The Dark Husband

Main Range #106

Released: March 2008

Listened: 12/26/20

In production terms, there was a gap between “Nocturne” and this story, and it feels like a bit of a gap for the characters as well, because this is a relatively light story. There’s still plenty of impending doom, but nobody gets tortured and there are plenty of one-liners to be found. The latter is mostly because the story is written by comedy writer David Quantick, so Ace and Hex get off a lot of gags, mostly at each other’s expense. The Doctor tries to take Ace and Hex for some R&R, but as usual, they end up on a planet where the two indigenous groups have been at war for thousands of years. Fortunately, they’ve arrived at a time of periodic truce, and even more fortunately, the Doctor believes he can stop the war by participating in a wedding ceremony as the titular Dark Husband. Unusually, though, the Doctor reads the situation wrong, and Ace and Hex wind up in a lot of trouble. Although Hex seems to have moved on from his feelings for Ace, he seems to be OK with the idea of a ceremonial marriage to her, and is disappointed when she doesn’t seem to reciprocate (although she has good reasons). This one seems to have saved considerably on the guest cast, as Danny Webb plays Ori of the Ri and Irit of the Ir, as well as the god Tuin, which is nearly all the speaking parts outside the main cast. It’s an OK story, fairly straightforward with a predictable mystery, and it’s nice to see the crew at least trying to have a good time.