Doctor Who: Dark Eyes
Doctor Who: Dark Eyes – Starring Paul McGann, Ruth Bradley, Peter Egan,Toby Jones, Tim Treloar, Laura Molyneaux, Natalie Burt, Ian Cullen, Jonathan Forbes, Alex Mallinson, Beth Chalmers, Nicholas Briggs, John Banks & Written by Nicholas Briggs – 5xCD / Download (Big Finish Productions www.bigfinish.com)
The Dalai Lama once said, “I find hope in the darkest of days and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe”, but having lost Lucy Miller to the Daleks at the end of ‘To The Death’, The Doctor can find neither hope nor focus, and whilst he may not judge the Universe or hold it responsible for the things that happen in it, as ‘Dark Eyes’ begins, he’s hell-bent on travelling to the end of time and space, ostensibly to see how it ends and to witness the view from the end of everything, or so he claims but there’s a niggling feeling that he what he really wants is to see if the Universe itself is finally held accountable for all of the pain, suffering and needless death that has occurred within its ever expanding borders since it, and everything else, winked into existence. A man without hope is a man lost, a man who has given up, content to let life and all it offers, good or bad, wash over him, slowly drowning in the darkness after abandoning the light. It’s here, standing at the edge of the cosmic harbour, preparing to jump into the infinite ocean and embrace the slow death that only eternity can offer, that The Doctor finds himself until he’s offered the one thing that he can’t find, hope, by, of all people, the Timelords. If he can save one woman, Molly O’Sullivan, from the creatures stalking her through time, one dark eyed girl upon whose fate Universal balance depends, the he can save millions of lives, and in doing so, restore hope to the Universe. It’s a mission that he willingly and wholeheartedly accepts, a mission that takes him from First World France to seventies London, to the other side of known space, as he discovers that both he and Molly are unwitting players in a “game” of galactic dominance that’s being waged between the Timelords and The Daleks, a “game” that will only end when one of it’s players has been completely removed from time, and all trace of their existence has been wiped from the history of the cosmos. Inevitably, things don’t work out the way they’re supposed to, or rather the way either side hopes they will, for anyone involved, as The Doctor does what he best, he throws a spanner in the best laid plans of would –be-gods and monsters, bringing everything crashing down, while re-discovering the one thing that he can offer the Universe. Hope. ‘Dark Eyes’ is one of those Who adventures that you completely lose yourself in as it offers it’s audience all of the things that make Doctor Who so much fun, excitement, adventure, a story that twists and turns it’s way through it’s sophisticated, involving and moving plot that’s also filled to bursting to gloriously realised and fully developed characters who burst into Technicolor life thanks to both the wonderful writing and an incredible cast. This boxset, this self-contained mini-season, really does feel like a brand new start for the Eighth Doctor, who having picked himself up, dusted himself down, saved the girl and faced the worst of what the Universe can throw at him, has rediscovered his purpose, and having foiled the machinations of his own people, is on his own again, running from his home in a rickety old Tardis. And why not? After all, that’s how it all started…
Tim Mass Movement
