My latest excursion into audio Doctorland is this story written by the glorious Jonathan Morris and directed by Barnaby Edwards. This is generally held in semi-low esteem but it features the return of the Krynoids from my favourite all-time Doctor Who storyline: THE SEEDS OF DOOM with Tom Baker & Elisabeth Sladen . . . . oh, and Camp Freddy, of course! Morris is the author of such outstanding Doctor Who audio adventures as THE HAUNTING OF THOMAS BREWSTER as well as the truly terrifying STATIC (reviewed elsewhere on this blog) but I kept my hopey-hopes in check knowing HOTHOUSE generally gets a meh response. The synopsis from Big Finish's own blurb: "Somewhere in the south of England stands the Hothouse. Five vast, state-of-the-art biodomes, all steel and glass. Inside, rock star turned environmental activist Alex Marlow has a plan to save the world from climate change. By any means necessary... There's something growing inside the Hothouse. Something that could turn back humanity's tide. A voracious alien vegetable called the Krynoid. The Doctor's going to have to stop it. Stop Marlow. Stop Marlow's fanatical acolyte, Lucie Miller... Save the world. By any means necessary."
Paul John McGann & Sheridan Smith
The neat thing about this story is that Lucie Miller (the wonderful Sheridan Smith), for reasons which remains spoilery, previously travelled with the Doctor (Paul John McGann) pretty much against both their wills. The C.I.A. (as any Whovian knows is the Gallifreyan Celestial Intervention Agency) placed Lucie in the Doctor's TARDIS as sort of a 'witness protection program' due to something timey-wimey and spoilery. At one point, Lucie left the Doctor and at another point the 8th Doctor got some memory issues (deriving from events in the audio adventure ORBIS). HOTHOUSE shows Lucie Miller re-entering the 8th Doctor's life but he doesn't quite remember who she is. Details like this are dealt with in subsequent stories and here we have a great example of that. At the beginning of the story, Lucie Miller seems to have joined a rather militant ecology organisation called 'The League of Nature' and, in an interview, states that she will even commit murder in order to save the planet! 
Lysette Anthony
The L.O.N. was created by former rock star and current political activist Alex Marlow (Nigel Planer). In a direct line from the TV adventure THE SEEDS OF DOOM, the World Ecology Bureau's Sir Colin Thackery, after the 4th Doctor departed, took some cuttings of the Krynoid and stored them. Unfortunately, these Krynoid samples were stolen and now Marlow is cultivating them into a new form of Krynoid. It's perhaps not too surprising to learn that Lucie is not in fact a rabid eco-terrorist but is actually working undercover to infiltrate the L.O.N. when the Doctor arrives in the midst of things. Lysette Anthony (KRULL, JACK THE RIPPER [1988] and TRILOGY OF TERROR II) appears as Hazel Bright; a character which I will also not talk any further about because spoilers spoilers. Interestingly, Lysette Anthony not only previously worked with Paul McGann in the 2001 movie HOTEL but also appeared alongside Peter Capaldi in the same movie!!! Timey-wimey!
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| Sheridan Smith, in character, as Lucie Bleedin' Miller |
I really loved the interplay between McGann and Smith and the added bonus of the Doctor not quite remembering/knowing what to think of her brings an entirely new angle to their relationship. Smith, as always, is spectacularly good as Lucie Bleedin' Miller and brings so much life into every story she's in! Her street-tough attitude and humourous quips never go amiss with me. Nigel Planer does a nice job with a rather stereotypical 'mad scientist' part and never once cooks a pot of lentils. Wait, I guess that would be veggie murder so he wouldn't, would he? Planer, who reveals in the behind-the-scenes interview, that he is not a particular fan of fantasy/science fiction genres, seems to get cast in a lot of them and here, as stated, he's fine. Lysette Anthony also does a very good job with a very underwritten role. In fact, oddly for Jonathan Morris, all the (non-Doctor & Companion) parts are kinda underwritten and succeed really through the performances by the actors alone. As far as the story, Morris' writing here is also a little anemic since HOTHOUSE really plays as a reheated version of THE SEEDS OF DOOM (with the bio-domes recalling QUATERMASS 2). 
Our old friend the Krynoid
This is not a bad story by any means; it only suffers in comparison to Morris' many other home runs in the writing department. HOTHOUSE is a middle-of-the-road adventure with excellent performances by the cast. It's not spectacular but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. The best scene for me, where Morris' writing suddenly comes to life, is after all the adventuresome hoo-hah has been resolved and Lucie hints to the still brain-addled Doctor that she's kinda sorta like to be invited back into the TARDIS. This final scene alone makes the entire story worth a listen!
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