Classic Radio Sci-Fi

Aliens In The Mind

Peter Cushing and Vincent Price star in this six-part radio drama serial from 1977, based on a story by Robert Holmes.

Cushing is the perfect gentleman investigator, while Price could be reading a tax return and it would still be gripping. It might be old but this screams quality, just as loudly as that howling wind.

Robert Holmes was a scriptwriter for numerous television programmes including Dr Finlay's Casebook, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint, Juliet Bravo and Bergerac. He was involved with Doctor Who for over fifteen years and wrote numerous scripts including Jon Pertwee's debut serial as the Third Doctor, Spearhead from Space, and Fifth Doctor Peter Davison's final serial, The Caves of Androzani (voted by fans in 2009 as the best Doctor Who story in history). He introduced both the Autons and the Sontarans to the show and was script editor during the first three years of Tom Baker's tenure as Fourth Doctor. Holmes also contributed to several other sci-fi shows including Doomwatch, The Nightmare Man and Blake's 7. He died in 1986, aged 60.

On a remote Scottish island, Doctors Curtis Lark and John Cornelius are convinced that the violent death of their friend Dr Hugh Dexter was no accident... Dexter's research notes reveal that he was investigating an island sickness affecting many of the inhabitants, turning them into zombies blindly obeying orders from an unknown source. The key to the mystery seems to be an apparently telepathic, but simple-minded, local girl, Flora. Lark and Cornelius want to take her to London to find out more - but is she the only telepath to have left the island? And who is controlling them? Film horror legends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price play Lark and Cornelius in this six-part series, which also features Richard Hurndall (Blake's 7 and Doctor Who) among the cast. Written by Rene Basilico, it is based on a story by 1970s Doctor Who script editor Robert Holmes.

Robert Holmes

Frazer Hines

Patrick Troughton

Full Cast

'The Krotons have always been our friends, our benefactors!' The TARDIS arrives on a planet which is home to the humanoid Gonds. Ruling over these people are the Krotons, crystalline beings who crash-landed there centuries before. Currently in suspended animation, the Krotons can only be reconstituted by an influx of mental energy. Twice a year, the most capable Gond students are taken into the Krotons' spaceship, the Dynatrope. Apparently, they have been chosen to live alongside their masters - but, in fact, they are drained of all mental energy and then killed. When the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe befriend the Gonds, they find a community divided by their servitude to the Krotons. Then the Doctor and Zoe take the Krotons' mental ability test - and unwittingly help revive the crystalline monsters... Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury star in this classic BBC TV story from 1969. In a special bonus interview Frazer Hines also recalls the making of The Krotons, and his long association with Doctor Who in general.

Robert Holmes

Books by Robert Holmes

Series by Robert Holmes

Classic Radio Sci-Fi

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