Across the Darkened City

Companion Chronicles 11.2

Released: 15 June 2017

Listened: 2/10/20

This next two stories are slightly odd, because normally the boxed-set Companion Chronicles go in chronological order within a set, but Craig Brawley figures in this case, the second story happens first, because of one aside from Steven in the first story. This box set starts with two Steven & Vicki stories, unlike the previous set (probably because of the unavailability of William Russell again). This is a fairly tight story, with mostly only Peter Purves as Steven, and Nick Briggs as a lone Dalek. It starts in media res, with an awful lot of Daleks killing people, but quickly ends up with just two characters. From there it becomes an “Enemy Mine” story (Nick Brigs even says so in the extras) with Steven and the Dalek being forced to cooperate. But this is a Dalek, so the whole “sympathetic enemy” trick is an open question. I’d say it resolves fairly satisfactorily. The narration works pretty well for this story, because it lets us inside Steven’s head when he’s got nobody else to talk to.