Doctor Who: The Fourth Doctor Meets the Vashta Nerada in 2017!
By James Aggas
The Fourth Doctor faces an old (or new?) enemy in the 2017 audio story ‘Night of the Vashta Nerada.’
This year’s Classic Doctors, New Monsters box set was quite a success for Big Finish. Unsurprisingly, they are already making stories for a second volume, due to be released next year. And it’s already shaping up to be quite exciting, due to a recent announcement.
"On 16 November, the forces of darkness descended on Audio Sorcery Studios, as Tom Baker and a brilliant cast battled the Vashta Nerada in a futuristic funfair on an alien world as part of the forthcoming Doctor Who – Classic Doctors, New Monsters Volume 2.‘Our first volume of Classic Doctors, New Monsters really captured the imaginations of our listeners,’ says producer David Richardson. ‘They loved the fusion of two different eras of the TV series. And I’m sure they are going to equally love John Dorney’s brilliant Night of the Vashta Nerada, in which the shadowy predators create mayhem in a story straight out of the Philip Hinchcliffe era.’"
I’m already super excited about this news, for three key reasons. Firstly, it’ll be the first time that we hear the Fourth Doctor tackling a New Series monster. An enemy like the Vashta Nerada is a fantastic choice, as their grisly nature really suits his early seasons, particularly since the words “Philip Hinchcliffe era” are already being used. Hinchcliffe’s time on Doctor Who was, in my opinion, one of the greatest eras of the show. It’s great to hear that they’re going for that tone.
Secondly, we can expect something different to their first appearance in ‘Silence in the Library‘/’Forest of the Dead.’ For example, I don’t expect them to be wearing astronaut suits. I also don’t expect them to repeatedly ask things like, “Hey, who turned out the lights?” So we can already be fairly certain that we won’t just be getting a copy of their introduction.
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Lastly, John Dorney is the writer. As one of my current favourite writers at Big Finish, that’s virtually a guarantee that this story is going to be great. His work on various ranges like Dark Eyes, Doom Coalition, and UNIT have all been brilliant.
One thing I’m wondering about is whether this will be the Doctor’s first encounter with the Vashta Nerada. With the first Classic Doctor, New Monsters box set, in all four stories, the old Doctors had met all of the enemies before. That wasn’t surprising with Eight meeting the Sontarans, considering we had already seen them meet plenty of times in the Classic Series. (In fact, we’ll be hearing the Doctor’s first ever encounter with them very, very soon).
But even Five seemed to be already familiar with the Weeping Angels. I hope Big Finish get to tackle some first encounters for enemies introduced in the New Series at some point. While we expect the Doctor to know virtually every monster now, it could be interesting to hear him during a more vulnerable time when he doesn’t have all the answers about a foe.
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