Dark Eyes II Part Three: Time's Horizon written by Matt Fitton and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What's it about: The Doctor and Molly find themselves at the very edge of creation. But something dangerous seems to be heading back into the known universe from the very end of time. The crew of the cryo-ship Orpheus, including its medical officer Liv Chenka, have their mission parameters to adhere to; but the arrival of the Doctor and Molly changes everything. An ancient and terrible force is on a collision course with them all and the outcome seems to be a matter of divine destiny.

Battle Scarred: When something happens in his presence that sees the loss of many lives, the Doctor tells himself that everything happens for a reason. Well this certainly did...because he asked the Daleks to do it! How he can justify that with a wave of the hand baffles me but then perhaps this is the beginning of the war torn Doctor we saw in Night of the Doctor, taking his first steps to treading on the little people in order to keep the bigger picture in check. There was a time recently when he tried to reach the end of the known universe but there are so many different endings s which one do you choose from?

Dark Eyes: The Doctor's response to Molly's nickname for the TARDIS is that she is hardly ever tardy. She wants to go somewhere fantastic with the Doctor but then she wants him to take her home. She has a life of her own in he world and this is just a holiday for her. That seems to be all the rage these days, what with Amy, Rory and Clara all popping back home to pick their lives up whenever they reach the end of an adventure. It's starting to become a little old hat. I rather like the Doctor's companions to head off with him into time and space and never look back. What could possibly compare to that? However in Molly's case I can understand more than most. She's come from a war torn world whose conflict has just come to an end...who wouldn't want to be a part of the celebrations and the healing? I'm on the fence then. She's getting to know what questions to ask - where they are in time or space? She is a woman of irrefutable logic - it can't be impossible if it just happened. Molly doesn't know much about future technology but she is savvy enough to recognise that explosions close the engines is a bad idea. Molly tries her best to make analogies to things she understands and so the Eminence breathe of life becomes a cloud of mustard gas through her eyes. Molly has such trust in the Doctor that she questions Liv's versions of future events. She stresses that maybe there is something that she doesn't know, a fact that explains why whatever happened happened.

Survivor: As far as Liv is concerned this takes place after The Traitor, as far as he is concerned it takes place before. It's all getting a bit River Song, this. It means that Liv can blow the whistle on the Doctor's co-operation with the Daleks before he gets a chance to live those events (it is also a good get-out clause...he has to appear to be working with them to destroy the alien fleet because that is what Liv saw and informed him about). The interaction between Liv and Molly is excellent, initially distrustful of one another and with Molly trying to convince Liv that her opinion of the Doctor is flawed. Straight talking dialogue that shows them both as tough women who have to prove themselves to each other. Unbeknownst to Liv her reputation as 'the Traitor' has followed her. After all this is over, Molly hopes that she and Liv can be friends. Liv shows Randall her memories and there is a suggestion that she has seen or done some very dark things. It's enough to drive him from her mind. Her willingness to take her own life in such a painful way to save the day is all the Doctor needs to hear to race to her in time and prevent it. Although it does beg the questions of why he didn't do the same thing for Alex and Lucie. Liv isn't sure if it makes sense travelling with the Doctor after the horrifying act she saw him commit in his future.

Standout Performance: It's Paul McGann's turn to take centre stage. He even sounds more like the War Doctor from Night of the Doctor than the old cuddly romantic from the early Big Finish days. Whether this is a move for the better is up to you to decide...I rather like it. Although I would like him to have some lighter days too. When he's angry, he sounds like he is capable of anything.

Sparkling Dialogue: 'At any given moment the universe is ending for some poor soul...'

'This is madness. You've drilled a hole without of what you might be letting out!'

Great Ideas: This picks up precisely where The Traitor left off with the Daleks taking out the alien fleet at the edge of the galaxy that he was so keen to get rid off. And then follows Liv Chenka's story as she escapes from the Daleks and winds up on the Orpheus. A vast power source sitting just beyond the Orpheus, a temporal wave front (have I slipped into Star Trek Voyager?). Orpheus are long range explorers, tiny habitation modules yoked to a massive engine array. They were fired off in all directions, a million light years from home just to see what's out there. It's crew frozen and their minds backed up on computer to avoid synaptic damage. The Eminence have surfed a wave back through time from far, far in the future. There's is the last mind in creation, they are the singularity that fills the void at the end of everything. Their destiny is to control all living things. Fitton gives us a little taster of what is to come later in the third series of the 4DAs, the Doctor and Leela visiting a future where all humankind is slaved to the Eminence. I hope it lives up to its promise. That is what they want to come to pass, to fulfil that destiny. The Eminence waged war against humanity with armies of slaves led by infinite warriors, mummified foot soldiers infused with the breathe of life. Randall Veran is a master of espionage at reasonable rates and has been hiding away inside of Liv for centuries whilst she has slept. There is an energy crisis in the time of the 20th Empire and the authorities received the data logs from the Orpheus logs in three centuries time detailing unlimited energy source. He time hopped on board a year after launch fixed a frakking beam onto the primary grid to drill through the wave front and extract the primary goodness. He's been waking up in Liv's body every fifty years to lay a trail, adapting the communication buoys. They might lose 30% but that still leaves 70% of infinity to be exploited. In the future he is dead, he's a ghost talking out of somebody else's lips. Well I can't say I saw any of this coming but it certainly does tie up most of the loose ends and answer all the questions I had about the whys and where's of the Orpheus and it's operations. It's nice to get an unexpected sting in the tale sometimes and I really enjoyed how the tables were turned and Randall went from being a smug, rich criminal to a desperate ghost of a man trying to do anything to survive. It's even more clever to play this all out through Liv, cutting out the need for an extra actor. Vi is a wonderfully tricky character, doing whatever she can to survive whether that means siding with the Eminence, being their spokesperson or becoming an Infinite Warrior. Apparently a coward, she ultimately proves the bravest of the characters in this tale. The Eminence are sent back through Time's Horizon to whether it is they came from...but you can sure they will try again one day. I did wonder what the point of the Ides Institute section of Dark Eyes I was all about as it seemed to have no connection whatsoever with the central storyline...finally that little piece of the jigsaw is going to be answered. The Master makes a brief cameo at the story's conclusion, saving the life of Dr Sally Armstrong of the Ides Institute.

Audio Landscape: Firing a weapon of mass destruction (or at least that's what it sounds like!), destroying an alien fleet, a spaceship landing, the console room hum, a scream in the distance, alarms (lots of alarms!), intercom, a body calcifying, depressurising a section and sending the Eminence corpses flying into space, laser blasts, a car shooting past blaring its horn.

Isn't it Odd: An advanced form of frakking drill? Frakking? Really?

Result: Hurrah! Opens like a regular Doctor Who story with the Doctor and his assistant drawn to a mystery in an intriguing setting packed with well drawn characters. If that sounds crushingly dull then I am doing Time's Horizon a disservice because the fact that it plays out like a traditional Doctor Who story (and a good one at that) is one it's biggest strengths. Continuing the Trial of a Time Lord theme, it is the third story in sequence which works best as a standalone adventure despite having threads that will continue on into the rest of the set. Fitton remembers to give this adventure a self contained narrative outside of its arc elements. With them appearing in three different eras now (Doctors four, six and eight), the Eminence are starting to make something of an impression and are exactly what I have been asking for quite some time...an original race of monsters that make the same impact as all the returning baddies that Big Finish (probably for marketing and sales purposes) are obsessed with reusing. They are far nastier here than they were in The Seeds of War with the focus on extreme body horror and injecting them into a claustrophobic setting that adds a great deal of tension to events. The combination of the Doctor, Molly and Liv works very well and hope they both stick around for the next Dark Eyes set. Ruth Bradley and Nicola Walker have extremely good, brassy chemistry and it would be a shame not to exploit that further. I don't want you to think that this is some kind of Doctor Who masterpiece, it is ultimately a strong spaceship under siege story but has no ambitions beyond that. However on those terms it is (once again) vividly directed by Nicholas Briggs and dramatised by a man who has frequently ticked all my boxes of late. Matt Fitton understands that we need to get to know the characters if we are to care about them and that the threat has to be invasive rather than just conceptual. He also seems to have a firm grasp on the Eminence and gets the opportunity to scribble in some of their back story in Time's Horizon. He even has a couple of surprises up his sleeve in the last third. I really enjoyed this instalment, I just wish this was how the Dark Eyes II box set had begun: 8/10

Dark Eyes II Part Two: The White Room written by Alan Barnes and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What's it about: Molly O'Sullivan is still trying to help people, but now she is back in London, staying in Baker Street. But there are dangerous forces abroad. Where are the young deserters disappearing to? Who are the Huntsmen? And what is really going on at the Blackwell Convalescent Home? Perhaps the mysterious 'Surgeon General' has the answers. To find out, the Doctor must tackle an old and baffling enemy.

