Rule of the Eminence [AUDIO/2014.11.17]

★★★☆☆

  I give this three stars, but it's mainly due to the pretty enjoyable first part. Then it threatens to bring itself down with a whole heap of technobabble nonsense during the second half that fails to keep me interested. What also saves it is the touching last few minutes.

  Rule of the Eminence is the logical end point of something like Dark Eyes 3, a story about a worldwide conflict that begins from the perspective of the everyday person. After three relatively intimate installments (i.e. focused on a small group of people), we finally get the expansive world-encompassing epic with the consequences of the Doctor's meddling coming to haunt him. The first half of Rule of the Eminence is so fun to listen to, with the Master's plan coming together while the Eminence looks in the background almost as a haunted presence waiting for the right moment to strike (or rather, being held back by the Master until the precise moment). We get the Doctor and Liv going across the world trying to realise their own insane plan, and Molly being set up in a dangerous situation (more on this later). Exciting set up... but does it end up carrying that sense of excitement and drive? Not really, no, because once the Master puts his plan to action and puts the whole world under his control, it becomes such a generic world-under-control story with all the predictable story beats and technobabble segments. It's also a shame that they don't do anything with Molly other than hold her up as this tool to use against the Master and the Eminence purely for her retro-genitor particles without a sense of agency... right up to the very end. I know Molly technically comes back in Dark Eyes 4 with a different actor, but it really is a bit of a disappointment when Ruth Bradley is rather left on the porch like this on her final outing as Molly. My girl's hypnotised, mind controlled, held to do things against her will and captured the entire time! I... guess at least she gets to enact a really touching scene with Paul McGann.

  This is just me, I spend an entire review complaining about something I overall enjoy. I had quite a few words to say about Rule of the Eminence, but at the end of the day it's a pretty enjoyable (read: not bad by any means) finale to Dark Eyes 3. I would have preferred something more high concept, but one can't have everything.