Sisters of the Flame

Eighth Doctor Adventures #2.7

Released: July 2008

Listened: 10/2/21

We’re now at the end of the season, so that means a two-parter with an old enemy, in this case, Morbius. This episode is mostly setup, but it allows time for the plot to build, and to flesh out the secondary characters so we’ll care about them, aspects the previous stories have lacked. In this case, the character that benefits most is Rosto, space cop, all-around good guy, and just happens to be a 10-foot tall centipede. He’s played by Alexander Siddig of Deep Space Nine fame, and his voice is remarkably calm and soothing. The Doctor is mostly absent in this one, which means that Lucie gets the starring role, overcoming her initial reaction to Rosto and helping him figure out what’s going on. Specifically, there’s a zillionaire named Zardonix buying up planets, including ones belonging to Rosto’s people, and also Karn, the setting of “The Brain of Morbius.” The Sisterhood have abandoned Karn, but they’ve got a plot to get it back, because they believe Zardonix is obsessed with Morbius. It’s a Nick Briggs story, so it’s not particularly twisty, but the listener has an advantage over Lucie, who presumably never saw “Brain of Morbius.” And of course it ends on a nice cliffhanger with imminent death, because of course it does.