The Crucible of Souls

Doom Coalition #3.4

Released: 22 September 2016

Listened: 12/13/21

After the big adventure in the last two stories, we shift to a smaller-cast John Dorney story in which pretty much everybody is hiding something, and nobody is what they seem. The Doctor is traveling with River, and he seems to be accepting her mostly at face value. Other Doctors likely wouldn’t do that, but the Eighth is a more trusting Doctor (at least for now) and he’s happy to leave the issue of River’s identity for later. There’s also Beth Chalmers in what seems like a tiny part, but she’s clearly playing Veklin, although we don’t know what she’s up to yet, because this is Veklin’s first appearance chronologically, if not in release order. Everybody ends up at the Crucible of Souls, a typically grandiose Time Lord weapon that does horrible things because its creators really believed it was necessary. Once all the lies are exposed, the Doom Coalition’s true purpose becomes clear. That seems like it should solve some problems, but in fact it ends on a whopper of a cliffhanger.