Battle Scarred: The Doctor know where all the hidden passages are and takes great delight in showing Molly where he has secreted his TARDIS. That might be the most unintentionally suggestive sentence I have ever written. This is one instance when the Doctor simply arriving in a particular time and place is the catalyst to everything that follows. He has lighted the blue touch paper before even stepping out of the TARDIS. Shaun's virus is activated by temporal energy, just a trace of residual artron energy in the house after the TARDIS materialised was enough to cause the virus to activate. When he travelled in the TARDIS, surrounded by artron energy, the virus blossomed and bloomed. The first Dark Eyes box set had a particular goal in mind with the eighth Doctor, rehabilitating him after the loss of so many friends and showing that there is still a fight out there that is worth being involved in. The second set seems to have put him on the back burner for the first two instalments, giving the meat of the stories to Liv Chenka and Molly O'Brien. He's active in both stories but mainly on the periphery, running about and trying to help and turning up somewhere near the end to explain what has been going on. But in both The Traitor and The White Room the real eyes that we are seeing the stories through are Liv and Molly. Fortunately in both cases both the characters (although Liv needs a little work make her less like a Dalek Empire throwback) and the actresses are more than up to the task.

Dark Eyes: Molly didn't come to London to seek her fortune, she is working in a hospital in the capital city. Molly's dark eyes look as though they are going to be a big part of the plot of this box set again (they could have just re-introduced the character and used the name as her nickname). For a moment she is pleased to see the Doctor but itself long before the full force of her Irish wrath is upon him, as he exposes her cousin as a murderer and his re-appearance in her life co-incides with the retrogenic particles in her eyes reactivating. They writers could have bowed down to critical opinion and failed to use the term 'tardy box' at all but that wouldn't have been in character. I rather liked the little affectation (but then I am quite strange) and it isn't overused in The White Room. In an emergency she calls him 'my Doctor', suggesting the affection that she really has for him. When she thinks she has died, Molly prays for her soul. Molly informs the Doctor that she hasn't been waiting around for him to show up in her life again. She has a vocation, a calling. Why on Earth would she want to pass the time of day with an unshaven itinerant like him? She's not a fool for wanting to use the only skills that God deemed to hand her, as an able nurse.

Standout Performance: Ruth Bradley is such a presence as Molly it is a shame that she was written out of one of the instalments of this set. Some of Molly's more fiery characteristics have been toned down (I always liked her temper but there were times when she could almost reach Tegan proportions of grumpiness) and she is much more savvy about futuristic technology and alien races since her travels with the Doctor. She's much more rounded now and she was a pretty nicely formed character to start off with. I would quite like some standalone main range adventures with the eighth Doctor and Molly because Paul McGann and Ruth Bradley clearly get on like a house on fire and that really translates in these stories. However with Dark Eyes III and IV on the horizon it looks like this pair are destined to star in galaxy spanning epics for the time being.

Great Ideas: Tommy, Molly's cousin, started executing people back in Dublin two Easters back. He seems to be included simply to open up the story on a dramatic stand off but it does add a little colour to Molly's back story (giving her some family). How can a window break twice unless time is changing, moving backwards and the same events playing over and over again. As long as they hold onto Shaun they can continue to leap backwards in tie with him. This is all very intriguing, Sapphire and Steel style material, even if it is promptly forgotten for ten minutes in favour of more running around. I was always rather fond of the Viyrans and I thought it was a shame that they were only used for a brief while at the tail end of Charlotte Pollard's time with the sixth Doctor. They are instantly recognisable thanks to some identifying sound effects, come with a great aural hook (stealing peoples voices) and their cold and clinical attitude towards their subjects made them quite a chilling race, not thinking twice about murdering if it would kill of a suspected disease. We didn't find out even half enough about them at the time and this is a great opportunity to fill in some of the gaps. The virus was brought here indirectly by the Viyrans. Many thousands of years from now will trace the strain of virus to this place and time. A containment breach will result in the Viyran becoming infected with this temporally active virus. Molly is immune to its effect and that is what piqued the curiosity of the Viyrans. An old plague well has been excavated, one which a house was built over and named after. The establishment is a plague farm, people being infected with all kinds of diseases, not just those known on Earth. Dr Goring is operating a bacteriological research facility, digging out the back well in search of the Black Death. Meanwhile thousands of years in the future, the Viyran contracted a virus which transported him back to 20th Century Earth. Having brought an alien disease into the past, he needed to inform his colleagues of his whenabouts. Everything it needed was in Goring's research facility. Using an outbreak of the temporal virus to paint a sign to 20th Century Earth for his fellow Viyrans to follow and extract him - depending on the loss of life involved in that crude attempt at a temporal flare gun, that is cold. A Viyran incendiary bomb creates a firestorm so wild that it will wipe out in any virus in its wake, another example of their emergency measures not accounting for human (or otherwise) life. The Doctor goes an puts his foot in it when he suggests that the virus might have passed from continent to continent...giving them the idea of simply blowing up the world and having done with it. This whole story is stuck in a causal loop; the virus transports the Viyrans back to its point of origin at Blackwell only for the Viyrans remains to become the source of the virus in the future. That's rather neat. And gives the Doctor an excuse not to have to tidy things up, the clever sod. The idea that as soon as the TARDIS leaves all those infected with the virus will drop dead is a poignant one. Never before has moving on to another adventure been greeted with such an unpleasant aftertaste.

Audio Landscape: Gun cocking, horses on cobbles, people chatting on the streets, breaking glass, Molly and the Doctor listening to themselves looking for the TARDIS, knocking, a projector, crackling fire, ticking grandfather clock, birds twittering, the Cylon style humming lights of the Viyrans, the Doctor falling down a well, Molly fighting her restraints, footsteps, Viyrans blowing the crap out of each other, church bells fireworks...the end of the War.

Isn't it Odd: The White Room takes the exact opposite approach of The Traitor. Where the debut story went to pains to paint a picture of the setting at the expense of the narrative, this story leaps straight into action with barely any time or detail about where and when the Doctor is. If you had listened to the first box set you will have a general idea of the time that Molly comes from and be able to judge but if you haven't you will be completely in the dark as Alan Barnes starts the story running. This continues on into the first half of the story, the narrative hoping about from place to place and time to time not making a great deal of sense until the Viyrans/Dr Goring show up to explain what is going on. I can remember finding the individual elements of the first Dark Eyes set quite hard to differentiate when they seemed to be part of one enormous story broken down into chunks. If that was the case then why were they individually named rather than just ducking under the umbrella title of Dark Eyes? With the second set there is more of an attempt to give each story an individual identity (and the presence of three separate writers pushes that even further) since The White Room is different in just about every respect (tone, content, pace) to its predecessor in the set. And yet I think I am going to wind up having the same problem, because this story isn't a continuation of the previous one (one which ended on a cliff-hanger) and it has plot elements that aren't resolved here. It is clear that all the threads are going to come together in the last two parts to make one overarching storyline. It's the Trial of a Time Lord syndrome, wanting to tell both standalone tales and a bigger long running storyline, with the former suffering because all the important resolution will come at the climax of the set. The Viyran just happened to be thrown back to 20th Century Earth where a friend of the Doctor's who is immune to the virus happens to live? And he just happens to land the TARDIS in a time and place where the TARDIS will cause the activation of a time virus? And Dr Goring just happens to have a virus research facility set up to help the Viyran contact his people and continue his research? I believe in co-incidence and clearly Alan Barnes too because we wouldn't have a story without them. The Doctor mentions a list of things that still need wrapping up at the end of this story - just like the sixth Doctor did at the end of The Mysterious Planet. It is as frustrating to wait for the answers here as it was there.

