Jerusalem fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Jul 30, 2018

• + The setup. I love the idea of a planet where the inhabitants have lost "civilization" and can barely string more than a few words together before flying into a rage, and the quiet desperation of the "crew" set up in little compounds around the globe entirely reliant on regular shipments of drugs to maintain their own intelligence. Is the paranoia, simmering rage and clear personal resentments of the various characters a suitable reaction to what is happening, or just a sign that the drugs are wearing off? Can you even trust your own feelings when you may just be falling apart mentally? Best of all it happens gradually (but the speed does pick-up) so there are several great moments where you (and the other characters) realize that characters who are argumentative or debating a point are actually becoming more and more unhinged and in turn more dangerous.
  
  
• + The Viyrans. For once these guys are actually effectively used. Before now the writing has never really lived up to the notion that they're some amazing higher power within the universe that even the Time Lords don't know much about; which coincidentally is another pet peeve of mine, for masters of all time and space the Time Lords sure seem to not know a lot. But here they are extremely well written as detached and callously efficient. They are without morality, there only concern is to complete the mission they have been given by an unknown force: to wipe out all the viruses unleashed by the Dalek Time Controller in Patient Zero. That they made a mistake in their attempts to do this on Earth, and the eventual reveal of just how slim the chances of the actual virus actually doing anything are... well it works very well to demonstrate their instrinsic alien nature. These things have nothing in common with human sensibilities or concerns, a completely different morality and a perspective on acceptable losses that makes them monstrous in an entirely different way than the Daleks, and more akin to how the Cybermen SHOULD be written but rarely are.
  
  
• + The Doctor's solution. For most of the story, the Doctor is kept separate from both Charleys as well as the Viyrans. The man most capable of fixing everything is kept away from the main players, dealing with the supporting characters and doing what he can to escape the compound as everything falls apart. This is necessary because the drama has to be developed and they can't do that if the Doctor is just there to sort it all out. There is a neat clashing of philosophies as the Doctor struggles to find a cure for the virus while the Viyrans' look to just wipe the experiment "clear", but what is most admirable is how the Doctor takes onboard and adapts to the new information as it comes in. Even when it is something as bizarre as learning there are TWO Charleys, or trying to wrap his head around Charley's true origin, or learning just what the Viyrans have done (and not done). Best of all is when he learns that Charley (mistakenly believes she) saw his final death, and his reaction is a comforting,"Everybody dies vv". Colin Baker, as always, does a marvelous job as his desperation builds but he refuses to accept that there are no better solutions. And he finds one, of course, even if that just ends up exposing a whole other problem.
  
  
• - The two Charleys. While the sheer vitriol both have for the other is amusing, this conclusion to the "Imposter Charley" arc is as underwhelming as the rest of the arc was, because in all honesty it made no difference which was which. The whole thing was terribly mishandled, as "Mila" proved to be a non-character in every sense. Her complete co-opting of Charley's existence meant that the "fake" Charley was just the regular Charley 99.9% of the time, and the other 0.01% felt contrived, like the writers suddenly remembered they were supposed to be different people. Even the catharsis of their eventual confrontation is immediately sidelined because of the events of the story, and if anything they seem to reconcile when to be perfectly honest Mila does not deserve redemption in the slightest. This "mystery" barely even got started before it was over, and nothing really came of it.
  
  
• - Nothing matters. While it's hardly unique to this story, the solution to the events of the story is to essentially negate everything that happened. Every major change, every death, every noble sacrifice or horrible consequence is wiped out by the Doctor's solution. The sop for this is supposed to be in the deeper personal loss the Doctor, Charley and Mila suffer but it can't help but come across as a case of,"Nothing you just heard ultimately meant anything."
  
  
• + Charley knows the 8th Doctor - With the story over, the issue remains that it was time for India Fisher to part ways from this particular range of Big Finish audios, though they leave things open for a spin-off audio series. In what feels almost like a little meta-joke, Charley's solution for how to preserve the web of time AND keep the 6th Doctor safe from the Viyrans is to give him amnesia, perhaps so he'll be used to the notion when he becomes the 8th Doctor. It's also a sweet (if undeserved) end for Mila, who fills in the spaces in the Doctor's memory where Charley used to be.
  

• + The premise. Playing off the end of the 8th Doctor Adventures, the Doctor decides to head to the end of the universe and the end of time itself. It's assumed by others that he intends suicide, or perhaps permanent exile, but as he explains he's simply looking for perspective, or rather hope. He wants to go to the end of everything so he can look back and figure out if all the death and destruction was outweighed by whatever good there was. So the entire story is permeated with this sense of the Doctor looking for reinvigorated purpose, which goes some way to explaining his at-times uncharacteristic passiveness. Despite himself he finds himself having fun, enjoying the thrill of being chased and having a problem to tackle, but at other times he's brought back by his sense of guilt and despair from recent events, as well as his anger about being directed by the Time Lords. Even if you're unfamiliar with the EDAs that preceded/set-up this story, the context is provided by the dialogue without feeling overly expository
  
