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Jason Kane had thought things were going well with his
ex-wife Bernice. Until she went sleepwalking, stole Brax's
shuttle (causing Jason GBH in the process), and then abandoned
him to the mercy of mute and unfriendly aliens. However, Benny
- waking to find herself marooned on a strange planet dressed
only in her nightie, with strange voices in her head and a
bunch of one-eyed monsters threatening to cut out her tongue
- would probably argue that her day was even worse...
The
Eternals, the Galyari, the giant robot, the Grel... Now the
Monoids, the one-time one-eyed monsters from the William Hartnell
serial The Ark, join the growing ranks of obscure Doctor
Who monsters and villains that have made guest appearances
in the Professor Bernice Summerfield range. Why can't
such creatures appear in Big Finish's Who series, though?
Stop
sniggering at the back. There's nothing remotely amusing about
the term "one-eyed monster". Oh, all right, maybe there is.
A bit.
Actually,
I've always had a soft spot for the Monoids, ever since I
was intrigued by a photograph of them in an early 1980s Blue
Peter annual. Jacqueline Rayner makes good use of the
creatures in a story that forms a convincing prequel to events
in The Ark - though personally I would have preferred
it if this had been a time-travel story, so its events could
have taken place closer to the far-future dateline of the
original story.
Meanwhile,
Simon Robinson's music echoes Tristram Cary's musique concrète
soundtrack to The Ark, which was itself lifted from
his score for The Daleks.
Those
of you who are familiar with the phrase, "In the kingdom of
the blind..." may be able to guess the nature of the social
order that exists on the alien planet. This hierarchy is also
cleverly tied in with the proverbial Three Wise Monkeys: See
No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil. The Three Wise Monkeys
were also referenced in the original Planet
of the Apes movie, and accordingly The Kingdom
of the Blind uses similar themes of humans being treated
like animals and of slaves becoming the enslavers.
All
in all, this CD is a blinder, and it's well worth keeping
an eye out for.
You
can start sniggering at the back now. If you like. Anybody?
Richard
McGinlay
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