Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Tim Bentinck, Rosanna Miles, John Banks, Francesca Hunt, Hugh Fraser, Geoffrey Barton.

There are many precious stones that lay on the floor unnoticed, some that have fallen from the stars and lay undisturbed until the right pair of eyes gazes upon them and sees something extraordinary in its shape and form. Scratch beneath the surface though and not all stones are what they seem and instead can hold a hidden danger that once woken becomes a hunter, a hunter in which only The Doctor can hope to stop in Mark Morris’ latest audio drama for Big Finish, Moonflesh.

The Doctor, in his fifth incarnation, finds himself once more on Earth but surrounded by people who find the idea of the game hunt appealing but who, along with his erstwhile companion Nyssa, have found that the world is about to become so much more dangerous and that the idea of being able to turn a gun on an animal in some sort of testosterone fuelled show of exhibition is going to come back to haunt them.

The themes of the story delves into many different strands and whilst under the constant umbrella of exploration, tracking and shooting, all the pursuits of those finding solace and adventure of those who perhaps came back from the Boar War and what was then called The Dark Continent,  Moonflesh arguably lacks total conviction in the approach of the Doctor. The most compassionate of all the Doctors. Peter Davison’s incarnation doesn’t sit well in this particular story due to the strain of understanding what his hosts, the humans see in their sport but who has no righteous indignation in what they are doing. Moonflesh is one of the stories in which demands to have had the bitterness and simmering anger of the sixth or even eighth Doctor’s wrath bearing down upon those taking delight in the hunt. With the fifth Doctor, the listener is left under no illusion, especially with the very good character of native American Silver Crow, played by John Banks, that the story is one almost of reconciliation rather than a lesson being learned.

The Doctor with Nyssa alongside him deals with the alien threat but the human menace is one that seems more potent, more aggressive throughout and yet so easily resolved. The listener is left feeling slightly unfulfilled, as if being promised an expedition to the source of the River Nile or traversing the great central plains and yet finding themselves sitting by the banks of the Birmingham Union canal or battling the hordes of shoppers in any local town on a Saturday afternoon when the football is playing.

Whilst it is always brings a smile to the face to welcome back Peter Davison as the title character, on Moonflesh, it is with slight reticence as the complexion of the story is perhaps not what could have been.

Moonflesh is available to purchase from Worlds Apart on Lime Street, Liverpool.

Ian D. Hall