A Life in the Day

Dark Eyes #4.1

Released: 2 March 2015

Listened: 11/23/21

With this fourth box, a new pattern emerged in the writing, which becomes the standard going forward for Eighth Doctor Adventures: Matt Fitton and John Dorney splitting the episodes two-and-two. As they’re two of my favorite Big Finish writers, I’m very happy about this. Dorney has the first episode of this set, and it’s as timey-wimey as we’d expect from him. As of now, Liv is the official sole companion, but I’m not about to split up the series because of that. The Doctor is still concerned about Molly, so he goes to London in 1920, where he hopes to find her in this new timeline. Unfortunately, she’s not there, although Kitty Donaldson (still played by Beth Chalmers) and her brother Martin are. As is a temporal anomaly, which of course requires investigating. The Doctor wants Liv to relax, and tries to get her to take some time off, eventually pairing her up with Martin for a day out. What happens then is too good to spoil, but it evolves gradually, giving just enough hints that the listener might figure it out before the Doctor does. There’s also real emotion attached to it, not just clever plotting, which is what makes it beautiful. The dialog in this one is sharp, with just about everybody getting some clever lines. The boxed formula is coming together here, with this story being complete, and yet still with a link that drives the action to the next part. The only complaint I have about this story is that it’s on the short side, as are all the stories in this box.