The Reviled

Dark Eyes #3.2

Released: 17 November 2014

Listened: 11/21/21

Because of Ruth Bradley’s limited availability, Molly is less of a presence in this box, and she’s not in this episode at all. This is one of the weaknesses of the boxed set format: with a story this long, sometimes there are episodes that feel tangential or unrelated. Which should be no problem, because the Doctor does tangential stuff all the time, but when the larger arc is a universe-ending threat, side tracks can feel like filler. In this case, the Time Lords drop the Doctor off on Ramossa, where a human colony is having trouble with the natives, a race of sentient scorpions, and they’ve dropped Liv there too, to make sure he stays. The idea is that the Ramossans have rounded up the humans in camps, because the presence of humans makes them a target for the Eminence. Sally Armstrong is there to scoop up the humans for the Master, and the Doctor wants to hide them instead. Problem is, the Ramossans want the humans either gone or dead, and they’re not picky about which, resulting in the sort of moral dilemma the Doctor specializes in. Which should be fine, but he’s fighting against three separate agendas with the Master, the Eminence, and possibly the Time Lords all wanting different things. When things start to go sideways, the Doctor is driven a bit over the edge. Some good guest stars in this one: Sarah Mowat, who starred as Susan Mendez in the Dalek Empire series, plays one of the Ramossans, and future Master Sacha Dhawan plays another. This is the first set of Eighth Doctor stories recorded after the 50th anniversary redefined the Time War and the Eighth Doctor’s role in it, which gives a destination for the character’s arc, which Big Finish can now move towards. However, there’s a long way from here to “Night of the Doctor,” and they don’t want to go back to “despairing and desperate” too often. As a hint here and there, it works.