Standout Scene: The end of the war should be a moment of triumph but Molly in on hand to remind the Doctor that he cannot run away from his responsibilities. At least this gives us a time and place at last, just as we depart the story.

Result: A jigsaw of a story and one which has some lovely constituent elements but fails to cohere into a complete picture. Quite a lot has to be known going into this story for it to even begin to make sense; especially about Molly, where she comes from and the whole situation with her dark eyes. That's before we even get to the actual plot of this beast of a tale which juggles an alien race known to regular followers of Big Finish, a mad scientist dabbling with viruses, an alien bacteria that plays havoc with time and a great big time bomb that threatens to wipe everybody away. It's messily plotted for sure because the opening 20 minutes seems to keep stacking more and more unwieldy elements on top of each other and it isn't until a lengthy wrap up close to the conclusion that it all ties together and begins to make any kind of sense. Once the explanations are in place it is quite an enjoyably conceived tale but you should never have to work to the point that it is a chore for something to start to cohere. It seems to come from a completely different box set to The Traitor and you could be forgiven for thinking that you have put in a disc from a completely different release. How all these tales will come together is a mystery. Complaints over, what about what works in The White Room? Molly O'Brien. She's been refined slightly (she's less bossy and more quick to observe and theorise) and it is such a pleasure to have her back. I hope she sticks around this time. The Viyrans always were a terrific audio presence and they work just as well in the early days of the 20th Century as they did in the far future. When these two elements come together, this story sings. There's also some temporal jiggery pokery which raised an eyebrow of interest and a dramatic resolution that sees the Doctor inadvertently puts the Earth in danger of being destroyed by a Viyran incendiary device. This is one script that feels like it needs to go through one more re-write to make the first half a little less scattershot and unwieldy. Because if it had been simplified this would have been a tasty instalment of the Dark Eyes trilogy (if one that is based a little too much on co-incidence) that re-introduces the magnificent Ruth Bradley back to the party: 6/10

Dark Eyes II Part One: The Traitor written and directed by Nicholas Briggs

Box Set Synopsis: When the Doctor defeated the Dalek Time Controller and its Time Lord ally, the timelines shifted and events changed... but the danger is far from over. And new threats to the continued safety of the universe are emerging. Molly O'Sullivan carried on with her life as a nursing assistant in World War One. She probably thought she would never see the Doctor in his 'Tardy-box' again... From the Dalek occupied planet Nixyce VII through Earth's history and to the very edge of the universe, the Doctor's footprints across eternity are being tracked by foes old and new. But when did it all begin and when will it end? Living his life through the complexities of time travel, the Doctor can never be quite sure if he's experiencing his life in the most helpful order. The only certainty appears to be the advance of the powers of evil and the oncoming threat of a fight to the death against forces that would destroy everything the Doctor holds dear.

What's it about: Nixyce VII is under Dalek occupation. For many, their only hope of survival is decent medical care, as slave working conditions under the Dalek regime are appalling. But when you help people to survive under the rule of the Daleks, are you actually helping the Daleks? Med-tech Liv Chenka doesn't have the luxury of pondering these dilemmas. She must just do what she feels is right. But then there are the soldiers of last resort... The freedom fighters left behind to cause maximum damage to the Dalek war effort, at whatever cost. To them, anyone who seems to be helping the Daleks is a traitor. And when the Doctor arrives, his secret agenda throws him into conflict with everyone.

Battle Scarred: For a moment it felt like Eric Saward was in the script editing seat since it took the Doctor a full eleven minutes to turn up. The eighth Doctor seems to be obsessed with the Daleks at this point in his life, following their scent and seeing where he can foil their plans. He's a man with a mission. Unfortunately there is no sign of that in the first half of The Traitor in which he barely features, merely turning up and getting robotised in record time (or at least pretending to be). Keeping the Doctor in the shadows for quite so long enhances the feeling that this more of a continuation of the Dalek Empire series than a Doctor Who story. His alias when questioned is Burt Higgins - your guess is as good as mine! This time around he has an even bigger goal in mind, planning on driving the Daleks off of this planet in order to guide them towards and even more destructive force in the universe and use them as his own personal assassination squad. What force could be possibly be talking about to make him act so much like his predecessor, the master manipulator? How far can the Doctor climb to maintain his precious moral superiority? That's a question that is asked but 30 seconds from the end of the tale I'm not sure we are going to get an adequate answer.

Survivor: Given the prolific number of stories under Big Finish's wing now it makes sense to mix and match the characters to different ranges and see how they settle in. Leela slipped magnificently into Jago & Litefoot for a couple of seasons, it was a delight to mesh the seventh Doctor and Raine with UNIT for a very successful box set and perhaps most triumphant of all was the reunion between the Countermeasures team and the seventh Doctor and Ace resulted in one of the strongest main range adventures last year. The reaction might be a little muted when it comes to a character that appeared in one tale (Robophobia) several years ago and tucked away in a standalone trilogy in which Liv didn't seem to be needed beyond the confines of the opening story. The reason I did remember Liv was because of Nicola Walker's magnificent performance, a popular actress who has done some sterling work on television in the past couple of years (I loved her work in Last Tango in Halifax in particular). I'm intrigued to see what the character has to offer but more importantly I am thrilled to have Walker back for the entire length of the box set. Miracle or traitor, you decide? Liv has the reputation of having betrayed everybody by working for the Daleks (anybody getting a Susan Mendez vibe?). Whilst the Daleks are feeling generous Liv intends to take every opportunity to care for the sick that she can. Liv is saving lives, which ultimately is working against the Daleks given they will be responsible for the uprising. She has had greatness thrust upon her by the Daleks and that can be exploited.

Standout Performance:  Nicola Walker needs more involving characterisation to bring Liv Chenka to life but she does a great job with what she has to work with here.

Sparkling Dialogue: Mostly functional but uninspiring, unfortunately.

Great Ideas: Liv's opening monologue sounds like it could have leapt straight out of Dalek Empire which is no bad thing since I have been hoping to see Nick Briggs' return to (what I consider) his most successful (dramatically at least) audio work to date. If Big Finish are determined to keep using the Daleks then this is precisely the way to go, battle scarred planets under Dalek occupation, the survivors subjugated and defeated. It's not a new scenario but it is one in which Doctor Who can thrive. I wish we could actually see a Dalek Robotisation Plant - in my head it is a terrifying factory churning out the living dead. Think of the Cyberman farm we saw in The Age of Steel except a hundred times bigger. The Time Controller is still alive, keeping his mutated peepers on everything the Daleks are up to.  'A workforce with hope and good conditions is less likely to rebel...' - this is Dalek Empire! Everyone knows about 'the Hawk', the most wanted man on the planet but nobody knows who he is. Left behind by the military to commit last minute sabotage and disruption. The Daleks are planning to draw the energy right from the planets core to create a weapon of almost unimaginable power...with it they will turn this system into a pivotal strategic stronghold in the Dalek Empire (See! He admits it!). The Dalek Time Controller lives outside of time and his memories are protected...I'm not sure what that means at the moment but I'm sure all will be revealed. There is a force out there that will ultimately be worse for the universe than the Daleks and the Doctor wants them to destroy it.

Audio Landscape: Lifting heavy rocks, panting, explosions, rubble falling, thunder and lightning, wind lashing, a spaceship ascending, doors opening, choking, moaning victims, Daleks gliding into view, alarms, heart monitor, we get to hear the robotisation process, sonic screwdriver, rain falling, Daleks screaming in the distance, Daleks shooting past at speed, lift descending, bomb ticking, Daleks screaming, extermination blasts.

