The Nestenes and their avatars, the Autons are a villain (once a monster) with which it is increasingly hard to find Good Things To Do.
The Octopoid Nestene, with its gift of malevolently animating absolutely anything made of plastic, was the invention of one-time wonder-scribe Robert Holmes, and it served not only to introduce Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor when he was exiled to the Earth, but also to introduce both Jo Grant and the original Master, played by Roger Delgado, in a return engagement the following season.
Nothing more was heard from them (despite an abortive plan to bring them back in the Sixth Doctor’s era) until Russell T Davies took the reins of the show the first time, and, knowing a good thing when he saw it, he replayed the Jon Pertwee opener with new characters, essentially hitting all the original Nestene greatest hits (including a modernised scene of shop window dummies coming to life and killing shoppers in a surge of anti-consumerist satire).
Since then though, the Nestene and the Autons have undergone something of a “humanising” period. In the Stephen Moffatt era, River Song talked of having had an Auton partner once, and the fun of their “swappable heads.” Rory Williams spent one of his many living realities as an Auton duplicate in the form of a Roman centurion guarding the Pandorica, and somehow (and this might be where you lose us) “earning back” his humanity in the process.
All of which has complicated them somewhat as victims of the Time War, and as the likes of the Ice Warriors found before them, the more complex and morally grey a one-time “monster” becomes, the harder it is to deliver proper wham-bam-there-goes-the-planet adventuring with them.
But it remains very deeply odd on a world saturated in microplastics, where plastic and its processes are a very real threat to human existence in and of themselves, that the fundamental selling point of the Nestenes – their control of plastic – has not been brought front and centre since Rose in 2005.
Fortunately, Mike Tucker’s here to make all your little plastic dreams come true.
We’ve got all the good stuff here:
Advanced Auton duplicates strutting about all shiny and creepy – check.
Bit of a vicious massacre – check.
Plan to use plastic for the regrowth of a Nestene, and consequences to the Earth be well and truly damned – check.
But rather than treading the same straightforward anti-consumerist path as at least a couple of the best TV Nestene stories (and arguably all three), Tucker takes a good hard look at the world around us, and fits the Nestene and the Autons into that modern world.
Arguably, that’s the job of all those who aspire to write really effective science fiction, and Tucker knocks it out of the park with a practiced ease that makes the thing look (or indeed sound) effortless.
Microplastics as a fundamental tool of the Nestenes are here, and also, fairly naturally, is a corporate commercial recycling scheme (Yes, there’s your head-nod to classic Nestene stories – saving the planet… for a profit).
With the Seventh Doctor and Ace dropping in as though out of a clear blue sky – as they did in stories in what was arguably their best TV season, Season 25 – and getting involved in the lives of locals while aiming clearly to scuttle the Nestene’s plans, House of Plastic has everything you think you want from a Nestene story.
But Tucker thankfully can’t resist the urge to push the envelope a little further, bringing in a 21st century version of the plastic waxworks from Terror of the Autons. With a hat-tip to the likes of the Millennial Dome (Google it, young listeners), there are plastic replicas of human bodies in various stages of illustration here. Plastic lymphatic systems on display. Plastic bloodstreams flattened out for examination, and so on.
That means you get everything you think you want from a Nestene story, with a shudder of additional body horror, which can clearly never be a bad thing in Doctor Who.
The original message of the Nestenes has been adapted seamlessly here to fit our modern age, and wha you get is for the most part a rip-roaring modern Nesten adventure with all the politics and satire you could want, and an additional shock of body horror.
But also, in keeping with 21st century Who, House of Plastic also delivers a dose of emotion and pathos too, in terms of the lives of some of the central characters here, with the highlight of their week being to collect enough plastic recycling to trade in for reward points at a reclamation centre, to get themselves a free coffee or occasional plate of meatballs.
And just when you think you’ve reached Nestene perfection, Tucker throws in a lovely little hand grenade of connection to the 1970s Nestene stories that will make you gasp, and maybe gulp a little, and vaguely appreciate life a little more once you’ve come to the end of the story.
That’s the ultimate result of this story – rip-roaring adventure, relevant repurposing of a villain that animates plastic, a little dollop of pathos and character development, and a lovely warm feeling spreading through you at a final revelation.
Not bad going in an hour and a quarter!
The fact that all of this lands with the effectiveness it does is thanks in no small part to Terry Molloy on reading duties. Your Actual Eighties Davros is a massively accomplished actor in all media, but particularly in audio, and his versatility fills the story with characters and personalities that make it bounce along easily.
While never exactly delivering a classic impersonation of the Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy), there’s quite enough of the Dark Doctor’s brooding and rolling R’s here to get the story’s anchor across.
House of Plastic is ultimately a delightful listen that does everything you hope it will do – and then an extra helping of Stuff besides. If you’re in the market for a BBC Audio Doctor Who story, House of Plastic should be right up there in your top three choices. Grab it and get your Nestene joy on. Tony Fyler
If you like what we do and want to help us keep the lights on and the podcasting mics warm, we’d appreciate it if you bought us a cup of coffee
Be the first to comment on "Doctor Who: House of Plastic – Written by Mike Tucker & Read by Terry Molloy (BBC Audio)"