Eyes of the Master

Dark Eyes #2.4

Released: 12 February 2014

Listened: 11/18/21

We’ve got a villain gambit pileup in this story, or at least the beginnings of one. The Time Lords think it would be a good idea to use the Daleks against the Eminence, and have tasked the Master with making that happen. What could possibly go wrong? This, incidentally, seems to be where the Master got his new regeneration cycle, and was being prepped for a role in the Time War. Of course the Master is betraying the Time Lords, and wants to control the Eminence for his own purposes, which means getting hold of Molly and her dark eyes. So naturally he’s set himself up as an optician in 1970s London, and is removing people’s eyes and replacing them with artificial substitutes. Because that’s what constitutes a “normal plan” to the Master, or at least this one. Alex MacQueen is a fantastic Master for audio, with an amazing range to his voice, flipping easily from jovial to sinister. He’s also closer to the crazier end of the Master’s spectrum than the suave Delgado end. He seems genuinely pleased to see the Eighth Doctor, at least at first. The interactions between almost all the characters in this story are excellent; this is an area where Matt Fitton shines. Whether it’s the banter between the Doctor and the Master, Molly and Liv trying to navigate 1970s London, or Molly with her elderly friend David Walker, it’s all believable and natural. Molly plays the experienced time traveler here with Liv as the novice, and it’s fun to see Liv be uncertain, as she so rarely is. Her interactions with David demonstrate her kindness, which is often hard to see in life-or-death situations. We’re left with an ending that wraps around to the beginning of the boxed set, with the Doctor helping the Daleks on Nixyce, but we’re left with a cliffhanger as to the outcome. The individual stories with a single plot thread is a better format than the first box, and the writing is stronger on the whole, but they also threw the kitchen sink into this one and didn’t really resolve it.