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Wirrn Isle drops the Sixth Doctor and Flip onto the frozen shores of future Loch Lomond and immediately starts waving giant space insects at them like a particularly aggressive tourism board. “Come visit scenic Scotland! Please ignore the parasitic alien horrors nesting in the snow.”
Honestly, it’s a decent little story. Not a great one. Not a terrible one. Just… decent. The audio equivalent of a competent pub meal. You eat it, enjoy it well enough, then six months later somebody mentions it and you’re forced to spend twenty seconds remembering it existed.
The setup is solid enough. The Doctor and Flip arrive in the year 16127 and discover an isolated family of colonists stranded on a frozen coastline, under siege from the Wirrn. Now, the Wirrn are one of those classic Doctor Who monsters that should be absolutely horrifying. Giant insectoid parasites that absorb memories and transform their victims into more Wirrn? That’s nightmare fuel. That’s the sort of thing that should have me hiding behind the sofa despite being an adult with a mortgage. Instead, they’re mostly just… there.
Which is frustrating because the ingredients are all present. Snowstorms. Isolation. A remote family with secrets. A hostile environment. Body horror bugs lurking in the darkness. This should be atmospheric as hell. It never quite gets there.
The family themselves are actually the strongest part of the story. As the Doctor and Flip dig into their circumstances, it becomes increasingly clear that not everybody is being entirely truthful. Hidden histories and buried motivations gradually emerge, leading to a couple of twists that genuinely caught me off guard. Not earth-shattering twists. Not “OH MY GOD” twists. More “oh, okay, that’s actually pretty clever” twists. And honestly, I’ll take those.
What elevates things further is the story’s interest in colonialism and ownership. Beneath the monster attacks, there’s a recurring thread about settlers occupying land, claiming ownership over places they don’t truly understand, and the consequences of imposing themselves upon hostile environments. The script never beats you over the head with it, but it’s there, lurking beneath the surface like a thematic iceberg. Which is fitting, given the amount of ice.
The Doctor handles these ideas well. Colin Baker continues to absolutely own this incarnation by this point in Big Finish’s run. His Sixth Doctor has become warm without becoming soft, authoritative without becoming pompous. He’s still larger than life, but now there’s a wisdom underpinning the bombast.
Meanwhile Flip continues to settle into the TARDIS nicely. I’m still not entirely convinced she’s fully escaped the shadow of Rose Tyler and Lucie Miller yet, but she’s gradually becoming more distinct. Her straightforward, practical perspective works well against the Doctor’s tendency to launch into lectures about history, ethics, and giant alien insects. Which is a useful skill set when giant alien insects are actively trying to eat you.
The problem is ambition. Or rather, the lack of it. Every time the story threatens to become something special, it pulls back. Every time it edges toward genuine horror, it retreats. Every time it hints at deeper exploration of its themes, it decides “actually let’s just have another Wirrn attack.”
Safe. That’s the word that kept rattling around my head afterwards. Safe. Competent. Professional. Entertaining enough. Safe. And sometimes that’s enough. Sometimes it isn’t.
Final Thoughts
A perfectly serviceable Sixth Doctor adventure with some interesting post-colonial themes, a few enjoyable twists, and strong performances from the leads. Unfortunately, it never pushes its horror, atmosphere, or ideas quite far enough to become memorable.
2.5 out of 5 giant space insects somehow failing to make frozen Scotland nearly as terrifying as it should have been