X and the Daleks

Dark Eyes #1.4

Released: 10 November 2012

Listened: 11/15/21

This story is the explosive conclusion to the Dark Eyes story, with lots of timey-wimey, twists revealed, and exposition. So, so much exposition. It looks like Nick Briggs wanted to create a Moffat-style puzzle box, and it certainly is puzzling, but the explanation isn’t simple, and requires a lot of spelling out. Unfortunately, a lot of the explicating is left to Straxus, explaining to Nadeyan (played by Ian Cullen from “The Aztecs”), as the latter splutters and exclaims that he doesn’t understand. That’s OK, Nadeyan, we don’t really understand either. As best I can tell, it looks like the Doctor didn’t really do anything to defeat the Daleks’ big plan; that was somebody else. All the Doctor did was be in the right place at the right time (inadvertently). And it’s never really made clear why Molly, specifically. Most of the Daleks don’t seem to know what’s going on either. The Dalek Time Controller does, but he’s turning into a favorite character of Nick’s, popping up all over the place. As a climax, it’s big and loud, but it’s not a particularly good story. The boxed set as a whole, taken as a single story, isn’t bad, and Molly is definitely a contrast to Lucie and Charley, but it doesn’t have either the clever storytelling or the emotional heft of later Eighth Doctor stories.