The Mutant Phase / Primeval

Somewhere in the future, swarms of alien monsters with metal hides impervious to blasters are ravaging the galaxy. They are a swarm. They are unstoppable. The TARDIS brings the Doctor and Nyssa to Kansas during the height of the Dalek occupation of the 22nd century, and then to an alternate Earth in the far future where the last survivors of the human race are being aided by Thals. By order of the Emperor Dalek, the Doctor is captured and taken back to Skaro where the same swarming aliens are destroying the planet. Even the Daleks cannot stop this menace, and they need the Doctor's help; but when the Doctor realizes the true nature of the Mutant Phase he realizes that the Daleks have brought this on themselves...



This is actually one of the original fan stories done by Audio Visuals back in the 1980's, rejigged for Big Finish audio and the acting presence of Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton. The story is another of those where time has been thrown out of joint and the Doctor becomes part of an alternative timeline which he must restore. Setting a lot of the Earth action in 2157 during the Dalek occupation is a lot of fun, considering that we have considerable backstory about what the Daleks are up to on the other side of the world from Kansas. Even the Roboman the Doctor and Nyssa encounter has a southern drawl.

We also get to hear the booming tones of the Emperor Dalek in this one, the same voice that will be used in the 2005 episode The Parting of the Ways. The Daleks are done well; they're nasty and cruel but panicky. The Mutant Phase is decimating their ranks and turning red blooded Daleks into monsters that they cannot kill, and the est of the universe is falling before them. Ironically, the Daleks are becoming the supreme beings just as Davros had wished, but maybe just not in the way he had envisioned.

Complaints are minor. There's this bit where time starts to go off track and the Doctor and Nyssa are the only ones affected, and to emphasize the turmoil they are meant to sound as if they are moving in slow motion. Slow motion on screen is one thing, but in audio.... not convincing.

Nyssa is dying. The Doctor does not know why and takes her back in time to Traken some 3000 years before Nyssa was born to search for a cure. Traken in its primeval times was a world governed by the Source, before the time of the Keepers, and all evil from outside the Traken Union was greeted with hostility, strangers to the Union watched with suspicion. The Doctor falls under the scrutiny of the Consuls of the time and falls even further in disfavour when he consults a living god steeped in evil; in his efforts to save Nyssa, he may well doom the Traken Union.

This is where Nyssa's fledgeling telepathic abilities are finally examined, building on her collapse in the TARDIS at the end of Four to Doomsday. Turns out she's being manipulated across time and space in an effort to bring the Doctor back to Traken as an unwitting agent of Kuwandaar. The living god thinks he has it all covered and can even see in the Doctor's mind that Traken will be destroyed in the far future, but he wants to conquer it anyways. And if clairvoyance across time and space isn't enough, he has a hoarde of dedicated thugs ready to die at his command without question.

I have one complaint about Primeval. Why is it that the Doctor has to turn out to be such an influence in the history of Traken? Sure he's credited with much of what is done on Earth but we're okay with that for the most part, but now here he is at pivotal points in history for other planets as well. Plusses though, and the biggest one being how Nyssa finally gets a chance to grow as a character. She is the only non-Earthling companion to get to experience her own world's history, a fact made more poignant by her witnessing its demise in Logopolis. And she gets some guts and defends her world from the invaders when push comes to shove.

The Doctor as always is cool, not flinching at the prospect of seeing the face of the living god himself, more curios about it than anything. And he takes the parinoia of the wishy washy Consuls in stride, finding an ally in the physician Shayla.

Of course the day is saved. Traken continues to thrive in the glow of the Source right up until the end. The Doctor any Nyssa, however...

NEXT EPISODE : SPARE PARTS