8th Doctor: DARK EYES 3 (2014)

It's been a "mere" 9 months since Dark Eyes 2, and while a new, even darker Doctor has made it to our screens, and we've been introduced to an even more different incarnation of the Master, it's fair to say that Dark Eyes 3 feels like it's been a long time coming in more ways than one...

Each new Dark Eyes release has been hotly anticipated; in part that's probably always the case with new 8th Doctor material anyway - he's the Doctor that never got a fir crack of the TV whip, after all.

"Molly O'Sullivan? Hello you."

In his quest for universal domination, the Master plans to exploit the terrifying Infinite Warriors of the mysterious Eminence. The Doctor's friend, Molly, is key to that plan's execution, and now, aided by corrupted genius Sally Armstrong, the Master is close to success.

Paranoid and perplexed after his recent experience, the Doctor skirts the fringes of the fifty-year conflict between humanity and the Infinite Armies. Wary of changing the course of history, he fears that to fight the Eminence would be to do the Daleks' bidding. But when Time Lord CIA agent Narvin provides the impetus for the Doctor to act, Liv Chenka joins him in a desperate race to save their friend and stop the Master.

As the Doctor goes head to head with his oldest and deadliest rival, this war is about to get very personal indeed...starring Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Ruth Bradley (Molly O'Sullivan), Alex Macqueen (The Master), Natalie Burt (Dr Sally Armstrong), David Sibley (The Eminence), Sean Carlsen (Narvin)

Dark Eyes 3 begins right where Dark Eyes 2 left off, with Molly O'Sullivan kidnapped by the Master, and the Doctor determined to keep out of the way of the Time Lords' machinations to pit the Eminence and its Infinite Warriors against the Daleks. It won't last...  

1: The Death of Hope 

with Georgie Fuller (Hope Gardner), Geoffrey Breton (Leo Gardner)

NARVIN: "There's a war on, don't you know? What have you been doing? Flitting from battle to battle, always on the outskirts..."
THE DOCTOR: "I can't save everyone; but I'll save everyone I can..."

Starting with a tried and tested radio feedback drenched SOS, the boxset's initial opener is more of a prequel than a story in its' own right, a Doctor-lite story that gives centre stage to his nemesis, the Master.

We join the 8th Doctor, "ripped from the vortex" and marched at gunpoint to the offices of Narvin, where, after a brief recap, he is asked to save an abandoned colony world on the edge of the Earth Empire's war with the Infinite Warriors of the Eminence. The Time Lords picked up a distress signal sent by Liv Chenka from 1970s Earth, and have tracked the escape of the Master from the Eminence casket infecting his TARDIS at the end of Dark Eyes 2, and his subsequent abduction of Molly O'Sullivan.

Straight away McGann's revitalised 8th Doctor hits the ground running, bristling with dry sarcasm as he demands  a cup tea, with 4 sugars, before being whisked into a Matrix simulation by CIA agent Narvin.

And so begins the tale of the Master's arrival on the colony of Herron's World with his companions Sally Armstrong... and Molly O'Sullivan.  It's another dystopia where only the very young, the very old and the very sick have been left behind. Molly is acting strangely, seemingly a willing ally of the Master, who has rode into town to experiment on the locals, and it's not long before he's used Molly's infamous Dark Eyes to engineer an immunity of sorts to the Eminence's all-pervading "breath of forever".

It's a slight, and perfunctory tale, albeit one that tantalises as we see the beginnings of the Master's latest cunning scheme, to bend the Infinite Warriors to his will. The frontier struggle/spirit of humanity stuff with the Gardiners is hoary old stuff, a backdrop to some rather more playful zingers from the underused Doctor (his Zebra crossing reference to Douglas Adams) and the Rolling Stones-riffing Master ("All we are saying is... it's a gas, gas, gas!"). Indeed, what is generally a diverting tale is really rather deflated by its' flaws. 

