‘THE SHADOW OF THIS RED ROCK’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

The second ‘Mars’ episode called ‘The Shadow of This Red Rock’ is by Una McCormack. I’ve come across Una McCormack a number of times, since she’s written some ‘Doctor Who’ audios and books.

She has also penned a number of ‘Star Trek’ novels. This is the first time that Una has contributed to ‘Star Cops’ for Big Finish. She clearly worked with script editor Andrew Smith a lot on this episode. 🙂

The episode follows on directly from where ‘The New World’ ended. Nathan Spring and Pal Kenzy are marooned in the Martian desert; and Heather Coombs as Kristin Mendelson is still their prisoner.

Colin Devis is concerned about his friends being lost somewhere in the Martian desert. He tells Issy Van Randwyck as Barbara Holmberg that he’s going to go out in a Mars buggy and rescue his friends.

Back in the Martian desert, it’s clear Kristin’s friends, including Jake Wardle as Martin Jeffries, will soon arrive to rescue her from Nathan and Pal in their crashed shuttle. And it’s likely to be so violent.

It’s intriguing how there doesn’t seem to be a law against this kind of thing as Martin Jeffries and his lot are aiding and abetting a murderer quite easily. I’m surprised the law aspects weren’t considered.

Also equally intriguing is how Kristin and Martin are justified in their actions. Kristin says what she did in murdering Cara Hopkins was accidental, but Nathan and Pal are clear that ‘murder is still murder’.

With little chance of getting away in their crashed shuttle, Nathan and Pal soon get help in the form of a reclusive colonist. It happens to be Elizabeth Uter as Grace Kavanagh, who seems to be a hermit.

She also happens to be a cartographer in that she draws maps of Mars with paper and pencil. Grace is considered a celebrity. Pal Kenzy soon knows who she is and Kristin Mendelson later knows of her.

Grace prefers the isolation aspects of her life with being a hermit on Mars. Yet she is willing to help Nathan and Pal with their endeavours to get themselves and Kristin back to the Barack Obama base.

It was interesting how Pal reveals to Nathan that Grace lost her daughter when it was reported in the news whilst she was on Mars. Nathan emphasises with Grace’s situation whilst being on Mars. 🙂

There are some nice scenes between Nathan and Grace when they talk about the things they’ve lost. Nathan understands Grace losing her daughter as he lost Bea when he became the Star Cops’ leader.

It was tense once Kristin admired Grace and expressed her adulation of her, saying she inspired her to come to Mars. Grace however is resentful of Kristin and what she tries to achieve on the planet. 😐

It was pretty gripping to hear the chase scenes in the episode. This is especially when Grace helped Nathan and Pal take Kristin with them whilst they escaped Martin Jeffries and his lot pursuing them.

I liked that moment when Nathan deduced that Kristin had a tracking beacon that enabled Martin Jeffries and his lot to find her. It may be too late to evade Martin Jeffries as he catches up with them.

Back with Colin Devis, his rescue attempt goes wrong when his Mars buggy crashes. When out in the Martian desert and running low on oxygen, Colin soon ends up at the mercy of some ‘cold’ colonists.

I’m not sure what was going on with Colin being locked up by colonists who weren’t welcoming. Colin was almost considered for getting thrown out in the open. He soon ended up in a gas chamber.

Thankfully Colin Devis survives for another day as he comes to Nathan and Pal’s aid at the end. The explanations given on how Colin managed to survive are told after a dramatic and perilous stand-off.

This is when Nathan and Pal confront Martin on the four mile-high cliffs of the Mariner Valley canyon. Grace almost endangers herself and Kristin’s life till Nathan, Pal and Martin soon save them.

After saying goodbye to Grace and returning to the Barack Obama base, Colin reveals the people who held them were Lachman Research and Innovation (LRI). Yet Nathan doesn’t wish to investigate. 😐

‘The Shadow of This Red Rock’ has been a gripping audio episode to listen to in ‘Star Cops’. I’m curious about what will happen next; who the LRI are and what this Ganyede Incident is all about. 😐

The CD extras are as follows. At the end of ‘The Shadow of This Red Rock’, there are behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew including David Calder, Trevor Cooper, Linda Newton, Heather Coombs, Elizabeth Uter, director Helen Goldwyn, writer Una McCormack, script editor Andrew Smith, etc.

‘The Shadow of This Red Rock’ rating – 8/10

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The previous episode was ‘The New World’ (Audio)	The next episode is ‘Whatever Happened to Gary Rice?’ (Audio)
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