Musical Cues: The music is a massive plus, giving the story a real lift and sense of movement.

Isn't it Odd: The opening is an assault of sound effects with very little in the way of dialogue to give the aural landscape any kind of context. This can work extremely well at times (the opening minute of The Chimes of Midnight is startlingly effective) but it was a full three minutes into The Traitor before it felt as though the beginning of the plot had kicked in. I understand the dilemma when you are acting as writer and director, as the former you can afford to give yourself the opportunity to truly express yourself as the latter...but you have to remember that this is a story to be followed and not just experienced through sound effects. It is hard to give a damn about who 'The Hawk' is given that we have only just been introduced to this situation on Nixyce VII and haven't had the opportunity to get to know any of the people whose lives he has affected with his terrorist acts. Our emotional way in to the unveiling is Liv's reaction (Walker is great) but there is no sense of importance to the reveal, the mystery and the solution are brought to light ten minutes apart. The Dalek plan to create a huge super weapon to keep a whole system in check is precisely what they were up to in The Stolen Earth, and Lucie Miller/To The Death...and countless other stories. If you can't think of anything original to do with them, don't use them. From the Doctor (turning up, tricking the Daleks, saving the day) to Liv (Susan Mendez by another name) to the rebels (including The Hawk), there isn't one iota of original characterisation to be found in this story. Like the sixties stories using stock music instead of spending money on an original score, Briggs has reached into the characterisation bank and chosen tried and tested characters to populate his story. It is interesting that the Doctor should say that it is not a numbers game when it comes to comparing whose plan will have the most casualties because that is exactly what it has become with these grand space operas that Big Finish keeps churning out. Hundreds of millions will die! What exactly does that mean? It's easy enough to say to create a dramatic effect but once that threat has been made time and again it starts to lose its impact. You have to give those people a face otherwise it is just playing God with a load of lives that nobody cares about. Who are these people that the Doctor (who will whisk off to another adventure next week) and the Time Controller (who will just go on to kill even more) are discussing at the climax and why should we care about them? In the words of a Prisoner, they are just numbers.

Result: 'The Daleks think they can use her compassion as a way of increasing the efficiency of their workforce. They've done it before...' The first half of The Traitor is a very unusual experience insofar as I felt I was re-acquainting myself with the Dalek Empire series. A subjugated world controlled by the Daleks who are trying make conditions as pleasant as possible to ensure maximum efficiency with the aid of a human slave who everybody else considers a traitor because she is working with them rather than against them. And breathe. That is the basic set up for the first series of Dalek Empire. The second half of The Traitors reveals a plan to create a Dalek super weapon in their quest for supreme power. Just like in Lucie Miller/To The Death. We are reaching Terrance Dicks levels of self plagiarism here. Not only that but the first half has very little of what you could grab hold of and call a narrative, it is a series of events that is setting the scene but not a lot actually seems to happen until we are racing towards the conclusion. Fortunately Nick Briggs' has afforded himself plenty of opportunity to show off in the directors chair and a lot of this material is enjoyable anyway simply because it is so immersive. Shut your eyes and sit back and you really wont have any trouble imagining what is happening. It is extremely well realised. However, I do not listen to Doctor Who audios to be swept away by a bombardment of ambient sounds, I enjoy them because the better examples are fantastic stories that stretch my imagination and take me somewhere exciting and thought-provoking for a time. The Traitor is rehash of Briggs' old work and not an especially inspiring one, adding little to the mix to differentiate itself and following a predictable pattern of events. I'm not sure if something this traditional was ideal to open this box set but now that box has been ticked we can move on to something more novel. Condensing Dalek Empire series one into a single release might have felt like a good idea in theory but in practice it loses much of Briggs' signature ranges nuance and dramatic power. I wasn't bored because there is a momentum to the events (and the acting is superb) but I wasn't engaged either: 5/10

The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances written by Steven Moffatt and directed by James Hawes

This story in a nutshell: ‘Are you my mummy?’

U-Boat Captain: Christopher Eccleston gives his most assured performance in this story (his best of the season is still Dalek but this is his most confident), you can see how bold he is in the part at this point and if he was as fatigued as reported behind the scenes it never once affects his portrayal. I particularly like his relationship with Nancy which is very different to how he treats Rose, she initially doesn’t want anything to do with him but he wins her over simply by being gentle and understanding with her. He can read her easily and tell that she has lost somebody to the war, something he can empathise with. His pained expression when he realises the truth about his bomb dropping faux pas is wonderful. Being a cat lover I find his little chat with the cat in the darkened alley very sweet, just like when Matt Smith did the same in The Lodger. Astonishing how well he gets on with the kids, he talks their lingo and doesn’t patronise them. The Doctor knows exactly what it's like to be the one kid left out in the cold - between this and the 'lonely child' description in The Girl in the Fireplace, the new series is painting a dark picture of his childhood. The script rather hilariously takes the piss out of his huge honker and radar dish ears and Eccleston doesn't seem to mind one jot. In nine centuries he has learnt to cope with the name Doctor and its many connotations. His ‘go to your room’ solution is inspired; only the Doctor would think to fight zombies by playing the disgruntled parent. One of the ways this show differs from others is in the Doctor's quirky approach to solving problems. When he gets upset he likes to insult species. It’s wonderful that the Doctor tries to empathise with the child; he’s almost consumed with his anger and fear as he listens to the tape of his interview with Dr Constantine. In a not very subtle 'yours is bigger than mine' penis metaphor the Doctor is embarrassed by his sonic screwdriver in comparison to Jack's far more sophisticated hardware. I love that he tries very hard not be insulted because Rose lusts after Jack whilst she doesn’t consider him a dancer. He’s so sweet and inexperienced when it comes to women which is kind of ironic considering how many pretty girls have accompanied him on his travels. You'd think he would have picked something up over the years but clearly he just wasn't paying attention. The fact that he is so rubbish with the ladies in comparison to Jack makes him all the more appealing. All this sitcom material (half of it has walked straight out of Coupling) should be horrendous but somehow it really works because it’s played very warmly. Something that is lost later on in Moffat's time as show runner where there lust dominates. He’s got the moves but he doesn’t want to boast…besides he is too busy resonating concrete to get down to any serious dancing. After all the angst and darkness of the early episodes it is very satisfying that Moffat gives the Doctor such a triumphant denouement (‘Give me a day like this, give me this one!’). You can’t not have a huge smile on your face as he throws the nanogenes at all the infected people and saves everybody's lives. It's rare that Doctor Who makes you feel this good.

Chavvy Chick: If Christopher Eccleston has come to terms with his part, Billie Piper is unstoppable at this point. She is taking her Union Jack T-shirt out for a test drive and looks hotter than ever. You can only imagine Billie Piper's reaction when she read a script that featured her character hanging from a barrage balloon with the British flag plastered all over her chest as enemy fighters advance on her! Under any circumstances that is a winning scenario...except perhaps for Rose. She is deliriously flirtatious with Jack; footloose, fancy free and very available. ‘I went by barrage balloon?’ – this is the angst free, effortlessly hip season one through and through. At this point in her time on the show she is the hottest, most charismatic companion the show has ever been graced with. What happened next season? Perhaps she should have been a one season wonder like Eccleston. She trusts Jack because he is like the Doctor but with dating and dancing. There's a gorgeous moment when she gifts Nancy with the knowledge that the British win the war.

