Having finished the third boxset of CDNM and with no new releases planned on my review radar, I decided that tonight, I would let fate (and the prospect of a free release) guide my listening experience. Scrolling through the Into the TARDIS catalogue, one story stood out head and shoulders above the rest simply because I knew absolutely nothing about it – Wave of Destruction from the Fourth Doctor Adventures range.

A modulated frequency wave cancellation signal isn’t something that the Doctor and Romana expect to detect in 1960s London. But then they don’t expect to find Professor Lanchester, the man who invented it, lying unconscious. Or MI5 investigating.

With the help of MI5 Agent Miller, Lanchester’s daughter Jill, and his nephew a pirate radio DJ called Mark, the Doctor, Romana and K-9 investigate. They soon discover that there is more at risk than they imagined, and an alien invasion is about to begin.

Can the Doctor identify and defeat the aliens in time? Will Romana manage to find a recombinant transducer before it’s too late? And how will K-9 cope with his new job?

Big Finish Synopsis

Continuing The Doctor and Romana II’s EU adventures together during season 17, it isn’t long into the story’s hour-long run before it becomes immediately obvious why I’d never heard anything about this story beforehand. Despite a recurring villain (in the form of the Varadans) and a potentially interesting story revolving around an invasion via radio waves, the story is simply forgettable.

Wave of Destruction isn’t a particularly bad adventure, as in it never does anything egregiously wrong. The pacing is brisk, the villain’s plan makes sense, and even Tom and Lalla are on top form. Unfortunately, whatever potential a Varadan invasion of Earth could’ve had (if it truly had any in the first place) is squandered by a plot package filled with uninteresting motives and a heavy reliance on a sci-fi ray gun special.

Much like this story’s problems with its generic plot, the side characters don’t fare any better. From Agent Millar to the villainous Vardans, they all suffer from being one-note, one-role characters. Beyond what they need to do for the sake of the plot, there’s never any attempt to develop or complicate them, and, as a result, they never escape being cardboard cutouts only there to help The Doctor and Romana or evilly invade with the prospect of enslaving or killing all humans.