Not to be confused with the recent Big Finish audio drama starring Colin Baker as the Doctor, tonight’s entry comes from the BBC’s official Doctor Who YouTube channel. It’s a dramatic reading of the short story Scorched Earth, which was originally published in Doctor Who Annual 1975. Recently a collection of these annuals was released as The Second Doctor Who Audio Annual, a collection of dramatic reading of short annual stories by various Doctor Who cast members. Tonight’s story is one of two read by Geoffrey Beevers, who played the scarred Master (replacing in the classic era serial The Keeper Of Traken, the episode that debuted fourth and fifth Doctor companion Nyssa, before taking over a body and Anthony Ainley becoming the Master for the rest of the classic series.
Our tale finds the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith landing on the planet Varium III, coming across a space-born virus that is ruining the crop of the pre-industrial farming society. Can the Doctor find a cure before they’re killed, falsely accused of causing the “fire streaks” that killed the crops?
