Hothouse (Doctor Who: The New Eighth Doctor Adventures) (Doctor Who: the Eighth Doctor Adventures) [Audiobook] [Audio CD]

First of all, I like the 8th Doctor, and I love Doctor Who stories that go for a horror theme.

The reviewer who calls this 'The Seeds Of Doom, Mk II', is right - writer Jonathan Morris has produced a decent story, but he's re-used several plot themes from the Doctor's first encounter with the deadly Krynoid. The halfway cliffhanger on this CD has the Doctor's companion threatened with being stung by a Krynoid pod, you have the human villain teaming up with the Krynoid to save his own skin, and it ends with an explosion, etc. It is like a condensed version of The Seeds Of Doom - and Mr Morris would have done better to have come up with some more innovative plot devices, to keep us listeners guessing. Perhaps he could have, if Big Finish had given the story more air time?

However, the earth of the near-future in this story provides some food for thought, the performances are good all round, there's a good (speeded-up) transformation of a character who tries to hold onto their humanity, and Sheridan Smith as the gutsy, quirky Lucy Miller continues to prove that she's one of the best companions of the Doctor - ever! (example: when getting a security door to open for her, after creating her own pass card, instead of saying "Open sesame" she says "Open sesame seed bun!" :)

All in all, not bad! And I liked Nicholas Briggs' re-mixing of the Doctor Who theme. Is there no end to this guy's talents? :)

There's something about 'Hothouse' that I love - in some ways, it's perfect 'Doctor Who', with a megalomaniac rock star turned environmental campaigner (think Sting crossed with Ernst Stavro Blofeld, wonderfully played by Nigel Planer) cultivating alien plant creatures - Krynoids - in the hope of saving the Earth from the devastation that humanity has caused. Naturally, things escalate out of control, and it's up to the Doctor to stop him and save the world.

Which is all well and good - except for the fact that, give or take a few small differences, the plot is worryingly similar to that of 'The Seeds of Doom', the 1970s TV story which saw Tom Baker's Doctor battle the Krynoids. Nigel Planer's character, Alex Marlowe, is just as unhinged as Tony Beckley's Harrison Chase from that story, and both have their bases in the grounds of an English country house. These similarities aren't necessarily a problem in themselves, but if you've seen 'The Seeds of Doom', you'll have a pretty good idea about where things are heading. Unfortunately, 'Hothouse' also suffers a little from the fact that the Krynoids aren't all that well-suited to audio - their appeal is very much in their visual appearance. Although there are a few fairly chilling scenes where we hear the pleas of poor unfortunates who have been infected and are slowly being transformed into the creatures, it's not quite enough to shake the nagging feeling that whoever thought it would be a good idea to revive the Krynoids didn't really think things through.

I'm left rather conflicted about 'Hothouse' in the end. Nigel Planer is good fun, cast against type in the role of a villain. Also, Paul McGann offers one of his most interesting performances as the Doctor - isolated from humanity for years thanks to his extended stay on Orbis, he's lost his affinity with human beings, making him a much more unpredictable, sometimes even cold figure, albeit with that essential element of compassion lingering beneath the surface. It feels very contemporary, and is full of great ideas - but they're not particularly original ideas.

'Hothouse' labours under the shadow of a far superior TV story ('The Seeds of Doom') and resorts to a lot of desperate measures to get out from under it. To absoutely no avail. Having a woman taken over by the Krynoid this time changes nothing. (In the New Eighth Doctor Adventures, that particular gender bias is no surprise at all. Another woman is killed by what sounds like a chainsaw! In Doctor Who?!). The plot is pretty much a remake of its esteemed forebear, with some green politics heavy-handedly thrown in. Nigel Planer is totally unconvincing as the villain of the piece and the final resolution is hardly original, owing more than a little to 'Fury From The Deep' (or, if you prefer, The Sarah Jane Adventures story 'The Gift').

For all its attempts at environmental relevance, 'Hothouse' (like 'Wirrn Dawn', 'The Eight Truths' and 'Worldwide Web' later on) shows that previously successful aliens do not automatically make for a successful revival.

Worthy, relevant, perhaps even thought-provoking, but no fun at all.