Planet of the Drashigs (audio story)

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Planet of the Drashigs was the second story in the eighth series of The Fourth Doctor Adventures, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Phil Mulryne and featured Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, Jane Slavin as Ann Kelso and John Leeson as K9 Mark II.

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 rainforests.

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

The Doctor introduces the surprised Ann to the newly assembled K9 Mark II and attempts to take them to meet the Liddellians of Numenor Minor, but the TARDIS goes out of control and the Doctor instead lands on the wetlands of a planetoid. Although the Doctor orders K9 to remain inside due to perceived criticisms of his ability to pilot the TARDIS, Ann tells him to follow once they are at a distance. The wetlands are enclosed by an energy barrier which they follow until they find incomplete animal skeletons and hear the growl of a Drashig, whereupon they quickly march away. K9 shoots at the Drashig when it nears the Doctor and Ann, at the cost of depleting his new energy cell, and is left behind whilst his companions use a teleport pad.

Lord Braye and Trencher, the owner and gamekeeper of DrashigWorld, check the facilities around the park ahead of the arrival of inspector Titus Wayland, who is visiting because of the recent death of a visitor who turned off their personal energy shield. When Wayland arrives, engineer Vanessa Seaborne sends Trencher to investigate human movement that she has detected whilst Lord Braye occupies Wayland and denies covering up other incidents as he had attempted to do by paying off the deceased's family. They are interrupted when the Doctor and Ann arrive by teleport and Vanessa realises that the Emerald Drashig enclosure at the research lab is open, but she is dissociating and collapses before she can do anything about it. The Doctor and Lord Braye go to investigate.

Trencher finds K9 conserving energy at the teleport pad and takes him to the centre to power him up, meeting Ann just after the Doctor and Lord Braye leave. The Doctor and Lord Braye close the enclosure and see to the unwell Vanessa, who says that she can hear the Drashigs and that they are always hungry. The five Emerald Drashigs, smaller and deadlier than their larger cousins, have been freed from their captivity and advance upon the Doctor, Lord Braye and Vanessa. The Doctor tries to keep them back.

Part two

The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to activate and ignite a gas tap and frighten the Emerald Drashigs away with fire, allowing him to escape with Lord Braye and Vanessa and fuse the controls of a Romalian alloy door behind them. He contacts and updates the centre, where K9 is charging his power cell using the park's catalytic fusion reactor, before pressing Lord Braye and Vanessa about the electro-encephalogram he saw in the lab; they explain that Vanessa has been connecting to the Emerald Drashigs' brains to find a way to allow tourists to experience what they do when they hunt. Because of these experiments, she has a connection to them and can sense that they are in the teleport pad room where they find them using the device.

K9 assimilates a map of the park and reaches 77% capacity. Ann has to disconnect him and hide with him, Trencher and Wayland, however, when the Emerald Drashigs arrive via the teleport pad. K9 blasts the roof with his laser to bury them in rubble and leads the group along the atmospheric distribution tunnels to the armoury. Trencher informs the Doctor of their destination using her communicator and the Doctor, having realised that the connection between Vanessa and the Emerald Drashigs goes both ways, warns her that the Drashigs will be on their way there. The Emerald Drashigs dent the tunnel from the outside to trap the group and Wayland tries to get away, but the Emerald Drashigs get through and kill him. Ann, K9 and Trencher manage to squeeze through the dent.

The Doctor intends to go back to the lab to try and find a way to help the three but refuses to say why, explaining that Vanessa is leaking information unintentionally through their connected minds.

Trencher, Ann and K9 manage to make it to the armoury.

The Doctor, suspecting something, finds and shows them a video of Vanessa, unconscious, opening the enclosure and letting the Drsahigs out. He explains that the connection is two-way and the Drashigs have been using Vanessa for their own means.

Trencher and Ann prepare weapons to fight the Drashigs.

The Doctor pulls Lord Braye aside and out of ear-shot from Vanessa and tells Braye that he is giving him a job and entrusting the lives of everyone to him. He is to deliver a message.

Trencher and Ann get ready to fight as the Drashigs are drawing nearer to their location.

The Doctor regrets fusing the door controls while Vanessa, in a fit of pain, senses the Drashigs, preparing to attack the armoury. The Doctor says they must hurry.

Trencher explains that only one Drashig will hunt, and they need to carefully aim their grenade. After a moment of silence, the Drashig bursts forth.

Vanessa senses one of the Drashigs has been killed.

Trencher and Ann are successful and have managed to kill the alpha but Trencher sympathises with the creature in death, saying it didn't choose to be the way it is. They hear the cries of the other Drashigs mourning their dead leader. K9 reveals that the emerald Drashigs are retreating.

Back in Vanessa's lab, the Doctor finds the neuro-headpiece she was using to inter-face with the Drashigs. He explains there's a central power generator that he needs to re-route the power from, temporarily disabling the entire park's systems.

K9 detects something else approaching them. They then hear a knock. It is Lord Braye. He says the Doctor sent him with a message for them.

Vanessa and the Doctor prepare to re-route power, despite it meaning the end of Drashigworld. Suddenly Vanessa, again in pain, reveals the Drashigs are coming for them.

Trencher and the others head round the back but stop when they hear the Drashigs. She tells them not to move. The Drashigs pass them and Trencher reveals that they weren't displaying hunting behaviour and were intent on going somewhere else.

Vanessa reveals they have 60 seconds before the power will be re-routed. The Doctor tells her to stall the Drashig by communicating with them mentally. She tells the Drashigs that no one has to die. Sympathising that they have lost their alpha, she says she can be their new alpha. They refuse unless she kills for them. The Doctor tries to remind her of her humanity. She is almost successful but is rejected at the last moment. Manual over-ride is accessed but at the cost of Vanessa's life.

Trencher, Ann and K9 continue on their way when the power goes off. They reassemble as a line, all holding each other's shoulders and Ann holds K9's tail as he guides them to the exit.

The Doctor quickly mourns Vanessa, then puts on neuro-headpiece and uses the power to connect with the Drashigs across the whole park. The Doctor is almost over-powered by the Drashig's killing instincts but manages to broadcast a new signal over the entire park.

The four manage to make it out of the tunnels but notice that the wetland's Drashigs have escaped. They note it is acting strange but then the Doctor arrives and explains that the thoughts that tormented Vanessa have now been put into the heads of every Drashig in the park, causing them to break down.

They make their way back to the TARDIS and Ann asks the Doctor if they can take the others with them, to which, despite being tempted to leave Lord Braye, he affirms that they will. Trencher is not sure what to do with herself now that she cannot work at the park anymore but the Doctor assures her that it's a big cosmos and she has lots of choices. They see the Drashigs acting even more bizarrely and the Doctor explains they are being attracted to Vanessa's equipment which is broadcasting a signal causing them to seek out the source. He also explains that they will continue to do so until the equipment burns itself off but by that time they will be safely off the planet. When asked what will happen now, the Doctor says the Drashigs can now properly inhabit the planet and it will truly be called "Drashigworld" now.

Cast

Uncredited cast

Worldbuilding

  • 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

Cover gallery

  • Textless cover

    Textless cover

  • Alternate cover

    Alternate cover

External links

v • e
Big Finish Fourth Doctor Adventures
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Series 6
Series 7
Series 8
Series 9
Series 10
Series 11
Series 12
Series 13
Dalek Universe
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