Doctor Who: White Ghosts

This is reminiscent of the film Pitch Black, only the other way around, featuring a planet that is (for some unexplained reason) in almost-but-not-quite permanent eclipse, so that it only experiences sunlight for twelve hours or so every thousand years. Which, since that's when things become dangerous, means that, not for the first time in a Big Finish audio, much of the story takes place in the darkness.

Given that premise, it's hardly surprising that this is a base-under-siege story, with the titular “white ghosts” as the aggressors. The tone as a whole is unusually grim, much more towards the horror end of the spectrum than action adventure, and is peppered with references to the darker aspects of common fairy tales. The one-hour length does mean that there isn't much room for plot development, although the full story behind the base and the planet it is on is more complex than it first appears, so there is more depth to it than merely the siege itself.

The mostly female cast is notable for including Virginia Hey, who played Zhaan, the blue-skinned plant-woman in Farscape. However, it's Leela's portrayal that's more significant, playing up the fact that, while she may come from a primitive society, she is nonetheless quite intelligent and not merely the “savage” she's sometimes written as. On the other hand, the apparent character development plot arc started off at the end of the previous episode is dealt with here, but seems to fizzle out rather quickly. Which there's a certain logic to, given that this story has to be inserted within the TV show's continuity, but does illustrate a limitation of writing “past Doctor” stories in general.

The ending feels rather rushed, and doesn't make a lot of sense, and there's a weird point where we switch to voice-over narration for no particular reason. The former detracts more than the latter, which is just one brief scene, but is offset by an original foe, and the strength of the Leela/Doctor interaction. Nonetheless, I'm giving this 3.5 stars, rounded down.