2 episodes. Approx. 68 minutes. Written by: Stewart Sheargold. Directed by: Ken Bentley. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Sarah Sutton.
THE PLOT
The TARDIS materializes on a destroyed ship that's barely holding together in the wake of a devastating space battle. The Doctor insists on investigating a nearby anomaly; against his wishes, his companions insist on accompanying him into the unstable wreckage. This proves to be unwise. They have only begun to search the ship when some debris cuts through the hull. The Doctor is on one side of the breach, while Nyssa, Tegan, and Adric are on the other.
The Doctor motions for them to stay put while he uses the TARDIS to recover them. But the ship is starting to break up. That's when the Death Collectors come for them. The Dar Traders (Derek Carlyle) are scavengers, drawn to death by a desire to understand it. They have come to this battlefield, to this ship. They use their technology to transport the Doctor's companions to their own vessel. There, the time travellers discover a cabinet recently scavenged by the Dar Traders. It's made out of dwarf star alloy, and is the source of the anomaly the Doctor had detected. It is also the personal life support of Damasin Hyde, an assassin who may just have business of his own with the Doctor!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: This is essentially a "Doctor-lite" story, with the Doctor appearing only in the first half of Part One and the last ten minutes or so of Part Two. The story does reinforce what was shown on-screen in The Visitation and Black Orchid - that the Doctor has a bond with Nyssa that isn't necessarily there with his other two companions. This is particularly evident at the story's end, as the Doctor talks with Nyssa about what has happened.
Nyssa: Takes charge in the Doctor's absence. When the Dar Traders insist on "cataloging" the time travelers, to verify them as alive and not dead, Nyssa volunteers to go first. She endures the painful process without complaint, then shields Tegan and Adric from having to undergo the same treatment. Despite assuming the role of de-facto leader, she becomes too trusting of Damasin far too quickly... which actually makes sense. Remember, she had always had her father to look out for her. When her father was gone, she moved immediately on to the Doctor. There has always been a "father figure." Now, with the Doctor temporarily gone as well, another older male authority figure appears. It's hardly surprising that she goes along with it. Her anger when her trust is betrayed is quite well-portrayed both by writer Stewart Sheargold and by Sarah Sutton.
Adric: He is described as "truculent," and often comes across as arrogant and condescending, particularly to Tegan. His fascination with the Dar Traders' technology overrides his common sense, as he shows no sign of caution when exploring their ship. His recklessness is suitably punished. The Episode One cliffhanger sees Adric stabbed in the chest - a scene that would likely be a fan favorite had this actually been a televised story!
Tegan: Of the three companions, she is the one who's completely out-of-her-depth dealing with the Dar Traders and their technology. Still, she refuses to be excluded when Nyssa and Adric are observing and discussing what's in front of them. She does have a genuinely quick mind, drawing on what she's already seen with the Doctor to connect the dots and identify the machine made of dwarf star alloy as a "dimensional anomaly." Though Sarah Sutton does little to capture the voices of either the Doctor or Adric, her reading is startlingly dead-on when she delivers Tegan's lines. The hint of an Australian accent in her delivery brings Tegan to life in a way that Sutton can't quite manage with the other regulars.
THOUGHTS
The Darkening Eye was the first Companion Chronicle to feature a Doctor who was already performing full-cast plays for Big Finish. As such, my immediate reaction when it was announced was that this was a wasted slot. We had plenty of Fifth Doctor stories coming already, via the main range. What I wanted from the Companion Chronicles were more stories from the early Doctors!
Well, I was wrong. For one thing, the Companion Chronicles format even now remains the only viable way for Big Finish to deliver stories set during Season 19, given that Matthew Waterhouse has expressed no interest in playing Adric again. But the format also allows us a story that gets inside Nyssa's head. As one of the most introverted companions in the series run, really getting to see what she's thinking and feeling in more than postcard glimpses is a rarity.
More importantly, The Darkening Eye is a good story. It's well-made and atmospheric, with several highly visual moments. The Dar Traders' ship, stuffed with remains of the dead, all being used in different ways is like something out of a horror movie. Then Episode Two moves to a war-torn planet, with smoke from recent or distant battles a constant. Stewart Sheargold uses the luxury of complete narration to create vivid mental images, in a way that music and sound effects can only hint at with the main range releases.
Death hangs over this story, almost an extra character in itself. Everything in the story connects to it: The ruined spaceship, with no survivors. The Dar Traders' corpse-laden vessel. The assassin. The war-torn planet, in which all we really see of the battles are the smoke, the dead, or the dangerously feral survivors. The tone is bleak throughout - something which I suspect will make this story one that's "not for all tastes." It is unquestionably ambitious, however, and most of that ambition is realized.
Sarah Sutton's reading is mostly quite good. Her voice is well-pitched to convey the grim atmosphere of this story, and she is able to show both Nyssa's constantly working mind and the pain which she keeps as tightly buried as she can. She does well not only with Nyssa, but also with Tegan and Damasin. She is less successful with the two male regulars. She is unable to vary her pitch when delivering the Doctor's lines or Adric's lines. As a result, there are a few occasions in which I was temporarily confused as to which character was speaking. It's really not too significant an issue - but it does jerk me out of the story in a couple of places, and perhaps shows one reason why Sutton has only performed one Companion Chronicle to date.
Still a good story, and one that fits quite neatly into its continuity placement in late Season 19.
Rating: 8/10.
Previous Television Story: Black Orchid
Next Television Story: Earthshock
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