The Vengeance of Morbius

Eighth Doctor Adventures #2.8

Released: August 2008

Listened: 10/2/21

This is the second half of the two-parter, and where most of the action is...kind of. The Doctor and Lucie are reunited, but still spend a lot of time wandering around trying to figure out what to do, first with the Sisterhood, then on Gallifrey. Unfortunately, the Doctor isn’t very effective this time out, being mostly out of clever ideas, which I think we have to blame on the writer. We don’t really get an idea of what the Gallifreyans we know are up to, which is fine, as the Gallifrey series was on hiatus at this point. So we’ve just got Straxus, who’s pretty much the typical CIA agent. We get almost none of Alexander Siddig this time around, as his character is mostly forgotten, which is a shame. Samuel West has a good presence as Morbius, but he doesn’t have a ton to do except for megalomaniac rants. Lucie, however, demonstrates how far she’s come in the past year. She’s pretty capable, and completely devoted to the Doctor, in contrast to her first season. For his part, the Doctor seems to really appreciate and admire her. All of which comes to a head at the ending, in which (spoiler: The Doctor and Morbius fall off a balcony into a really deep ravine, and are both presumed dead.) As cliffhangers go, it’s not bad, and although the extras try gamely, it’s pretty clear there will be another series very soon.