Horny Hunk: John Barrowman bursts onto the scene in an unforgettable fashion, giving possibly his most self-assured performance in the show. At this stage he has got nothing to lose. He’s certainly never been as central to the plot since. It's so refreshing for there to be a bi-sexual character so brazenly turn up in telefantasy that isn't a lesbian (because for some reason that gets a pass far more than a suggestions of male/male canoodling). He tries the psychic paper trick but winds up handing Rose a piece of paper saying he is single and he works out. He tries never to discuss business with a clear head. He turns on Big Ben’s clock face when Rose asks what the time is – I love his style! Jack likes to think of himself as a criminal and Rose is happy to finally meet a professional at this sort of thing. I love the fact that you have no idea that Jack will be a companion at this point. He's just a run of the mill conman with a secret past who is trying to earn a quick buck to buy it back. Jack and the banana is hilarious (‘Don’t drop the banana!’ ‘Why not?’ ‘Good source of potassium!’) - what other fruit would he be found gripping but the most phallic? He woke up one morning and found the time agency had stolen two years of his life. That's a riveting back story that is crying out to be filled but has been little lost given his convoluted timeline that plays out in Torchwood and Doctor Who. Unlike Adam, you can see a future for somebody like Jack in the series, especially in the wake of his self sacrifice with the bomb.

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘Bloomin’ Germans don’t they eat? Don’t you eat?’
‘1941. Right now not very far from here the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it, nothing. Until one tiny amp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You’re amazing the lot of you. Dunno what you do to Hitler but you frighten the hell out of me.’
‘They just…don’t die.’
‘The world doesn’t end cause the Doctor dances…’
‘Dr Constantine! My legs’ grown back! When I came to the hospital I had one leg!’ ‘Well there is a war on, is it possible you mis counted?’

The Good Stuff: You can tell that James Hawes is eager to paint a vivid picture of war torn London from his first pan down the washing lines that settles on the materialising TARDIS. Is this the only Doctor Who story to take place entirely at night? I expect so given how much night time filming is? The Doctor stumbles in on a secret nightclub; candles, smoke and sultry singing, its all beautifully evocative. Is this an illicit homosexual night spot as there seems to be an inordinate amount of same sex couples together? The Mill have proven an extraordinary catch for Doctor Who and have provided some glorious CGI for the series but The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances is where they really get show what they can do. There are some deliriously good special effects in this tale, the moon glistening on the Thames, spotlights reaching into the sky, explosions claiming buildings and enemy planes tearing through the night like a swarm of insects. It's not just a case of creating CGI landscapes here, there is something expressionistic and romantic about the images that they produce. Clearly these are special effects that Billie Piper has been superimposed over but they are beautiful, artistic images. I cannot believe that is the first time we have had the police box phone ring. Once we transported to Jack's time ship I felt as if I was back at home in classic Who (the design is not dissimilar to Glitz's old rust bucket in Dragonfire). Domestic dinner scenes that glow with wit and warmth, the scenes between the Doctor, Nancy and the kids are exactly the kind of personable material that 80s Who lacked. Hawes clearly loves his horror movies and I love the tilted angle shots of the child silhouetted against the front door. Simple, but enough to put the wind up you. Moffat manages to drop information about the nanogenes early on, setting up his climax invisibly. Drinking champagne on an invisible spaceship tethered to Big Ben in an air raid…has Doctor Who ever been as cool as this before? I bet Davies wept when he read the script, figuring that the seasons budget would have to poured into Moffat's tale. Silhouetting the gorgeous Jack and Rose against Big Ben’s clock face and dancing to Glen Miller – could this story get any hotter? It's great that they managed to slow down the pace and allow for some excellent character work and atmosphere. I know that approach wasn't popular with the BBC (who asked Davies to jazz up the historical adventures for series two) but it makes all the difference. Richard Wilson has finally appeared in Doctor Who – I can die happy! His one scene is very intense and in one line Moffat manages to say everything you need to know about the character with some depth (‘Before this war I was a father and a grandfather. Now I’m neither but I’m still a Doctor’). Now there's economy. The bodies in the hospital all have the same injuries and their gas masks are fused to their faces. That's a ghoulish idea. Constantine’s bone splitting transformation is one of the nastiest moments you will find in Doctor Who. It is one moment where the sound effects really add a spine chilling edge to the visuals. You can actually see the blankness behind Jamie’s mask; he is literally an empty child. Somehow that is even scarier. Fuck the sonic screwdriver, I want a squareness gun. ‘End of the tape…it ran out about 30 seconds ago’ – such a simple fright and yet highly effective. Moffat is extremely good at that, at concocting simple scares that the classic series could have capitalised on (the Weeping Angels, the Vashta Nerada and the Silence also apply). Back to good old classic Doctor Who tropes with monsters stalking our heroes through a disused hospital. Is Hawes channelling The Invasion of Time? Whatever, it gave me a rush of nostalgia that I really appreciated. ‘You feel like you’re going to be sick like something’s forcing its way up your throat!’ – that’s a horrible sensation and is played for real (and the soldiers chilling scream of ‘MUMMY!’ gives me chills every time). I love the dizzying rush towards the child as he activates his soldiers to protect the ship, more impressive direction. The answer to how the gas-masked zombies came about is surprisingly plausible, as mentioned set up much earlier in the story. There’s a beautiful, tear jerking and distressingly simple revelation that has been spelt out to us throughout the story and yet still comes as a total surprise – Nancy is the child’s mother. How did I miss that when it had been smacked over my head for the past 90 minutes? As soon as the gorgeous underscoring piano kicks in and the boy confronts his mum I always well up, it's one of the most satisfying plot twists because it ties a neat bow around everything we have seen in a very emotional way. Jack catches the bomb and straddles it…could this guy be any more camp? There’s a beautiful, happy ending where everybody survives, you wouldn’t want every story to be like this but just this once it's very heart warming. Dancing in the console room, has the TARDIS ever been lit this gorgeously before? It's a triumphant ending that sees the TARDIS crew up to three charismatic, confident characters. The future looks bright indeed.

The Bad Stuff: The very first shot of the hospital ship flying through the vortex looks like a bottle cap hanging from a string. Perhaps they were trying to capture the classic series a little too authentically. I didn't get the point of the other reference to homosexuality in the story, the superfluous off screen relationship between Arthur and the butcher. What was that all about?

The Shallow Bit: John Barrowman oozes charisma from every pore in his body and he’s damn hot to boot. You should hate somebody who can act, dance, sing and is strikingly attractive but somehow he’s extremely likable too. Git

Result: The highlight of the first season of NuWho, this is a frightening tale which generates its scares through the performances and the subtlest of effects and direction. A horror tale that understands the genre and allows the time to build up an atmosphere. As such it’s the most ‘classic Who’ story yet with an appropriately slower pace, a stirring location, some freakish faceless monsters and a Doctor/companion combo that positively twinkle. In all those respects this is the Pyramids of Mars for the next generation. Moffat’s first script is still one of his best, managing to tell a wartime story whilst avoiding all the clichés and a fine science fiction story at the same time with plenty of gorgeous lines for everybody and some unexpected moments of poignancy. It’s a beautifully realised piece as well, evocatively all shot at night and with some stylish touches that really make this an under the duvet experience. John Barrowman joins the cast and he makes an instant impression and by the end of the tale the Doctor, Rose and Jack make for a blissful trio of regulars. All in all this is one of the strongest Doctor Who stories you are likely to see, just when you think its going to end with a load of technobabble the story hits you with the most emotional of revelations. This is what Moffat was producing when he only had to deliver one story a year and I really miss those days. A top ten classic: 10/10

Father’s Day written by Paul Cornell and directed by Joe Ahearne

This story in a nutshell: Rose is a very naughty girl…

Northern Adventurer: Looking back at series one now is a real curiosity. In many ways the series has never been as exciting as it was in that initial season when everything was new and we lapped every second of screen time. Nothing was taken for granted. In other ways you can see how the series hasn’t quite hit its stride yet but is constantly trying new things to see what sticks. I never had a problem with Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor aside from the fact that the actor isn’t a naturally cheerful performer so making him act the goon at times is clearly a painful operation for him. His Doctor is also something of a curio because without the benefit of the Big Finish audios (which the other, shorter run Doctors) all we have to judge him on is his condensed run of episodes. For the most part I thought he acquitted himself very well (and I still maintain that the show needed someone this attention grabbing in the part to capture a large audience) and he plays the darker moments of the season (the bruised man haunted by the Time War) with real aplomb. However, Father’s Day is probably the furthest away from ‘the Doctor’ that I recognise that any actor has ever taken the part (although to be fair it is almost entirely down to Paul Cornell’s script – Eccleston is just performing what he has been given). So much so that I may as well be watching a different show altogether. Running around in his Debenhams jumper, making ridiculous mistakes, indulging in childish melodrama and lacking any ability whatsoever, he’s a complete anathema.