  
• - Bill & Ted. The comedy movie had a lot of fun with the notion of Time Travel, especially in the second film where they ultimately defeat the bad guy because... they were always going to defeat the bad guy. Even when he turned their own tricks against them it is irrelevant because since they were always going to win, obviously everything he set up was set up by THEM to fool him. It works well because it's a comedy, the time travel is there purely in service of that comedy, and nobody but an insane person is going to expect a movie like that to put too much effort into making sure time travel works logically. Only insane people expect that of Doctor Who too, but plenty of Doctor Who fans are insane and I guess I'm one of them, because this aspect of Dark Eyes drove me nuts. The Daleks have built a Relativity Map, something which only the Time Lords should have and even then something they would use relatively rarely. With it, they are able to track wherever anybody is, was or ever will be at any given time. Which leads to odd moments in the story like when the Doctor takes Molly back centuries to an enslaved Dalek planet so they can learn what the bad guys are doing before they do it, only to be rumbled by said bad guys who decide not to do anything because (paraphrased): "In the future our plan must be working so they must fail to stop us now, therefore trying to stop them is pointless and might actually cause us to fail in the future". It feels like it is trying to be clever but doesn't quite pull it off. There's more stuff like that too, including somebody attempting to commit suicide, and the final showdown between the villain and a supporting character that makes you realize the whole thing has largely been mental masturbation.
  
  
• + Molly Sullivan. Molly is great. There are elements of Lucie Bleeding Miller to her, which is important as the Doctor needs to bond with her and this similarity helps, but while she is outspoken and confident, she's also very much a character in her own right. An Irish maid who joined her mistress in volunteering to give aid to soldiers in World War I, Molly is no-nonsense and serious but not to the point of being a stick in the mud. She can have fun when she wants, and takes a great deal of pleasure in needling the Doctor, but she also doesn't put up with fools and is adamant in her sense of morality. Plus Ruth Bradley's Irish accent is a delight, and her character's take on the technological marvels of the future feels almost natural - she is perhaps more amazed to discover the Doctor's "house" (a follow-up from a previous Big Finish audio) has electricity than she is by her initial entrance into the TARDIS (or Tardy Box, as she calls it). There is also a well-handled element of "what is her mystery" going on, something probably borrowed from the way the companions were going over on the television side of things. Even with all that having worn a bit thin by the time I write this, I still found it refreshingly well done, because the mystery of her "Dark Eyes" was always secondary to the writing of her as an actual character, something that Moffat didn't always get right. Molly's final scene with the Doctor is very well done too, and made it feel like if this was the only time Molly would appear in Big Finish, that it was okay. It seems she actually sticks around for more though, which is just as welcome.
  
  
• - The Time Lords. I find 98% of Time Lords' appearances in ANY media to be underwhelming at best, actively lovely at worst. I'm not a fan of the politics, and especially not of the attempts to write particular characters as genius arch-manipulators whose actions/characters don't live up to their so-called status. It was a problem when they introduced the Rani all those years ago on television and it's a problem today - you can't make somebody a genius or the "ultimate strategist" if the only evidence that exists is that you keep insisting they are. A character especially guilty of this is Straxus, and I even dislike his name so I feel like he's just designed to irritate me. All he is, is a (admittedly VERY) good voice delivering his lines with oily, detached arrogance that none of his actions or "strategies" ever warrants. That this goober could so casually and easily outsmart/trick the Doctor multiple times through the story is just annoying, especally as it largely has no resolution/point, or at least not one that I was in any way invested in. Given that all this was supposed to string the whole story together, it ended up detracting from it for me.
  
  
• + Toby Jones. Jones' character of X could (literally!) be just as guilty as everything I just accused Straxus of, with one major difference. Though I have no problem with Peter Egan since it is the writing that bugs me, Jones is just a much better actor and is able to transcend any poor qualities the writing might have. Again, that isn't a knock against Egan, very few actors out there could say,"Well I am upset you think Toby Jones is better than me" because... well, he is! Jones plays X, a character with access to Time Travel, a loathing of the Time Lords, a surprisingly degree of authority over the Daleks, and a VERY long-term plan to use the Doctor and Molly to prevent the Time Lords from having ever existed. He joined by the Dalek Time Controller, which survived its death because by its very nature it exists outside of regular time and is able to essentially "reset" following death with all the knowledge of the events that lead to its failure. The two have good chemistry, made all the more interesting because ANYBODY having chemistry with a Dalek is an eye-opener. But then, that's Toby Jones! The only downside is that it appears he's killed off pretty decisively by the end, but then I don't have a problem imagining that Jones would probably be too busy to commit to more regular appearances. I just enjoyed what I got, so far he's two-from-two from what I've seen/heard playing Doctor Who villains, first as the Dream Lord and now as X.
  
  
• - The Doctor's "irrelevance". While there is a ton going on that is very important character-wise for the 8th Doctor, and the growing bond between himself and Molly is vital to the overall story... the Doctor's actual relevance to the main plot is almost non-existant. Every part of X's scheme and Straxus' counter-scheme happens largely without his input or even a required presence. Even the big showdown between the two mostly has the Doctor standing around making snippy comments about how dumb the whole thing is and how he doesn't want any part of it. The major wrenches thrown into their schemes come from a third party entirely (though it's neat to see Ian Cullen, Ixta from The Aztecs in that role) and then when all is said and done and it's just the Doctor and Molly left standing, I was left thinking,"Well, why was the Doctor even needed?" - yeah he was tangentially, but even X himself admits that adding the Doctor to the scheme was a major gamble because he was so unpredictable even with the Relativity Map, and surely while the Doctor is more accessible than most Time Lords, he could have found somebody else? I list this as a negative but I don't want to undersell just how enjoyable the Doctor/Molly interactions are, and how good the Doctor in each of the different environments he ends up are. The train escape in World War I; fleeing through the streets of London (a largely wasted setting/premise with the early AI too); his slowly dawning realization of what the pain in his head is; clambering down the giant drillhole etc - it's all great. It just feels detached from what is supposed to be THE main plot.