• The separation. The Doctor and Lucie share no "screen-time" in this story, having only a couple pieces of dialogue which take place only over the phone. Each are on their own separate adventures/stories, and these twin streams are both equally compelling and interesting to listen to. Had one or the other fallen flat, it would have wrecked the flow of the story. Instead they weave interestingly in and out of each other's orbits, sometimes seeming to be completely separate, other times appearing to be heading on a collission course before veering off in their own direction. As the Doctor makes new friends and there is some fun to be had with how casually he gets his way, and their flabbergasted reactions to his revelations of who and what he is, Lucie is off being lead down a disturbing path of "rebirth" that allows Sheridan Smith the fun of getting to play Lucie in a very different way to usual. Her shift from cynical observer to reluctant participant to cruel manipulator is really well handled, and makes perfect sense.
  
  
• The Scientology Parallels. While this kind of thing is old hat by now, the Eight Truths organization as an obvious parody of Scientology is well handled, particularly because it actually goes out of its way to sell the idea that most of the people involved have completely bought into what they are selling. There is a wonderful amount of subtlety, especially in regards to the founder whose obvious surprise and concern as his prophecies start coming true tells you everything you need to know about his own intentions for this group. The way he tries to reinterpret events, makes grudging admissions that he thought the "prophecies" would be realized AFTER he died etc, all go to show him up as an obvious con-man who has been running a good thing and is now watching it spiral out of control. It is just a pity that towards the end of the story Lucie just comes right out and says this to his face, because up to that point it was a very well handled example of showing rather than telling - of course he's not going to sit around rubbing his hands together gloating about how he's full of poo poo, but his unease and attempts to regain control of the narrative made it obvious without coming right out and saying that is what he was doing... until right at the end when somebody finally does. The rest of the group bears all the by-now familiar hallmarks of Scientology - the targeting of vulnerable people, the jealous protection of their "secrets", the use of pseudo-science "personality tests", the offer of devices to remove excess thetansnegativity, the relentless legal attacks on those who bring them into disrepute etc. There are enthusiastic new converts eager to share their newfound peace, smooth-talking senior operators/public faces who may have completely bought into what they're selling etc. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it's very well handled.
  
  
• The cliffhanger/reveal. Throughout the entire story, there are little bits and pieces of things coming up that all fit perfectly as elements designed for world-building. The crystals that the Eighth Truthers carry, the Doctor's attempts to locate the system that has hijacked the space probe, the tests the Eighth Truthers use on their new converts etc - it's all in service of creating the story and serving the narrative. But then everything comes together absolutely perfectly for the big reveal, putting everything we've seen to date into a new context. Just like he did with Human Resources in the first season of the EDAs, Eddie Robson lets all kinds of stuff happening in the background coalesce into a big reveal that changes the entire context of what was already a very good story. When the Doctor finally gets hold of one of the crystals that have been all over the story, that one piece of new information gives him everything he needs to know and it is one hell of a reveal. To be fair, it's also extremely reliant on prior knowledge of Doctor Who continuity, but I don't think that's so much of an issue for a Big Finish audio to be fair. The reveal that the crystal is a Metebelis Crystal, coinciding with the true believers of The Eight Truths discovering they have been manipulated by the Eight-Legs from Planet of the Spiders is just magnificent, a fantastic cliffhanger that immediately raises the stakes and left me super-excited to see what happens in the next story. Season 1 and 2 both ended with the return of an old threat from the Doctor's past, but this is the first one where I've genuinely thought,"Oh man, can the Doctor handle this?" - of course he can and will, he always does, but that suspension of disbelief is so important to a good quality story, and for me this one delivers in spades.
  

• It's all a bit convenient. This is a packed story, and as a result there are what feels like a lot of shortcuts to get the characters to where they need to be. Sometimes this is used effectively, like when Lucie's use of the crystal is obviously responsible for blanks in her memory. But more often than not they just skip large sections to get where they want to be. So there's no explanation for why the Doctor and Lucie are staying at a hotel in London in 2015, and the Doctor gets involved in the missing space probe story because he hears a story on the news and thinks it is interesting so just walks on over and lets himself in. There's a simple line of,"Call UNIT to check my credentials" that lets him get his hands on some hugely expensive equipment, and the control center for the probe appears to be run by two blokes who just kinda shrug and let this complete stranger do what he wants with their "baby". There's a 23 day gap in the story where the Doctor is put into a coma, allowing the story to jump ahead and wildly change the status quo, and while this works it does feel like a bit of a cheat or that it would have better suited a natural gap between this story and the next.... but then we would have lost that amazing cliffhanger! Basically the story feels like it was stripped down to fit the runtime, so a lot of stuff either happens "off-screen" or just gets glossed over. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is noticeable.
  
  
• The "True" Believers. Part of the strength of the story is that the Eight Truths movement is primarily made up of people who genuinely believe in the organization and are unaware of the darker things going on beneath the surface. So it is somewhat disappointing that when "The Chosen One" shows up and things get turned up to 11, that their concerns/objections come across as so... petty. They're absolutely in the right that something is up, but the way in which their complaints are worded and portrayed just makes them look bitter that they're no longer "Special" - their complaints boil down to,"We believed on faith, these new converts only believe because the evidence is right in their face". So we end up in a situation where the actual genuine believers in a movement that on the face of it is interested in helping mankind are complaining about hundreds of millions flocking to their cause, while the evil and cynical abuser of the movement is making the very good point of,"Who cares why they are coming to us to be saved, the point is to save them!" - that "The Chosen One" is actually full of poo poo and not interested in saving them at all is beside the point, because those opposed to her are apparently only doing it out of their own self-interest.
  

twistedmentat fucked around with this message at 02:40 on Feb 23, 2016