, Jo’s uncle happens to be called Jack Canning. There’s also a story by Katy Manning herself called ‘Velvet Hugs’, where Jo’s uncle is actually called Giles. I’m also not sure if the uncle that initially got Jo into U.N.I.T. was of the military.

I’m disappointed the Doctor and Jo didn’t get to meet the alien robot-like Klatriss, since there was quite a lot of talk about them beforehand and they’d been built up as a huge threat. I’m not entirely sure what happens in the final moments of this story, as it’s unmemorable and was over very quickly.

‘War in the Abyss’ rating – 4/10