The White Room [AUDIO/2014.2.12]

★★☆☆☆

  Boring, is the word I honestly can't help but use to describe The White Room. It's an unorthodox structure that Dark Eyes 2 has, starting with a story which is chronologically (in the Doctor's perspective) the last of the bunch and then going back to his very first, and I suspect the effect of this refreshing take would've been much more notable had this story been especially fun in any way. Alas, it is not. 

  The Viyrans are fascinating Doctor Who monsters (or to be more exact, alien race obsessed with viruses), and they're certainly the most interesting part of The White Room, but nothing else quite reaches the amount of novelty they bring -- and therefore, that novelty is rather left hanging. Molly O'Sullivan's reintroduction is anything but dramatic, the return of her dark eyes is written off so casually that it almost becomes comical in retrospect, and nothing about the production side of this audio drama (sound design, music, direction, etc.) stands out as particularly notable. When not even the regulars manage to bring this meandeirng slog to a level that I could enjoy in some sense (although Paul McGann and Ruth Bradley do their very best), you know that this is a dud. It's a shame because Alan Barnes on the credits usually means an interesting story's coming our way; I suppose this day was one of his off days. Go in for the sake of continuing the journey of Dark Eyes 2, stay (if you want) for the rather cool notion of transparent ghosts coming back from the dead to rise against those who have experimented on them. Don't worry... Time's Horizon will turn out to be a lot more entertaining.