The Lady of Obsidian [AUDIO/2017.2.23]

★★★☆☆

  The Time War series from Big Finish is mostly about intergalactic battles with lots of guns and explosions. I don't know if it was what Russell T Davies intended when he brought the concept to the mythos (one can hazard a guess that his inspiration was at least partly from the far more obscure, cosmic and mind-bending nature of the Eighth Doctor Adventures' War in Heaven), but it is what it is. Sometimes, a story or two would take a more personal approach that focuses on characters and individual scars the war has left on them; The Lady of Obsidian, in spite of all its monsters and mayhem, seems to be one of those stories. 

  It's very fitting that Leela, warrior of the Sevateen and survivor of countless adventures with the Doctor and several dangerous plots and epics of the Gallifrey audio spin-off, gets to meet the Doctor at his gravest. She's also scarred from the war, plagued by memories that were, are and would have been, and cannot bear to be near the man she was so close to in the past — for the pain of memories is unbearable. Louise Jameson is always great, but she steps up a notch here to deliver quite a powerful performance (quite an impressive feat in a story that, in my humble opinion, didn't have nearly enough of her). Her rapport with John Hurt is immediate and intoxicating, and it makes the character tale even more wonderful. 

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ  

  Sometimes, you find yourself at a crossroads between several paths when enjoying a Doctor Who adventure. Encompassing the different branches as a whole is usually the way to go, and yet you find yourself focusing on the aspect which pleases you most. For me, The Lady of Obsidian is best enjoyed by focusing on the Doctor and Leela, both wounded so heavily by the Time War and barely holding the small sparks that used to light the flames they carried together in the past. Much of this adventure is the typical Time War Dalek vs Time Lord/indigenous race mumbo-jumbo that's neither here nore there, but with the addition of this dynamic, it becomes a very notable footnote indeed.

(artwork by Paul Hanley)