The Darkness of Glass

Fourth Doctor Adventures #4.2

Released: 12 February 2015

Listened: 4/3/22

This is one of those stories that grabs onto a particular historical phenomenon and explores it from multiple angles. In this case, that’s the “magic lantern” practice of slide projection from the 16th to the 19th centuries, when it fell into disuse after movies became popular. In this case, a bunch of enthusiasts are gathered in a spooky castle to remember the work of a (fictional) famous lanternist, who was said to be so skilled that he captured a demon in his images. Which means, of course, the Doctor and Leela will have to deal with that demon. K-9 stays behind, which happened from time to time on TV, but it does seem a bit odd here, given that K-9 has recently joined the crew. That gives Leela more space to shine, and although stone castles aren’t her forte, shadowy creatures that need hunting is right up her street. There are a number of secondary characters, well-drawn, if briefly, which makes it hard to determine the villain. The monster itself doesn’t get a lot of explanation. It’s mostly a macguffin while everybody else figures out the mystery. Not the strongest story from this set, but it’s a quality outing.