A distant future where humans have populated swathes of the known Universe? A desolate, volcanic super Earth and, um, an ‘alien’ called Trevor? Check. Check. Check. OK, let’s go!
The Nu-Humans is the latest audio adventure for The Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory from old Who hands, Cavan Scott and Mark Wright. This exclusive adventure sees The Doctor and The Ponds tip up on a mining colony on Hope Eternal – a super Earth with super heavy gravity where they’re immediately faced with murder as they discover the blasted, dead body of an ape-like, purple-scaled creature.
The Doctor and the Ponds are swiftly captured by another, very much alive, flare gun-toting, purple-scaled creature who introduces himself as Trevor Reardon. Trevor, you say? Sounds a bit, well, human.
We soon find out that the creature is, in fact, a Nu-Human; a genetically altered human who was part of the mining colony on Hope Eternal ruled by Governor Claudia Mason, Trevor’s elderly, but definitely not-so-sweet aunt.
The Nu-Humans is part action adventure, part morality tale and part Poirot (yeah, I said it – even Amy says so). The action is portrayed rather terrifically, with nasty, sky beasties adding to the tension, but the heart and soul of the story is what humans, even Nu-Humans, are capable of. As humans expand into new galaxies, do they adapt to their surroundings or make their surroundings adapt to them? Are they the great, noble race of the Universe? Or are they the real monsters?
But don’t take that as meaning this adventure – and it is an adventure – is all moral postulating. Oh, no. Raquel Cassidy’s gorgeous reading brings fun and tension to the table as well as delicious malice in Governor Mason. The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People actress does a pretty spiffing job playing the Doctor and the Ponds and the script is so good that even Smith’s Doctor’s physical tics and idiosyncrasies are brought vividly to life. Wonderful stuff.
What is particularly good about The Nu-Humans is that it allows us to see how smart, clever, and how full of empathy, Rory and Amy can be. Sure, it’s easy to be a Doctor smarty~pants when you been flying though time and space for 900 years, but to be able to get to the heart of something big and important when you’re a twenty-odd year old human from Leadworth? Now that is impressive.
Thanks to AudioGo
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Good post – I was less taken with this in my own review. I like the way you brought out the Poirot element and dwelt on the colony governor