As is perhaps the intention, McGann and (even more so) McQueen, keep the thing alive with magnetic performances that rescue this from drabness. Sally Armstrong, despite rather muddy origins in Dark Eyes 2, begins to be more interesting - one of those bad apple companions who you suspect will be redeemed or go the whole hog and face a grand guignol comeuppance. 

It's one of the successes of this boxset that where this tale in isolation could lead you to fear that it'll be slim pickings outside of any Doctor/Master interaction, the question of whether Sally is a weak character completely in thrall to the Master or there was always something of the amoral scientist in her waiting for the opportunity to be indulged is one of its more intriguing and enticing elements. 

Listeners are best advised to grin and bear the Gardiners and console themselves with the scant usage of Molly in favour of revelling in McQueen's delicious skullduggery and McGann/Carlsen badinage until the cheap 'and they all died except they didn't, that was just a matrix' fakeout leads the Doctor to his inevitable acquiescence to Narvin's recruitment drive, with a rather flat "You know I don't have a choice, so let's just get on with it, shall we?".

...which leads me to a criticism that applies to most of this set's instalments - the above line is robbed of the punch it would otherwise pack by being left hanging undramatically before the baffling popular David Arnold theme arrangement can be bothered to lethargically squelch in, just those few seconds after any drama has defused. 

An uninspiring start, raised a few notches by grit from McGann and a titanic supernova of a performance from Alex McQueen. 

6.5/10

2: The Reviled

with Sacha Dhawan (Vaughan/Jaldam), Sarah Mowat (Gajeeda), Laura Riseborough (Sharma)

LIV: "You can't help yourself, can you? Even when it's none of your business, you're trying to make things better!"
THE DOCTOR: "Always try to leave a planet in a better state than you found it, that's my motto!"
LIV: "There are worse philosophies... "

The second chapter begins with Liv Chenka on the world of the Scorpion-like Ramossans, herding the human survivors ("filthy warm bloods") on their planet on the fringe of the earth alliance's war with the infinite warriors. 

Medtech Chenka falls in with downtrodden prisoners Jaldam and Sharma while the 8th Doctor bumps into Sally Armstrong, acting for the future Ides Scientific Institute, who intend to colonize Ramosa.

The Time Lords have poisoned the planet to keep it from the Eminence but the Master, through Sally, is using the human refugees as another batch of test subjects for his retrogenitor experiments, and while the Doctor arrives to keep the peace, he's too late to save either the humans from the Master, or the Ramossans from the Eminence, leading him to really roll up his sleeves and decide that desperate times call for desperate measures.

A better instalment, this, but still one that plays a cliched and uninspiring scenario to serve as a backdrop for our lead characters to clash against. We've much more to get our teeth into, and Nicola Walker's stoic and dependable Liv Chenka makes a welcome return and a credible foil for the 8th Doctor, albeit one whose po-facedness sometimes works against her likeability. Superior guest turns help, too, with Sacha Dhawan, Sarah Mowat and Laura Riseborough all putting in work that elevates the thin tale.

McGann's 8th Doctor, whilst a commanding presence, still seems to only be dipping a toe into the water as far as the overall story goes, and only comes alive in the final scenes in which he really bares his teeth and you can feel he's firing on all engines.

Of course, as previously mentioned, the poor direction/editing scuppers the dramatic "Time Lord Victorious" -esque tension at the last second.

7/10 

3: Masterplan

with David Sibley (Professor Markus Schriver), John Banks (Captain/Lieutenant)

THE DOCTOR: "I won't countenance death on that scale?"
THE MASTER: "Who do you think you are?"

Undoubtedly the centrepiece of the set, Dark Eyes 3 finally comes to life, with a major character study between the Doctor and the Master, locked in their eternal struggle and finally getting each other on their respective psychiatrist's couches for one of their best head to heads since Big Finish's own "Master". Sadly it's not quite up to that standard and isn't quite as clever or as incisive as it thinks it is. It could never be, of course, the puzzle of these two can never be completely resolved, and to give it its due it is thoroughly engrossing. The key undermining element though is that underlying story about the tedious Eminence and the future history surrounding it. 

