171. The Seeds of War

The Seeds of War actually is the first story released to introduce the Eminence who would play a major role in Dark Eyes 2-4. As a monster, the Eminence are a terrifying concept, taking the basic idea of Zombies and imbuing it with cosmic menace. It becomes apparent that the Eminence has some influence over the Doctor, although what exactly is isn't clear, but it leaves us wondering about many of the Doctor's actions throughout the story.

More than that, the story also deals with some very realistic concepts as the Doctor and Mel arrive at the tale end of the Earth Alliance's war with the Eminence to a situation where victory has been achieved but the privations of war have taken their effects. There are some very well-drawn guest characters and Mel has arguably her best characterization of the trilogy. Overall, it's a very solid adventure that also plays into large Big Finish continuity.

This adventure was excellent, I thought too deeply about the title, when in fact it is the crux of the whole story. So the gardening fraternity whom enjoy a space adventure with the Doctor are finally catered for. Of course I am being flippant. This is a horticulturally adapted story, but there is much more to this story, and to get to the part where to save the outlying colonists from earth, the Doctor ably assisted has to travel to Earth to get the seeds to begin new life, there is an obvious comparison here, the x-earth scientist or botanist whom as strived to try and feed the x-patriots, whom have had to move away from earth lies dying, that from his death new life is born, in the shape of his son and daughter whom take on the role of custodians of his tasks to feed the planet. It is all good stuff, but of course this is not about watering the tomatoes, there are space battles aplenty, and the B movie style cliff hangers that are always on the money with good old No.6 doing a first rate job. Excellent adventure/space opera stuff here from Big Finish. One of there more stalwart releases.

Colin as always is excellent and in this he belies the fact that he is not the age of the man he is portraying, with a lot of the sequences playing out with him hanging from a beam or running through shell fire. So hats off to Mr. B for that shows what a versatile and believable actor he is, as most of the time I was drawn into the fantasy without a question over the reality and that is always a mark of how good audio drama can be. Bonnie Langford, is a paradigm, in reality I loathed her as a actor on TV or stage, and never really considered her work interesting, but cast her into a Doctor Who and my critisim is irrelevant twaddle. She is first rate, and probably one of the better companions the Doctor has in truth, she always seems to be on mark, just on the right side of total believability for me, and she does not have to play the usual unintelligent companion always needing the Doctor to work out the math as it where. She is certainly got the ability to do that all for herself. The supporting cast are all fantastic as well, but especially for me was the performance by Ray Fearon who was really cast so, so well for his part.

Excellent stuff, these last two releases have really propelled the No.6 Doctor Main Range along nicely.

A well-written script with an especially strong first episode. It loses a little bit in atmosphere later on, but the story nevertheless manages to stay tense and interesting until the end. Also, The Seeds of War reminded me why I like the combination of Mel and the Sixth Doctor so much, they just make such a great team!