The Reviled [AUDIO/2014.11.17]

★★★★☆

  There are many adventures within the Dark Eyes range that are overlooked -- which, to be fair, isn't that hard since all anyone ever remembers are the first boxset and that one really popular Doctor/Master one we'll cover later -- and it seems that The Reviled gets the shortest end of the stick; it's hardly ever brought up. Not even when future Master Sacha Dhawan is in the cast, either!

  It's a pity, really, because for my money, The Reviled is one of Dark Eyes' finest installments. What we have here is an opportunity to experience the Eminence war from the bottom ground, where ordinary people are left to suffer the consequences of big sweeping decisions. Prisoner camps, indigenous species and interracial conflict, plus a proper well-done chess game between the Doctor and the Master (represented by the ever resourceful Sally Armstrong) -- this is a jam-packed and well-paced hour of Dr. Who, and it's here we get to see the post-To the Death Eighth Doctor at perhaps his finest: a negotiator, an active intervener and instigator of change. He never quite loses his taste for the silly or the witty, but he's much less romantic and more straight-to-the-point, much more battle scarred than the early Eighth Doctor we loved (that of Big Finish, anyway; the BBC Books range Eighth Doctor is almost another beast entirely). Paul McGann is insanely good in this adventure, right down to the horrific twist that the Master has one-upped him at his own game. It's great that the wonderful cliffhanger here, dramatically at least, leads seamlessly into next one like a proper serialised string of adventures. Sometimes, there is a benefit in letting one person write an entire series. Matt Fitton clearly had a strong vision and out came Dark Eyes 3, which stands alongside DE1 as the better installments of the range (incidentally, DE1 was entirely Nicholas Briggs' work). Don't let the crab aliens fool you -- this is a story with a serious tone, and no-nonsense smooth execution.