The focus is not quite as squarely on McQueen and McGann as you might expect though, as we get to see the very origins of the Eminence itself. A star turn from the brilliant David Sibley (whose vocal talents are really the only saving grace of the Eminence) as Professor Markus Shriver is at the centre of the other key storyline her, with Liv and Sally the anti-companion also going head to head and with even higher stakes. As good as the Doctor/Master scenes are, they don't match the Liv/Sally confrontation for its one big hold-your-breath moment. There's little doubt that both the Doctor and the Master will escape their predicament but there's genuine nerve-shredding life or death tension for the respective companions that makes for a high point here.

Much better, but not quite as good as it wants to be.

8/10 

4: Rule of the Eminence

with Jonathan Forbes (Walter Vincent), Beth Chalmers (Casey Carraway), Georgia Moffett (Engineer Tallow)

A finale that's both rewarding and frustrating in equal measure as it delivers something epic in scale with some great world-building, mistakes from the Doctor, a threat to Narvin that you actually care about, the re-emergence of Molly, a zesty turn from Beth Chalmers as the Swifty Frisko-like Casey Garraway, a likeable companion substitute in Georgia Moffett's Engineer Tallow, and Alex McQueen's Master at full throttle. At the same time, it's techno-babble heavy/dependent and hinges on both a solution that's unwieldy and waffly and a scheme that unfortunately ends up too heavily echoing the "Master Race" of TV's The End of Time.

All in all, this reaches pulse-pounding levels that the first two instalments should have tried a lot harder to match, because as enjoyable as this culmination is, you may be hard pressed to feel it was worth it to get here.

8.5/10

Dark Eyes 3

As a whole then? Good, but far from great, extremely sluggish at the start, and only fleetingly delivering on the promises it makes. A worthwhile purchase certainly, but let's hope Dark Eyes 4 is much more full throttle. It's worth it for the usual reason - it's more McGann (and thankfully it's one of those times when he can be bothered, because let's be honest, there are those other times...) - and for a pleasing abundance of Alex McQueen's refreshing take on the Doctor's best enemy, but it's lesser than the previous two Dark Eyes just by virtue of being, well, a bit of a let down. There's nothing really wrong with this set, but it's all just a bit leaden and there's nothing particularly fresh about it. 

The 8th Doctor, in continuance of his BF character-arc, is tinged with darkness, but to be honest that's increasingly something of a blind alley that's that bit too far from the more appealing sarky swashbuckler of the Night of the Doctor. He's at his best here in the later stages when he gets to be the man of action, but still holds your attention when turning on the urbane charm or adding the voice of authority to brokering peace deals.

The writing is generally speaking very good when focusing on characterisation and character interaction and it's obviously no small feat to wrangle the big personalities involved, but the plots are somewhat lacking and lacklustre, which is quite the biggest flaw of the set.

Your mileage may vary of you're particularly enamoured of the Eminence; it breathes down the neck of this set at its every turn so if you can't get enough of it, this may be far more enjoyable for you. Personally I just don't find the Eminence that interesting so it makes much of the time a frustrating wait for Doctor/Master moments in what, at times, feels like the Eminence show.

After people clamouring for the absence of the Daleks for this series, this listener in particular will be welcoming them back with open arms knowing that we're lumbered with the crushing bore of the Eminence once again, with the machinations of the Dalek Time Controller providing the real interest in the Dark Eyes series so far, and the suspicion that there's a rich seam to be mined by involving them with Alex McQueen's Master. 

Bottom line: Flawed, and the weakest of the Dark Eyes sets so far, but worth a listen, and hopefully just a lull before a storming denouement in Dark Eyes 4.

7/10

TTFN! K.

Coming Soon... School Reunion