History Recap / DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants

* HumansAreBastards

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep - they really go for it in this story, with the Marshall, the Administrator and the Investigator. It's not just the humans - Varan's son doesn't get a name either (although he is given one - Vorn - in the Novelization).

* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep - they really go for it in this story, with the Marshall, the Administrator and the Investigator. It's not just the humans - Varan's son doesn't get a name either.

* AlternateAesopInterpretation: Although the writers had intended this as AnAesop against racism (especially South African Apartheid), SalmanRushdie in ''TheSatanicVerses'' makes the argument that the serial comes down on the ''pro'' side of the issue.
* DesignatedVillain - Arguably Jaeger. The story tries to paint him as being just as villainous as the Marshal, and his ethics are certainly quite dubious. On the other hand he constantly tries to limit the damage that the Marshal's plans will cause to the Solonians and has serious issues with the thought of killing the Doctor and Jo, making him come off far more sympathetically than what the writers probably intended.
** No way. The show has always made it clear, especially in the heavily Green-influenced Letts/Dicks/Pertwee era, that scientists are morally responsible for the predictable applications of their work. Whether there are benevolent applications of Jaeger's work or not, he's working for a man who he knows is intending to use it for genocide as soon as possible. His rare and ineffectual attempts to distance himself from the Marshall simply make him a hypocrite.

* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, It's Those Guys]]:
** Two ''StarWars'' alums: Ky was Biggs Darklighter in ''A New Hope'', and Professor Sondergaard was Lobot in ''The Empire Strikes Back''.
** Geoffrey Palmer plays the [[spoiler:assassinated]] Administrator

* OneGenderRace - no female Solonians are visible at any point. Then again, this is one of the few ''DoctorWho'' stories with no female guest cast members at all.

* AlernateAesopInterpretation: Although the writers had intended this as AnAesop against racism (especially South African Apartheid), SalmanRushdie in ''TheSatanicVerses'' makes the argument that the serial comes down on the ''pro'' side of the issue.

* CompletelyMissingThePoint/AmbiguousAesop/YMMV: Although the writers had intended this as AnAesop against racism (especially South African Apartheid), SalmanRushdie in ''TheSatanicVerses'' makes the argument that the serial comes down on the ''pro'' side of the issue.

* Terraform - the bad guys' plan.

* FantasticSlurs: "mutt"

* ThirdPersonPerson: Varan

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mutants_8381.jpg
--> ''Grey cities linked by grey highways across a grey desert. Slag, ash and clinker - the fruits of technology.''

* Main/ILoveNuclearPower - Averted

* Main/NobleSavage - Ky, in particular
* Main/ReverseThePolarity - Particle Reversal can do ''anything''
* Main/ThoseTwoGuys/ ThoseTwoBadGuys - Stubbs and Cotton, the two security guards who chip in with observations throughout the story.

* Main/Mutant - Naturally!

* Main/Mutants - Naturally!

!Tropes

* [[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, It's Those Guys]] - Two ''StarWars'' alums: Ky was Biggs Darklighter in ''A New Hope'', and Professor Sondergaard was Lobot in ''The Empire Strikes Back''.

** George Pravda, who plays Jaeger in this serial, would later play the Time Lord Castellan Spandrel in ''The Deadly Assassin''.

<<|Recap/DoctorWho|>>

*DethroningMusicOfSuck - The soundtrack is mostly just a garbled mess of synthesised sound that adds little to the story's atmosphere. It's all the more disappointing when you consider that it was done by Tristram Cary, who was one of the few composers to actually make ''good'' electronic music for the show.

*[[HeyItsThatGuy Hey, It's Those Guys]] - Two ''StarWars'' alums: Ky was Biggs Darkligther in ''A New Hope'', and Professor Sondergaard was Lobot in ''The Empire Strikes Back''.

** George Pravda, who plays Jaeger in this serial, would later play the Time Lord Castellan Spandrel in ''The Deadly Assassin]].