The Doctor and Ace are admiring the TARDIS art gallery, containing collections from the length and breadth of the universe that the Doctor..."rescued" moments before History indicated they were to be destroyed. But there's just one piece missing; Edward Munch's "The Scream". Hating to have a bare wall, the Doctor decides to pop off to the future colony and shipping hub of Duchamp 331, a Crapsack World full of dust with no real flora or fauna to speak of, where it's scheduled to soon disappear under mysterious circumstances.
Upon arriving, they instantly find themselves answering a Distress Call from one refueling station attendant... who insists his station had been attacked by the dust. They also find Bev — remember Bev? — who's stranded there. The painting also turns out to contain an Eldritch Abomination capable of Mind Rape.
Meanwhile, Madame Elsa Salvadori is preparing to embark on her luxury art and hob-nobbing cruise to Duchamp 331, along with an assortment of similar well-to-dos and nobles... a cruise funded by the mysterious, masked Mr Seta. Since he's played by Geoffrey Beevers, Seta quickly reveals himself to be The Master and starts hypnotising the crew. Meddling with powers beyond his own reverted him from being played by Anthony Ainley to his old crispy self.
The Doctor, Ace and Bev stop him in the end, though the whole planet gets blown up in the process and the Doctor wearily notes the Master's Joker Immunity.
"Dust Breeding" contains examples of:
- Achilles' Heel: The virtually invincible Krill are repelled by particles of Dust imbued with the Warp Core.
- And I Must Scream: Guthrie says that the screaming heard in the background scenes are Daleks, buried underneath the planet's Genius Loci dust.
- Anomalous Art: "The Scream" forcibly induces in Ace a sense of such overwhelming dread as inspired its painter, and briefly possesses the Doctor.
- A Storm Is Coming
- Badass Boast: When the Doctor's been taken over (seems to be becoming a thing, doesn't it?)Doctor/Warp Core: "I am every death you could possibly imagine, I am blood and tongues of fire and the SCREAM of every madman. I am the Warp Core engineers that created me, I was child and their protector."
Ace: "You're alien."
Doctor/Scream: "More alien than anything you've ever encountered." - Berserk Button: Ace catches Damien spying on the Doctor, in the split second it takes for her to realize this she freaks.
- Bloodless Carnage: When the Dust strikes.
- Big "NO!"
- The Bus Came Back: Beverly, last seen in "The Genocide Machine".
- Continuity Nod: The Doctor and Ace recognise the Krill from Storm Harvest - at this stage, Big Finish hadn't quite settled on their attitude to cross-media continuity, so Mike Tucker freely used the monsters he'd invented for the novel range.
- Cool Mask: Mr Seta wears a beautiful gold mask
... with good reason. - Cope by Creating: In the prologue, Edvard Munch, said to be distraught over inability to express his sudden, unaccountable sense of overwhelming fear, resolves to paint its impression of an "infinite scream, passing through nature".
- Crate Expectations: Albert the security guard hates these down in the Hull.
- Distress Call
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Anthony Ainley Master is shredded apart and destroyed off-screen, allowing Geoffrey Beevers to return to the role.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom
- Foreshadowing: "I've always known I'd die on Duchamps."
- Four Lines, All Waiting
- Genetic Memory: The Krill have this of the Warp Core.
- Genius Loci: The Dust, in bits and pieces.
- Horrifying the Horror: The raging, virtually invincible Krill flee in terror from the Dust - imbued as it is with the Warp Core, a sentient, incorporeal concentration of fear-enforcing aggression, bred specifically to best them.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Damien with his "creation".
- Insistent Terminology: The Doctor rescues the Museum pieces, he doesn't NICK them.
- Ironic Echo: "Dangerous habit on a refueling station.."
- The Juggernaut: Ace describes the Krill as these.
- Large Ham: Damien, especially towards the end of his Villainous Breakdown. He gives Sylvester McCoy a run for his money. Madam Salvadore is no slouch either.
- Mad Artist: Damien
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Mr. Seta
- Melo Drama: Madame Salvadore doesn't like people being needlessly cryptic.
- Menacing Museum: The Outhouse, the art/studio gallery on Duchamp 331. Creepily enough, it's noted to be almost deserted despite supposedly supporting a population of about fifty artists, and being run by the dangerously obsessive Damien Pearson. And when Ace finally tracks down The Scream in the gallery's historical section, the painting turns out to be alive and extremely hostile
- Mind over Matter: Using the telepathic circuits of their respective TARDISes, the Doctor and the Master fight for control of the telepathic Dust.
- Mind Rape: What Damien's painting does to Ace.
- Nightmare Face: Mr. Seta
- Overly Long Name: Madame Salvadore's full name.
- Phlebotinum Overload: The Master has lost his Anthony Ainley-shaped body, thanks to a failed attempt to harness and capture the Warp Core. As a result, he's back to being a badly disfigured Geoffrey Beevers.
- Precursors: The Warp Core notes its creators to have been a mighty civilisation who "seeded many worlds."
- Public Domain Artifact: Here we learn Edvard Munch was inspired to paint "The Scream" because a psychotic alien Weapon of Mass Destruction had taken residence inside his head, and the cathartic action of painting transplated it into the canvas. Doctor Who. It's never boring.
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Real-Life Relative: Caroline John and Geoffrey Beevers were married in real life. - Real Life Writes the Plot: Anthony Ainley wasn't available, so Geoffrey Beevers returns to play the Master. This also allowed for a nice reveal, since fans didn't actually expect Beevers to play that role again, especially since his wife was also playing a role unrelated to her old one.
- The Renfield: Klemp is reduced to this.
- Reverse the Polarity
- Sarcastic Clapping: Mr. Seta
- Sealed Evil In A Painting
- Sequel Episode: To Storm Harvest.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Salvadore throws herself to the Krill.
- Shout-Out: Ace refers to Mr. Seta as "Freddy Krueger".
- Significant Anagram: The Master has his usual sense for using somewhat obvious anagrams for his name when incognito.
- This Cannot Be!: "No, this is not the way it was meant to be!!"
- Turned Against Their Masters: The Warp Core was made to be the ultimate weapon. It worked perfectly, as its creators found out the hard way.
- Vampire Vords: Salvadore.
- Weaksauce Weakness: The Krill are afraid of the dust that used to be part of the Dust. The planet is covered in it. So are Bev and Ace.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Warp Core, designed to fight an equally dangerous race of Always Chaotic Evil monsters, The Krill. In the finale, the Core controls/inhabits all the dirt and dust of an entire planet.
- Wham Line: Although pretty much common knowledge now, and quite obvious considering the Significant Anagram, the reveal at the end of episode 2 was quite a shocker at the time.Mr Seta: They are the Krill. Unstoppable, biologically engineered killers. They are the ultimate weapon, and the method by which I will become all powerful.Klemp: Who are you!?Mr Seta: I am The Master, and you will obey me.
- You Monster!:
- You Sound Familiar: Caroline John previously played the Third Doctor's companion Liz Shaw in 1970.
- Zombie Gait: A variation thereof.
