The Satanic Mill

Doom Coalition #1.4

Released: 12 October 2015

Listened: 12/5/21

The finale for the boxed set is written by Edward Collier. This is his only contribution to Big Finish, and unfortunately, it shows. The Doctor tracks down the Eleven on a planetoid inside the orbit of Mercury and heads directly there, even though that was where the lackeys from last episode were supposed to take him. The planetoid is some kind of factory, staffed by humanoids who only live for a day and turn treadmills until they expire. Yet they somehow have a religion and philosophy, if a fatalistic one. How that’s efficient, I have no idea. The Eleven is planning to do something with a prototype stellar manipulator, and make the sun go boom in the process. The characterizations are all slightly off from what we’d expect. The Doctor is unusually flippant in the face of his own death, or danger to his companions, and doesn’t seem too torn up about the death of a temporary ally. There’s some friction between Helen and Liv now, which hasn’t been present up to this point. Helen does most of the work of saving people, which normally the Doctor would have done. It’s sufficiently explodey for a finale, but the story as a whole feels kind of half-baked.