Destiny of the Doctor: Vengeance of the Stones Review

I'm doing a series of reviews on the AudioGO/Big Finish audio adventure series Destiny of the Doctors. This month, it's Vengeance of the Stones, written by Andrew Smith and featuring the third Doctor, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, and Lieutenant Mike Yates.

This is basically another one of your classic third Doctor-UNIT stories. It appears to be the first time the Doctor and the Brig meet Mike Yates, which would put it sometime in the first couple of seasons of the third Doctor.

The science in the story is completely rubbish. I mean some stuff on Doctor Who could actually happen, such as time travel and chameleon circuits, but stones as energy sources? Connecting with them telepathically? I mean, I can understand connecting with living things telepathically, but a rock? Come on!

The same thing that happened in the last two stories happened again. I'm really not sure what the Doctor is getting at, with a special telepathic rock and some data on a civilization of pure energy. He obviously needs them for something, but I can't tell quite what. I have a feeling that it may not be until the new series Doctors that we get an idea of what's really going on.

I like the idea of UNIT having a mobile command post in a C-130 Hercules. I'm not sure if they had that in the classic series (I doubt the BBC could have afforded to rent one), but it's definitely the type of thing UNIT would have.

I also like the inclusion of perception filters, which is not something you would have found in any classic series stories. I'm not sure how often Big Finish stories about classic Doctors borrow things like perception filters and psychic paper from the new series. I really haven't listened to enough of their stories to know.

Coming up next month, it's Babblesphere, written by Jonathan Morris and starring the fourth Doctor and Romana.