Writer: Warwick Gray, Art: Colin Andrew, Editor: Gary Russell
Earth, England, the near future (post-Battlefield?): Doris Lethbridge Stewart is chatting on her car phone to Liz Shaw, when she spots a familiar yellow shape in the drive.
It seems the Doctor is paying a visit to his old friend, the Brigadier. As Doris approaches, though, the house is obliterated in a huge explosion...
Two months later, Colonel Muriel Frost is helicoptered back to base, past a glass domed biosphere populated by dinosaurs. Something unusual is happening here...
Nearby, the TARDIS arrives in most atypical style. Where's the Vworp Vworp?
The 7th Doctor, Ace and Professor Bernice Summerfield emerge.
Colonel Frost is welcomed back to base by Professor Thactus - A Silurian scientist!
They soon receive a distress call from a Sea Devil base in Japan. Is this some distant future where mankind and Earth Reptiles have made peace and co-exist harmoniously?
The Doctor, Ace and Benny are attacked by horrific creatures that burst out of the ground and tear their way into the compound.
Ace races off to get stuck into the fight immediately.
While Ace does what Ace does best, Frost and Thactus arrive, with a contraption the Silurian scientist has rigged up to neutralize the creatures.
It's only then that the time travellers realize something else is wrong, as Frost doesn't recognize them - and threatens to have them shot!
Elsewhere, in a hidden base, a shadowy figure conducts a horrific experiment on human and Sea Devil prisoners, proclaiming "I am the future. I will brook no denial!"
The Doctor has by now realized that they are on a parallel Earth, where humans and Silurians live together in peace - which is why Frost doesn't recognize them: here, they never met.
The Doctor recalls his first encounter with the Silurian race, and his failed attempt to make peace between them and the humans that ended with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart entombing them in their base with explosives.
While Ace does what Ace does best, Frost and Thactus arrive, with a contraption the Silurian scientist has rigged up to neutralize the creatures.
The device does the trick, putting the creatures into a coma.
It's only then that the time travellers realize something else is wrong, as Frost doesn't recognize them - and threatens to have them shot!
Elsewhere, in a hidden base, a shadowy figure conducts a horrific experiment on human and Sea Devil prisoners, proclaiming "I am the future. I will brook no denial!"
The Doctor has by now realized that they are on a parallel Earth, where humans and Silurians live together in peace - which is why Frost doesn't recognize them: here, they never met.
The Doctor recalls his first encounter with the Silurian race, and his failed attempt to make peace between them and the humans that ended with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart entombing them in their base with explosives.
The Doctor has realized that this is a parallel world, and the Wenley Moor incident was a crucial nexus point in history.
Frost and Thactus are sceptical: as we saw earlier, this world's Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart were killed in a bomb attack two months ago.
However, when the Doctor reveals knowledge of the neuralizer device Thactus was only able to build with their Doctor's know how...
...and the discovery of the 7th Doctor's TARDIS in the woods, they come around.
Thactus explains to the Doctor that the Chimeras, who have both human and reptile DNA, have been attacking bases for the two months since his counter-part was murdered.
The arrival of a parallel Doctor doesn't go unnoticed by our mysterious villain...
...who orders the URIC soldier chaperoning the Doctor and Thactus back to the TARDIS for some equipment to eliminate them.
It seems our villain has had his mole in place all along!
The Doctor attempts to use hypnosis to overcome the soldier's conditioning...
...but Benny uses the distraction to get the jump on her.
At the loss of his puppet, the villain accelerates his plan.
The Doctor uses his other self's workshop to lash up a device to link Benny to into the soldier's mind.
...where she discovers that the villain is a Silurian called Mortakk.
Thactus knows Mortakk of old. He was an amoral scientist that Thactus believed had been executed by the Silurian triad.
The soldier also gave away Mortakk's location: Darkmoor, an abandoned nuclear research centre.
As soon as they arrive there in the TARDIS, the Doctor, Thactus and Benny are captured by the Chimeras and taken to Mortakk, who welcomes them... to the final genesis.
Mortakk believes that the human and Silurian races have reached a genetic dead end and a new race must be created to inherit the Earth.
At the Doctor’s signal, Ace and the URIC forces arrive in the other TARDIS, armed with Thactus’ device.
Mortakk makes a run for it, and the Doctor gives chase.
When Mortakk tries to kill the Doctor with his third eye, the Doctor punctures a gas cylinder with his umbrella.
Not being human or Silurian, the Doctor is unaffected, but Mortakk himself is not so lucky, and perishes.
Before returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor visits his other self's grave.
Ace and Benny still have questions about their "accidental" arrival in a parallel universe, but as they conclude...
...they unlikely to get a straight answer from the Doctor!
THE END
Both stories kick off a "what if" scenario relating to 1970's Doctor Who and the Silurians, but whereas Blood Heat features a world ruled by Silurians victorious after murdering the 3rd Doctor in that televised tale, Final Genesis begins in a world where the Doctor successfully brokered peace and both humans and Silurians live together in peace.
As a relatively tight, 4-part, UNIT-backed action thriller, Final Genesis actually shares more DNA with Battlefield and even Warriors of the Deep than the majority of the Virgin novels.
Benny doesn't really get much to do in the early part of the story, most likely because here she's being overshadowed by the arrival of the NA version of Ace, her 'battle hardened' and weapons training credentials very much on show.
Ace very much has the the fiery, bitter, personality of her later NAs, still perhaps not having fully forgiven the Doctor for the events of Love and War.
Benny's moment in the spotlight comes in the 3rd part, with an oh-so-90s dreamscape/cyberpunk insertion into the mind of a brainwashed soldier.
Whilst the script is typically dependable for this era of the strip, the artwork is also as variable, with the 7th Doctor coming in for yet more questionable likenesses.
Aside from that, though, Colin Andrew's style is well suited to the various creatures on show, Martokk the Warriors-style Silurian a particular highlight.
Overall, it's an entertaining adventure yarn elevated by a strong premise that builds on some classic tales without ever really seeming like fanwank. The Silurians and Sea Devils are well served, and most of the supporting cast are well devised and consistently drawn. Martokk's defeat may be somewhat perfunctory in the end, but the solid plot, well crafted parallel world and judicious callbacks make this a tale worth telling. This NA tied run pretty much fell apart here, but this is definitely one of its stronger entries. The final scene with the Doctor visiting the grave of his parallel 3rd self, and his companions wondering who he really counts as family any more, makes for a memorable scene.
8/10
TTFN! K.
Coming Soon... Colony in Space
No comments:
Post a Comment