Planet of the Drashigs (audio story)

Planet of the Drashigs
Doctor:	Fourth Doctor
Companion(s):	Ann, K9 Mark II
Main enemy:	Drashigs
Main setting:	DrashigWorld
Key crew
Publisher:	Big Finish Productions
Writer:	Phil Mulryne
Director:	Nicholas Briggs
Music:	Jamie Robertson
Sound:	Jamie Robertson
Cover by:	Anthony Lamb
Release details
Release number:	8.2
Release date:	16 January 2019
Format:	2 parts, 1 CD
Production code:	BFPTOMCD061
ISBN:	ISBN 978-1-78703-295-8
Fourth Doctor Adventures
← Previous	The Sinestran Kill
Next →	The Enchantress of Numbers

Planet of the Drashigs was the second story in the eighth series of the Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions.

Publisher's summary

When the TARDIS lands on an alien planet, the Doctor's intentions to show Ann Kelso an advanced future society are thrown into disarray. Because they have arrived on DrashigWorld - a park where every known species of the terrifying predators has been gathered together to entertain and thrill the public. The familiar wetland Drashigs, the albino burrowing Drashigs of the desert, and deadliest of all, the tiny Emerald Drashigs of the rain forests.

And it's not the best day to have arrived. The park has been shut down due to a visitor fatality. A Galactic Attractions inspector is on site meaning everyone is extremely tense and under pressure.

It's exactly the right circumstances in which someone might make a mistake. And on Drashigworld, mistakes are deadly.

Plot

Part one

to be added

Part two

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor - Tom Baker
• WPC Ann Kelso - Jane Slavin
• K9 - John Leeson
• Vanessa Seaborne - Fenella Woolgar
• Lord Braye - Jeremy Clyde
• Trencher - Lizzie Roper
• Titus Wayland - Andrew Ryan

References

• DrashigWorld is a planetoid or dwarf planet, one of the 700 Wonders of the Galactic Hub. It is divided into four quadrants separated by energy barriers, with telepads for transportation.
• The TARDIS arrives in the wetland.
• There are dozens of Drashigs on the planet, and they are fed on goats.
• Vanessa designed a catalytic fusion reactor that powers the park.
• Emerald Drashigs are the smallest and deadliest, more vicious than any predator in the known universe. They travel in packs of five, with the alpha having a white marking.
• Wayland claims Braye paid the family of the victim 1000 credits not to talk.
• The door to Vanessa's lab is double-plated romalian alloy, the only metal Drashigs can't bite through.
• Vanessa's project involved a remote electroencephalograph and a neural oscillation detector, which allows the user to connect to the Drashig's neural oscillations, their higher and lower beta waves. The user can then experience the co-ordination and thrill of the Drashigs hunting.
• Drashigs are non-sentient, the Doctor explaining that they don't have a consciousness or imagination.
• K9 assimilates the 3D map schematic of the park.
• Trencher uses a grenade to kill an alpha emerald, and the others mourn it.
• Trencher had a dog once, but a Manussian ligrid tore her to pieces.
• A single Emerald wiped out a group of soldiers in the jungles of Hydroxus 3.

Notes

• This story marks the Drashigs' first appearance in an audio, and is reminiscent of Jurassic Park. Behind-the-scenes material makes this connection explicit. Nicholas Briggs also compares the Emerald Drashigs to the velociraptors of that film and franchise. (BFX: Planet of the Drashigs) There is also a cheeky reference within the script: the Doctor notes that Lord Braye had "no expense spared" in DrashigWorld's lab, echoing a recurring line from the film.
• While the Doctor's use of air vents to escape is a running joke, in this story characters use "atmospheric distribution tunnels."

Continuity

• The Doctor previously encountered Drashigs and ignited gas to defend himself. (TV: Carnival of Monsters)
• The Doctor finishes building K9 Mark II. (TV: The Invasion of Time, AUDIO: The Sinestran Kill)
• The Doctor quotes to beware "Greeks bearing gifts," and says "I warned them but they wouldn't listen." (TV: The Myth Makers)
• Vanessa becomes connected with the Drashigs. The Drashigs evolved from posthumans. (PROSE: Daring Initiation)

External links

• Official Planet of the Drashigs page at bigfinish.com