Why the Doctor would ever indulge his companion in taking her back to the site of her fathers death is beyond me. It's inexplicably cruel that he would agree to such a thing and it's soliciting for the most dangerous of consequences. Why he would take her back again (when its clear that she means to intervene this time – it’s the only reason why she would ask to see the events again) is utterly demented. The fact that he has the nerve to blame her for the way events transpire melted my brain. As the ‘designated driver’ he is entirely responsible for everything that occurs in this story and should be clamped for the sheer lunacy of his decisions. I also have a real problem with the Doctor stating ‘I can do anything’ which seems to be as much a declaration to the audience than Rose when that is precisely the sort of nonsense that lead to the drippy hero worship of the character that got way out of hand in later seasons. The way the Doctor scrutinizes Rose observing her father is akin to a scientist studying a lab rat, consciously cruel and dispassionate. It reminds me of McCoy’s Doctor in all the worst ways of which I know Cornell is a big fan. It's strange how pre-2005, the Doctor and his companion never got mistaken for lovers. Now it happens with alarming frequency. For the Doctor to make such a reckless decision and then toss racist remarks at his companion when she exploits the situation doesn’t make him a flawed character, it makes him a complete asswipe. The spat between the Doctor and Rose marks a new low point for Doctor/companion relationships (the previously held title came when Tegan Jovanka was an incumbent of the Ship), they both come across as vindictive, irrational and childish. Its horrible to watch. He stomps off back to the TARDIS like a kid whose had his toys taken away. I think the Doctor telling Jackie off is supposed to be a moment of triumph but she’s only ever been seen as a normal person trying to cope with extraordinary circumstances. Why she should be condemned for that baffles me. The Doctor speaks longingly about the life of dreary chavs heading home in a taxi after a night out on the town – are you having a laugh with me? He’s dreaming of their life? He travels through time and space and righting wrongs! I think it should be the other way around. Some writers (and Cornell is more guilty then others) just love dragging the Doctor down to Earth and flirting with the idea of giving him a ‘normal life.’ What they fail to realise is that they would be reducing the show to that of any other drama (mind you he really proved me wrong in Human Nature in that regard but that was a thrilling one off that can never be repeated). The scene in the church where the Doctor talks down to both baby Rose and adult Rose (‘don’t touch the baby!’) sees Eccleston abandoning his art and playing the role as a hectoring bully. Why should Rose have to say that she’s sorry? And more to the point why doesn’t he apologise for being such a patronising fuckwit? And why does he suddenly start beaming at her like she’s a special needs child and giving her exaggerated reassurance? Have I stepped into a world where suddenly nothing makes sense? This Doctor seems to have a real suicide complex, choosing to give up far more than he chooses to fight (The Unquiet Dead, Dalek, Father’s Day, The Parting of the Ways) and in most other cases getting people to make sacrifices for him. Playing the martyr is touching if it happens once a lifetime but constantly throwing yourself in front of a train loses its impact and begins to feel like giving up. To be fair this is one of the few stories this season where the Doctor doesn’t get somebody else to fight his battles but that is only because he has thrown himself in the path of a Reaper long before the climax, proving how superfluous he is to events. The Doctor being devoured by a Reaper felt like divine retribution for his abhorrent handling – I was actually applauding rather than horrified. And that should never be your natural reaction when the Doctor is seen to be killed. Cornell's characterisation is often praised in this adventure but I think it is about as bad as it gets. 

Chavvy Chick: I love Rose in series one. I thought that Russell T Davies pretty much got her spot on from the outset and I remember falling in love with her more and more right up to The Parting of the Ways. I remember watching the first episode though and fearing that this show (with its focus on the domestic and council estates) was going to turn into Eastenders and by the time we had reached Father’s Day all of my fears were pleasingly allayed. Oh dear. Along comes this script which is so saturated in the crass melodrama and syrupy sweet cloyness that I regularly associate with soap operas it was like I had wandered into an appalling nightmare world where Doctor Who featured a bitching pair of stereotypes (the angry father and the rebellious child) as its main stars. Billie Piper is trying so hard to connect with her audience that she overdoes the honeyed emotion and winds up overdosing them with syrup. Doctor Who is not a naturally introspective show and allowing the companion to indulge quite this much is really harmful to the integrity of both the show and the character. Of course Rose was going to wind up saving her dad. Any sane person would. Pete on the verge of flirting with his own daughter is a grey area that Doctor Who should avoid at all costs. There’s something very nasty about crushing a little girls image of her father, dragging him down from a pedestal and kicking him into the mud. Rose slowly realising that her father isn’t the man she thought him to be but a regular jack the lad who fools about the side and fails to provide for his family makes for loathsome viewing. Oddly the one character beat that felt right was decidedly sexist and old school – Rose actually screams when she sees a Reaper which to me felt like a perfectly natural reaction.

The Tylers: Pete getting Jackie’s name wrong during their wedding is one of the few positive reactions I had to this episode. Can you imagine getting that detail wrong when you are about to be betrothed to your sweetheart? It would cast a doubt over the whole proceedings. Pete was stupid for bring Rose along to the wedding but Jackie’s abrasive attitude bubbling over on someone else’s happy day also feels untrue. Is she so unsubtle that she wouldn’t try and put a poker face on for her friend (that, frankly, would be much more painful viewing but the script plumps for the most obviously melodramatic choice).

Sparkling Dialogue: ‘I’m so useless I couldn’t even die properly.’

The Good: Despite myself, the vicar being gobbled up by a Reaper made me chuckle. Pete being given the gift of a few extra hours with his daughter is rather a touching concept. Shame it had to be with them facing imminent death and drowning in tears. Had this been a regular Doctor Who adventure where he had to choose to return to his death afterwards it would have been far more tolerable. And probably much more touching for not straining the emotion to bursting point. Considering some of the nauseating things he has to say, somehow Shaun Dingwell escapes this episode with his dignity intact. He’s quite likable despite the wealth of issues working against him.

The Bad:

