X and the Daleks [AUDIO/2012.11.10]

★★★☆☆

  In trying to make the final installment of Dark Eyes 1 as epic as possible, Nicholas Briggs brings out all the stops: Molly faces several brink-of-death moments, the Doctor is at his most emotionally vulnerable and dangerous, and universe-threatening plans are set in motion. Yet again, the Doctor finds himself in the midst of a malevolent masterplan, but this time he spends half the runtime with his companion retracing the big baddie's steps and figuring out what the plot is!

  I think X and the Daleks is a remarkable endeavor by Briggs, that ideas here are certainly fascinating upon close view, but I'm not such a fan of the muddled-up presentation. It's another classic case of needing at least thirty more minutes to reach its full potential; characters spell out the entire plot (the villain's plan, certainly) to us in quite a literal sense, taking away the drama of the presentation. In the end, I'm left with an installment that tries to look all intimidating and epic while actually being quite tame. I always thought the actual resolution was naff, and in my humble opinion I'm still not wrong on that count.

  Still, Dark Eyes is a worthwhile series. I'll reserve judgement for the other three boxsets until I get to them, but this first installment works perfectly well on its own (it was initially made to be just the one boxset anyway). Why should you care about Dark Eyes? Paul McGann and Ruth Bradley -- they're two top-class actors who bring their A-game to an epic adventure which, for all its faults, deftly writes two scarred characters finding solace in the bond they create. Plus, it's mostly pretty fun, and I can never fault something for being fun.