Rather strangely slotted between the Eighth Doctor epic Zagreus and the continuation story Scherzo, this Sixth Doctor story is a lightweight romp, giving Colin Baker a chance to spar with Katy Manning in her new Who guise as the 'Trans-Temporal Adventuress', Iris Wildthyme. The Doctor is getting away from it all at Bianca's, a 1930s cabaret in Berlin. Soon Iris turns up, intent on getting progressively drunk so she can hear 'the voices'. It turns out all is not what it seems at the club and that Bianca's is actually in space, connected to various points in Space and Time by dangerous and unstable forces. What are the voices that call from Bianca's dressing room? What are the opposing voices that speak to the club manager, Henry? Can the Doctor solve the mystery and deal with Iris?
As written by Iris creator Paul Magrs with Stephen Cole, The Wormery is overlong and not particularly memorable and there's a real feel of everyone just going through the motions. As a pastiche of all things Cabaret it's pretty toothless and the performances, especially by Marie McErlane as Bianca, are too broad. The whole plot revolves around some timey wimey nonsense regarding two lots of sentient worms that control people through alcohol - a kind of weak joke on the worm you find in tequila. For uber-fans the writers throw in some references to the Sixth Doctor's trial (though why anyone would want to remind us of season 23 is beyond me - surely best forgotten?) and there's a decent enough twist inspired by the Valeyard form that story. Katy Manning tries her best and is fun enough but, with a weak plot, her 'ecky thumps' soon get tiresome. There's a neat joke that she doesn't find the Sixth Doctor attractive and the odd decent line (the cliffhanger to Episode 2 - "Iris! Stop singing or you'll kill us all!" - is hysterical) but overall this is indulgent and throwaway.
GK Rating: ** The Blog of Delights
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