• I was just having a discussion with a friend about Murray Gold’s music last night where I found myself in a position defending his work but watching this episode I don’t know why I bothered. From the outset it's one of the most predictable and corny soundtracks that has been slapped on Doctor Who material. Because this is supposed to be tearing your heart out and stamping on it the piano is omnipresent and the violins are never far away. It makes the soundtracks of the Original Series of Star Trek look subtle in comparison.
• Rarely is Doctor Who as predictable as this. The dramatic close up on Pete Tyler’s photograph before the credits tells you everything that you need to know about the episode that is about to transpire. Things are going to go very wrong indeed. There’s no element of mystery involved and it is hardly gripping foreshadowing. It's says prepare yourself for 45 minutes worth of overly sentimental soap opera. At least it doesn’t have any pretensions to the contrary.
• I understand that there is supposed to be a funereal tone to the episode but the look and feel of the scenes in the 70s is really grim. Pastel colours, mundane locations and dreary close ups. It's not particularly pleasant to look at at any point in the episode.
• Considering that the whole episode is built around the moment where Pete Tyler is mown down by a car the realisation of that moment is awkwardly handled. The approaching car barely seems to be moving and the cut to the vase smashing is badly timed and nowhere near as dramatic as it should be as a metaphor for his body shattering under the impact. With the absence of any blood      (naturally given the shyness of the New Series at this stage), it feels like slap on the wrist rather than ram raid. The POV shots of the Reapers are effective but again the resulting cuts to the shears and the bottle of pop falling to the ground fail to convince. It's strangely ineffective from the same director that packed Dalek full of memorable imagery the previous week and would go on to stage a rivetting Dalek invasion in the two part finale. Pete’s sacrifice at the climax is even more bizarre – the car approaches him at a hell of a lick this time but the director chooses to cut to an overlong reaction shot that fails to take into account that he would have been floored about three seconds earlier. Rather strangely the driver stands there in mute shock whilst the witness to his crime grabs the Doctor's hand and walks into a police box. That strikes me as an odd reaction, you would want to keep tabs on the person who has just witnessed you accidentally murder a man but no-one seems to notice them leaving.
• The inconsistencies, illogical moments, unexplained mysteries and bizarre choices that make up Father’s Day are a very rare thing - a Doctor Who story that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. On its most basic level you can see what Paul Cornell is trying to do emotionally (mostly because it is rammed down your throat with irritating frequency) but if you start to pick this script to pieces it unravels as the ill thought out, co-incidence based and horrendously plotted nonsense that it is. For the Doctor to take Rose back to the point of Rose’s fathers death twice is      extremely irresponsible. I refuse to believe that the Doctor ‘knows what he’s doing’ wherever he visits and knows precisely who should be alive and who should die – if that is the case (as seems to be suggested here) then pretty much every reaction to someone’s death he has had in the series to this point has been faked. What rot. Why does the TARDIS turn into a normal police box? Who would have the power to do that and why does saving Pete’s life have that effect? Is it a punishment of the Time Lords for the Doctor’s complete lack of discretion? Why is modern day music pumping through Pete’s car stereo? Where did the first phone call come from? Saying ‘oh something has gone wrong with time’ just doesn’t cut it I'm afraid. You can’t just toss in a load of unexplained mysteries and try and excuse them all with a temporal waffle wave of the hand. It feels like a mass of ‘wouldn't it be cool if…’ moments were tossed about in a pitch meeting and they all made it into the script with no idea of how to explain their presence. The general impression seems to be that because the Time Lords aren't about time has gone good and loopy but surely we would see more evidence of that beyond this story in that case (plus if you want to see how that concept can be done controversially and yet still make logical sense check out the BBC books The Adventuress of Henrietta Street and Anachrophobia). Why does the TARDIS key start glowing and form the ship around it? ‘Just leave it be and everything will be fine’ seems to be the explanation. Thanks for that. I don’t understand how two Rose’s can be in the same vicinity as each other and its fine but as soon as they touch the universe explodes – or something. But that stretches beyond this story and into Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors and many others. Why is the car going round and round in circles? Who is making that happen? Why is nothing explained adequately? Because we are supposed to be distracted by the heartbreak and drama, that's why. 
• The characterisation of the guest characters lacks any subtlety as well. You've got the grooms father who constantly reminds his son that he could pull out at any time (as though anybody would behave like that on what is supposed to be the happiest day of their child's life). And then there is the happy couple themselves who in a scene that is trying so hard to melt your heart reveals how they met in the most mundane of circumstances. It's so overemphasised (Cornell exposing his New Adventures roots) it loses any kind of emotional truth and strays into over-sentimentality. Nobody stands out as particularly memorable (I can’t remember any of their names) beyond being sketchy stereotypes.
• The idea of the Reapers is great - phantom creatures that cauterise wounds in time. They had the potential to be as memorable and far reaching as the Weeping Angels (although if we had to suffer more episodes of this nature…) but something went a amiss in their realisation. Instead of the Doctor Who equivalent of the Dementors from Harry Potter what makes it to the screen is an evidently supplemented effect, unimaginatively derived from a bat and a spider. The fact that their abilities are as obscure as the rest of the story really doesn't help. 
• Back in the day a decent base under siege story would feature mutant seaweed pouring forth from ventilator grills and filling the set, forcing the characters to cower away as red shirts were consumed by vicious tendrils. It was edge of the seat claustrophobia. Now it is an excuse for a girl to fall in love with her daddy over again and for him to become the hero she always imagined him to be. Oh vomit. This is not a shift in the series’ favour. It's telling that the show never tried to push the weepy drama genre to quite this extent ever again (Davies seemed to learn restraint from this experience). 
• The Mickey cameo as a kid could have been cute but once again the script overemphasises the moment with ‘God help his girlfriend if he ever gets one.’ It's like subtle implication has been replaced by spade in the face at every turn.
• ‘I’m your dad, its my job for it to be my fault’ – what an ugly inference. Plus mentions of underage sex for a cheap gag is another no-no. I just don't want Doctor Who making these kind of inferences. Imagine the conversation you would have to have with a child who flagged these points up? 
• Come the third or forth scene in the church featuring Rose and Pete getting to know each other I was screaming ‘for heavens sake just throw yourself in front of the car and get on with it!’ which probably wasn't the effect that Cornell was going for. It’s the most protracted episode ever, stuffed with sentimental padding. All the weird temporal shit and sequences in church could have been avoided if the Doctor had just grabbed Pete and thrown him in front of the car. It would have been the kindest thing all round, especially on the audience. Suicide has never felt so laboured.
• Russell T Davies stole the idea of a climax featuring a much loved character tossing themselves in front of a car in order to set reality back on track. Turn Left is the antithesis of Father’s Day, its superlative alter ego.
• There’s a great deal of relief to Pete finally being run over (again probably not the desired reaction) but it has the adverse effect of pushing the giant Voyager reset button and everything going back to normal. And those endings really bug me. On no level is the plotting of this narrative gratifying. Even down to the replay of the same scene at the beginning with the added bonus of Rose being mentioned. I don’t understand why if she was there that wasn’t the original tale that was spun.

Result: Be careful what you wish for indeed. For me this exposes why so many of the New Adventures simply did not work. It is gimmicky, overly sentimental, illogical and turns the show into a depressing melodrama. Father’s Day isn’t completely without merit because Joe Ahearne is directing and manages to salvage the shoddy script with some stylish directorial flourishes but it's probably the closest the New Series has come to being as far away from what I would want to recognise as Doctor Who (Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS and Nightmare in Silver are recent examples of abominable adventures but at least they are still recognisably Doctor Who). It’s an ugly, twisted hollow piece of drama that lacks even basic competence in the areas of plotting and character. The show has toyed with episodes that highlight the emotions of the characters since this (Turn Left, The Girl Who Waited) but this is the only time where it has been harmfully detrimental to the story. The dialogue is crass and obvious and it's one of the very few times when both the Doctor and his companion come across as being thoroughly despicable (one who makes really bad choices and projects those mistakes on others and the other who spends far too much time obsessing over herself). I desperately wanted the Doctor to stop getting angry with people for no reason and Rose to stop pouting and staring off into the distance lost in her thoughts…and for them both to get on with something far more interesting. What’s irritating is that this almost convinced me that the New Series had completely perverted Doctor Who and I came close to giving up but in respect of tone, plotting, characterisation and a general sense of adventure the series was about to show you precisely how it should be done in the very next tale. Juxtaposing the two stories simply leaves Father’s Day looking even more inadequate than it already does on its own terms. How this came from the same pen that produced Human Nature/The Family of Blood bewilders me. But then what do I know? I have never had a great relationship with my dad so perhaps I was not the target audience: 2/10 

The King of Sontar written by John Dorney and directed by Nicholas Briggs

What's it about: Dowcra base. The third Elite Sontaran Assassination Squad closes in on its target. A dozen trained killers, but even they will be unable to bring down the invincible Strang… Manipulated by the Time Lords, the TARDIS also arrives on Dowcra. And the Doctor is set to encounter the greatest Sontaran ever cloned...

