Doctor Who: Wirrn Dawn

Doctor Who does a sort of cross between Aliens and Starship Troopers. The identity of the monster here is hardly a secret, given the title, featuring the giant insectoid brood parasites from the TV story The Ark in Space. Here, however, we're in the middle of a war, and the guest characters are the marines trying to fight off the creatures in question.

This could easily have ended up very far from what the TV show normally does, but here, the militaristic solution is not at all the correct one, and the tropes of the cinematic inspirations are clearly being subverted. Plus, Lucie does not fight off the Wirrn queen wearing an armoured exoskeleton. You know, in case you wondered.

As usual, it's well performed, and the story does a good job of evoking the atmosphere of the setting, with some relatively hard SF elements (insofar as Doctor Who ever does, anyway). Colin Salmon is notable for being cast against type here, as a working class and racist marine.

On the downside, there is a distinct theme of survival-at-all-costs, which is somewhat at odds with the usual moral tone of the show. It does, however, all hang together rather well, even if it's not the most original thing ever. So, once again, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.