The Demon Rises

Fourth Doctor Adventures #7.4

Released: 18 January 2018

Listened: 4/12/22

The tone of this story is about the same as the last one, but the focus becomes different. The Doctor is still trying to figure out what’s going on and who’s hunting the Mind Runners, but the emphasis shifts to locating the Nightmind and what’s going on with the evacuation rocket. If you guessed “something sketchy,” you’d be right. I’ve seen the “sneak on board the mysterious evacuation rocket” more than a few times in Doctor Who, but this particular variant is probably the most unusual, and comes with the most body horror as well. Dorney’s reach may have exceeded his grasp a little bit here. He tries for an even higher concept than the ones he created in the last story, and in my opinion pushes the boundaries of plausibility a bit. The well-drawn characters are still around, but they’re less individualized this time, and more playing their expected roles in a Doctor Who story. There’s lots of running around, the Doctor talking the bad guy into a corner, and K-9 blasting things. The build-up is a little more dramatic than the actual climax. I’ll remember this one more for all the wild ideas zipping around than for the actual plot.