Teeth and Curls: 'A machine warping space time? That's practically my bread and butter!' The Doctor complains about the Time Lords' continual interference in his life but accepts that they must have sent him to Dowcra for some good reason. It makes more sense to surrender to the inevitable than to fight them, after all they would probably just drag him back again. He doesn't like being an odd job man who gets called in whenever necessary. As you can imagine he is utterly facetious in the face of the Sontarans, not giving a damn that he is in danger of a good throttling when he can get a good jibe in at them. What's interesting about the Doctor here is that how badly he surrenders to stereotypes, thinking that the scientist Rostaro will be reasonable when it comes to the terrifying prospect of handing the Sontarans matter transportation technology on such a scale (he isn't) and that Strang is your typically bullyboy Sontaran warrior that can be felled by a blow to the probic vent (he isn't). I like it when the Doctor pigeonholes people like this and gets it wrong, it makes him a more realistic, flawed character. The Doctor resorting to attacking a Sontaran with a pipe is uncharacteristic but I have never objected to him using violence when needs must (it is a real sit up and pay attention moment too). It's a very rounded interpretation of the fourth Doctor, where he gets to be silly and insulting (especially when face to face with Strang) but also gravely serious when the situation requires it (his reaction to the news that Sontar is in the firing line was excellent).

Noble Savage: 'Whether you should kill me does not matter. Whether you could, does....and you could not.' Either some of the feedback from the first season from various portions of the audience has reached Big Finish Towers or they have simply decided to adopt a new approach for Leela's sophomore year on audio with the fourth Doctor. There is a definite feeling of trying to push them away from the traditional and into more troubled waters, given both Tom Baker and Louise Jameson something to get their teeth into. The way Dorney approaches this is to have the two characters get on better than ever before (their chemistry is at an all time high during the first episode of The King of Sontar) and thus setting them up for a big fall at the climax. Leela insists that the Doctor likes to meddle in the affairs of others, which he tries to argue against and fails. I loved how the action was split in two and the Doctor and Leela have their own subplots. Both Leela and Louise Jameson have proven time and again (via Gallifrey and Jago & Litefoot and simply because she is such an attention grabbing character/actress) that Leela has the legs to hold up her own story and her relationship with Vilhol is terrifically handled. We go on a real journey with the two of them from mortal enemies to respectful comrades to a point where Leela is devastated when he is murdered without honour. Leela understands that malnourished prisoners have nothing to lose and that gives them a strength of their own.

Standout Performance: David Collings has turned up in many a Big Finish audio (from the Unbound range to Sapphire and Steel) but he is one of those actors like David Warner who you know is going to give an outstanding performance no matter what role they hand him. His turn as the tortured, morally ambiguous scientist Rosato is one that he can really get his teeth into, teetering on the edge of being both an ally and enemy of the Doctor's with the audience not sure which way he is going to jump. It's a choice between his principles and scientific glory, and that's a dilemma that Collings brings to light with some aplomb.

Sparkling Dialogue: 'Everyone tries to kill me Rosato, given time. If I held that as a bar to collaboration I would never do business with anyone.'

'He's just about to murder me in cold blood. You know how it is.'

'Who are you learning from, Leela. me or the evil out there in the universe?'

'You wish me to leave the TARDIS?' 

Great Ideas: Louise Jameson is right, being and actor John Dorney does know how to set a scene with a bang and to draw the audience straight into the action. Considering the opening couple of minutes is an action sequence on audio, not the easiest of things to pull off without visuals, he manages to thrust the audience into an engaging story which left me with no doubt what was going on without having to spell out every move (although to be fair Nick Briggs was just as responsible for that). Strang is an immediately arresting character too - why would the Sontarans be storming a facility that is being spearheaded by one of their own? What could he have possibly have done to have been targeted like Rutan scum? Dowcra is tactically advantageous to the Sontarans and they landed three months ago with the idea of setting it up as a staging post for further expansion.  There was an Earth scientific research station manned by only a small skeleton staff already there, an irrelevance to be brushed aside. They were betrayed by Strang, with the prisoners that they brought in to work the closing machinery now his guards to ward off any advance from further Sontaran interference. You cannot put something as powerful as the ability transport matter to any point in the universe in the hands of the Sontarans. The effect would be catastrophic, giving them an incalculable advantage over any planet that they wish to conquer. Imagine legions of Sontaran troops appearing instantaneously in all the vulnerable points of a world? Planets would fall to the species like dominoes across the universe. Strang is the result of an aberration in the Sontaran cloning process, a ghost in the machine. Rather than birthing a platoon, an entire platoon was condensed into one - Sontaran concentrate. He doesn't need armour, he's stronger and smarter than any single Sontaran. He was shipped out to Dowcra to get him out of the way. Why bother make an army of Sontarans when Strang can make an army of himself - stronger, faster, fitter and smarter. That would be an intergalactic war between the two sets of Sontarans with Strang setting his sights on Sontar itself. There's the Rutans to think about too...if you take out the Sontarans then the Host will swarm all over the galaxy. Whilst the Sontarans and the Rutans are fighting each other they are leaving the rest of the universe alone. Interfere and take out one of the combatants and the consequences could be ruinous. Rosato makes a compelling case for why the transportation technology should be salvaged and completed, eliminating famine in the universe and such like but I couldn't help but think this had more to do with scientific glory on his part. Especially when one of the consequences is the mass slaughter of an entire species. Rosato comes good in the end...but it took him long enough!

Audio Landscape: Extreme gunfire from lasers, alarms, sensors, screams, falling from a gantry, explosion, dripping water, a Sontaran being shot down at close quarters, guns cocking, the Trell voice, steel on steel, the Doctor and Leela being throttled.

Musical Cues: I am massively keen on the Big Finish Sontaran theme that has accompanied their appearances ever since Heroes of Sontar. It is catchy, bombastic and immediately lets you know which of the Doctor's enemies is about.

Isn't it Odd: Leela didn't quite kill an entire species in the first series of 4DAs but she was certainly quite handy in a scrape and the Doctor didn't seem as fussed as he is here. Whilst I prefer his reaction here and the consequences for their relationship it certainly does seem that he seems to have forgotten the trail of corpses she has left in their travels through the universe previously.

Standout Scene: Leela's decision at the climax seems to be an important turning point between her and the Doctor. She sees no problem with destroying Strang's clones and preventing his evil from spreading into the universe. The Doctor on the other hand wanted the chance to try and rehabilitate them. Having the decision taken out of his hand by his bloodthirsty (or you could say moralistic) companion is not one that goes down at all well. The quiet tension that brews between them in the last scene really made me sit up and pay attention in a way that I hadn't to date with the 4DAs. The Doctor is appalled by her actions and asks her outright if she thinks he has been taking her on a tour of the universe to try and teach her to be a better killer. He sets the co-ordinates for her home planet and is ready to part company. In his mind she does not understand the consequences of her actions and she is picking up too many tips from the evils that they face. Leela can see how hurt he is but doesn't know how to make things better. She's apologetic but sticks by her decisions. The last thing she wants to do is to upset the man who she respects above all others. A superb scene, and one that I hope will have ramifications throughout the rest of the season.

Result: A confident, memorable opening to the second season of adventures for the fourth Doctor and Leela. I'm getting to the stage now where the name John Dorney on a script is an instant stamp of quality because I cannot think of the last time he delivered anything that wasn't worth listening to. Whilst this does feel as though it could just about squeeze into season fifteen, Dorney is too original a writer to simply go for the nostalgia factor and he takes on a fascinating journey that allows us to look at the Sontarans in a fresh and interesting way. You've got the poignant relationship that builds between Leela and Vilhol, enemies with a common cause. You've got Strang, a legion of Sontarans amalgamated into one terrifying individual. And you've got the fascinating prospect of Sontarans fighting Sontarans in a war to the death plus the chilling thought of them being able to transport anywhere in the universe in the blink of an eye. There is far more innovation going on here than initially meets the eye. Then there is the climax which sees a massive tear form between the Doctor and Leela, a gripping conclusion and the sort of character development that I have been waiting for in this range for some time. A fantastic script then, buoyed by Nicholas Briggs' typically immersive direction and strong performances from a memorable guest cast (Dan Starkey ably brings a very different kind of Sontaran to Strax to life). This is exactly the sort of direction that the 4DAs need to venture into, I was mightily impressed by The King of Sontar and look forward to seeing where this season of adventures heads: 9/10