Following on from the 4^th Doctor’s encounter with the Vashta Nerada, the second in the Classic Doctors New Monsters sequel boxset returns to the 5^th Doctor and his next encounter with an infamous NuWho foe.

Caught in the midst of an ancient conflict, the 5^th Doctor’s instalment finds him on a rescue mission. However, his wounded combatant is an old foe – The Racnoss.

When a distress call rips the TARDIS from the Vortex, dragging it back through time, it arrives in the midst of a conflict between Gallifrey and an ancient foe.

The Doctor, as ever, wants to help, but in returning a wounded combatant home, he becomes further and further entangled in a web of deceit and recrimination. A web spun by an eight-legged Empress and her minions…

The Empire of the Racnoss is at war, and wherever he stands, the Doctor is on the wrong side.

Big Finish Synopsis

From the outset, Empire of the Racnoss is a story that promises many things. Set in an era before the Time Lords ruled the web of time, it features one of the many hard-fought battles they’d need to win in order to become the unequivocal overlords of the universe. The very notion of this concept brings with it clear images of thrilling action scenes and hard decisions with unimaginable consequences. Unfortunately, this interesting setup is just that, an interesting setup. What we are given as the main plot of this story, instead, is a marital spat, Racnoss style.

While a plot of subterfuge and deception between the empress and the emperor of Racnoss has plenty of potential, it is ultimately mired by several different factors throughout the adventure. Slow pacing is the story’s most notable problem. Whether it’s the long talking sessions in the Racnoss arena or Doctor Who’s old faithful, a prison scene, you can’t help but feel like the story is getting sidetracked. Considering the story is meant to be set in the middle of an active war, these overly long scenes do a great job of killing any sense of underlying urgency.

There are also problems found in the reasoning behind the spat between the Empress of Racnoss and the Emperor. By the end of the story, I was still struggling to grasp what drove the empress to kill her first hatchery in the first place. Was it just because they are a violent species by nature, or was there more behind the empress’s need to frame the emperor?

What can’t be faulted, however, is Handcock’s dedication to expanding and fleshing out the characterisation of the Racnoss species. Despite its issues as a suspenseful thriller, the story succeeds in its quest to showcase new sides of the Racnoss, with the most interesting little titbit describing how they terraform their worlds into giant webs for their hatcheries.