Start to Finish: 6.02 - The Rocket Men

Image (c) Big Finish Productions Ltd

Back to the First Doctor, and another TARDIS 'holiday', in John Dorney's The Rocket Men.

Vacationing on the Platform 5 luxuy hotel on the gas giant Jobis, the TARDIS crew are enjoying the break from danger and adventure. Then the Rocket Men arrive, and the holiday is very much over.

The frame of The Rocket Men is a bit of an oddity, with William Russell as Ian skipping back and forth in the narrative and breaking off to muse on that perennial favourite of Chronicle writers, Ian and Barbara as the OTP of the First Doctor era. The frame also blends into the main story, and is ultimately overtaken and let behind.

Despite the art deco look and 50s pulp adventure name, the Rocket Men themselves are a brutal depiction of piracy, murderous and more than a little sadistic, as represented by Gus Brown as their gleefully vicious, scene chewing leader Ashman. The massacre of innocents is classic Who all over, and the look of the Rocket Men makes it easy to visualise them in Radio Serial style, while the descriptions are rather more sophisticated.

Despite the limitations of the form, The Rocket Men manages to generate a real sense of tension and peril, and the Rocket Men themselves were good enough to return in series 7's Return of the Rocket Men, as well as Requiem for the Rocket Men, a forthcoming full-cast adventure for the Fourth Doctor and Leela.

We'll catch up with them later then. For now, the next play is a Second Doctor outing which develops the story of the older Zoe Herriot in The Memory Cheats.