Dark Eyes 2

Sometimes I think I am entirely out if step with popular opinion.  I seem to be one of the only people who thought Matt Smith was terrible, love Colin Baker and McCoy, adore River Song and Torchwood and was left completely cold by The Enemy of the World.

A similar thing happened to me when listening to Dark Eyes, I enjoyed it. It was a great performance by the magnificent McGann and Ruth Bradley as Molly O’Sullivan made a great foil and complete contrast to Lucie Miller, but I found the story lacking cohesion, it just didn’t quite hit the spot for me.

So it was with some anticipation, expectation and almost foreboding that I started to listen to Dark Eyes 2, would it live up to the incredibly high standards set by it’s illustrious andaward winning predecessor the answer, dear reader is very much of a YES, but read on…

Doctor Who very rarely does epic well, The Daleks’ Master Plan, The War Games, The Trial of a Timelord, RTD’s season finales, but not much more, but boy, is Dark Eyes 2 epic.  Set across a backdrop of Dalek occupation in the far future, to 1918 London, to the end of the universe, to the 1970′s, it’s scale is stupendous, and in being set over four distinctive parts, we get four distinctive styles of story telling.  Part 1 – The Traitor us an adrenaline charged action movie, Part 2 – The White Room is a slow burning mystery, Part 3 – Times Horizon is a whodunit/horror in space, and part 4 – Eyes of The Master is a thriller.

Paul McGann excels as The Doctor, he is a changed man, more cynical and driven than his foppish TV persona.  Ruth Bradley makes a great foil in Molly O’Sullivan (her of the Dark Eyes) whereas Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka may well go on to be a classic companion; she is well written, very human and very believable.

I am not a fan of “timey-wimey” storytelling.  This story does hinge on time travel, however, unlike the TV series this isn’t used for a cheat ending and is woven into the narrative very naturally.  There are cliffhangers galore, plots, counterplots, intrigue, heartbreak and, perhaps most importantly, the plot threads hang together as a tightly woven cohesive whole.

So was I impressed, yes indeed I was, especially since I was a little underwhelmed by Dark Eyes 1, Dark Eyes 2 is a triumph, ends on a cliffhanger, and left me counting the days until Dark Eyes 3.

Possibly the best McGann story of them all 10/10.