FDA 1.6 The Oseidon Adventure

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

The first time the fearsome Kraals attempted to take over the Earth, with the help of their android agents, things didn't go quite according to plan – thanks to the time-travelling alien Doctor and his allies at UNIT.

This time, Marshal Grinmal and his belligerent cohorts are ready for them. This time, they'll make no mistakes. This time, Chief Scientist Tyngworg has not just one plan, but a back-up plan, and a back-up back-up plan worked out...

With the Doctor a prisoner on the Kraals' radiation-blasted home planet of Oseidon, only his companion Leela can save the day – alongside a most unlikely ally...

[Rob McCow]

We got to the end of The Lair of The White Worm and heard the trailer for this one.

To be honest, I haven't got high hopes. The Kraals were never the most exciting of villains, although the business with the Androids was entertaining enough. I'd like to think it'll be better than I'm expecting.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Quite a fun romp which makes good use of the Master and Michael Cochrane. Could've done with a little less of the "the last time I met the Master he was trying to open the eye of harmony on Gallifrey" style dialogue. I'm not by any means averse to continuity but it doesn't necessarily need to be laid on with a trowel (unless you're writing a soap opera style comedy for Christmas )

4/5 from me and looking forward to season 16A featuring Tom, Mary and John next year

[Anthony Williams]

I'm not overly sure what to make of this one, really. It's all just a bit... convoluted and confusing. The basic premise is sound and straightforward enough. But then they mess around with android replicas and the like, and the whole thing twists and turns far more than necessary. Who's real and who's fake? Aaaaaaargh!

Part of the problem with this season is how they've relied so much on continuity, so much so that it's extremely unrepresentative of the era. In the nine stories that featured Leela on TV, only one of them had a serious returning element, and that was her last story. In this season, we've had a return to Nerva, we've had the Daleks and we've had The Master. Only two stories out of the six have been entirely original. And then here, they introduce The Kraals. The Kralls!?!? I really can't help but feel that they're scraping the barrel here. It's not as if the Kraals have ever won any competitions for the best monsters of all time. And then they're pretty much sidelined for the Master's own nefarious schemes. I really can't help but wonder what the point of bringing them back was - it could've been any monster with an irradiated planet, and this two part story could've been cut in half. But let's not forget... old monsters = more money for BF through more interest. It just doesn't feel like teatime in 1977, as they advertised it!

And then there's the Master's own ridiculous scheme. He used this whole convoluted method, involving worms that make wormholes, luring the Kraals to Earth as a distraction, and for what? To steal a part of the TARDIS that the Doctor left behind during his exile. It's just silly. And then it just becomes overly complicated as to which Master was real, and which one was an android duplicate. And then one of the androids turns out to be good? What an utter cliché!

Of course, there are a few good things about this. Spindleton was absolutely hilarious, even if he was an utter cliché of Old Tories. His list of demands to the government had me in absolute stiches, particularly the part about the abolition of free school milk. The man is clearly utterly bonkers, and he really was a highlight of this story!

One high point was Geoffrey Beevors as The Master. While I dislike this season's reliance on continuity, he's always a delight to hear playing this character. I seem to recall someone saying in their review for The Trail of the White Worm that Beevors could read the phone book and make it sound evil, and it's really true.

As usual, it's an absolute joy to hear Tom and Louise in these plays. While the novelty of having them back together on audio has run out by this, the sixth play, they're clearly still having fun doing these, and it's still great fun to hear them. I just wish that their first season together could've been a little less reliant on continuity. Let's hope that the season with Tom & Tamm, and the second Tom & Louise season learn from this, and do their own thing, more in keeping with the era that they're supposed to emulate.

All in all, despite the joyous presence of Beevors, Tom and Louise, I didn't think that this was particularly good at all. 2/5 from me, sadly.

[Nyder]

It was an okay story - The Kraals were a bit of a sideline monster, so I'm not really sure why they were chosen. And yes, all those android replicas were a bit confusing, and not really suited to audio. Even Louise Jameson said (in the extras bit) that she found the story a bit confusing. I did like the reveal with the horse at the end though!

So as the whole season - I'll give it a 6/10. Nothing was terrible about the stories, but some were just ... well... really average. Without The Doctor & Leela's sparky relationship to keep things going, some stories would have fallen really flat.

Fave story - The Runny Science Man
Least fave story - Destination Get On Your Nervsa