8. Spore.

1 episode. Approx. 58 minutes. Written by: Alex Scarrow. Performed by: Nicholas Pegg.

THE PLOT

The TARDIS materializes in the Nevada desert, not far from a small town that has been cordoned off by the military. The town, named Fort Casey, has been wiped out by a fast-acting disease, one that seems disturbingly familiar to the Doctor. He draws on his UNIT credentials to force Major Platt, the officer in charge, to allow him through to investigate.

What he finds confirms his worst fears. The plague is alien in origin, genetically engineered to locate all biological matter and reduce it into a black, oil-like substance. All that bio-mass runs together to a central point, which will build into a brain. The same plague once struck Gallifrey, but the Time Lords were able to stop it by communicating with the brain, to prove their status as an advanced civilization. But at this time and place, humanity has yet to become advanced enough to pass this test.

Unless the Doctor can communicate on humanity's behalf...

CHARACTERS

The Doctor: Reader Nicholas Pegg absolutely nails the Eighth Doctor, capturing Paul McGann's vocal mannerisms so perfectly that I sometimes forgot it wasn't McGann himself while listening to this. Which is good, because for the most part the story itself provides a completely generic Doctor. There are a few tidbits that feel just right for the Eighth Doctor: musing about how much fun he had involving himself in the famous Roswell crash, for instance, or casually admitting to Major Platt that he lied about being with the CDC while gaining even more authority by invoking UNIT. But aside from a few such throwaway moments, this could as easily be the Second, Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth Doctors as the Eighth - It's a perfectly fine "Doctor" characterization, but there's very little distinctive about it.

Capt. Evelyn Chan: The one-shot companion of the story, Evelyn is the sole survivor of the team Major Platt sent into the town before the Doctor's arrival. She is terrified when the Doctor first meets her, which feels appropriate given that she watched her entire team die in front of her. She does show some resourcefulness, staying alive by isolating herself. Unfortunately, after she provides the Doctor (and audience) with some additional backstory, she then does nothing at all except tag along with him for the rest of the story, making her unremarkable even by the undemanding standards of one-shot companions.

THOUGHTS

Spore, the 8th Doctor's entry in Penguin Audio's 11 Doctors, 11 Stories 50th Anniversary collection, is a largely generic story, featuring a generic Doctor paired with a generic one-shot companion. There is nothing surprising about any element of it. It is straightforward, predictable, and overall very safe in its storytelling.

But as a slice of bread-and-butter Who, I have to admit that it is entertaining.

Spore may be generic in content, but it's well-written. Writer Alex Scarrow is able to fix the setting in the listener's mind very quickly, and his descriptions of the black goo that is the virus running from corpses and rotting fruit alike are extremely effective. The story moves briskly, with the Major Platt character serving to give us all the exposition we need before the Doctor enters the deathtrap that was once a town. Backstory is eased into the narrative in doses large enough for us to keep pace with the story, but small enough that the pace doesn't flag.

It would be nice if the storytelling was a bit more ambitious. It would be particularly nice if Evelyn Chan was a more useful character, or at least a more interesting one. Still, this is a diverting bit of easy listening. It's a very average Doctor Who story, but it's well-written and the audio version is well-read - and given how cheaply the story is available as of this writing, it is easily worth a listen.

Overall Rating: 6/10.

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