To the Death

Eighth Doctor Adventures #4.10

Released: 31 March 2011

Listened: 11/10/21

Now we’re at the end. The Doctor isn’t dead from the cliffhanger, of course, but he’s not doing well, and he’s too late to stop most of the catastrophe. Still, Lucie and Susan still believe in him; Alex isn’t as sure. Tamsyn finally realizes that the Monk has been feeding her lies for months, and her loyalties start to shift, but again, it’s mostly too late. Although the Daleks are carrying out the same plan as before, the presence of the Dalek Time Controller makes them more dangerous this time around. Because writer Nick Briggs needs to prove they’re deadly, and because this phase of the Doctor’s life is ending, they get to kill off some people we actually care about. Also because this is Briggs, the story connects to “Patient Zero” and the Amethyst viruses, although fortunately no Virans turn up. The Monk seems to spend most of his time spluttering about how things are “complicated” and not really his fault, which kind of undercuts this whole season building him up as a major threat, and not a joke. Big Finish will totally abandon that characterization once they replace Graeme Garden with Rufus Hound, but if you want to see what the Monk did next, that’s in “The Secret History.” The ending is sad, with the Doctor failing to save the day, leading you to wonder why he couldn’t pull off a miracle this time. Nick Briggs is good, but it doesn’t have the same level of emotion that Russell T Davies would bring to a similar story. It leaves the Doctor in an extremely dark place, so much so that he can’t even comfort the survivors, which will lead him into the next phase of his journey. That’s a wrap for Sheridan Smith and Lucie Miller in this project, who was loud, brash, and cared a lot. It was good to know her.