STORY PLACEMENT

 THIS STORY TAKES

 PLACE BETWEEN THE BIG
 FINISH AUDIO DRAMAS
 "
THE CANNIBALISTS"
 AND "WORLWIDE WEB."

 

 WRITTEN BY

 EDDIE ROBSON

 

 DIRECTED BY

 NICHOLAS BRIGGS

 

 RECOMMENDED 

 PURCHASE

 BIG FINISH 8TH DOCTOR

 CD#3.7 (ISBN 1-84435-

 399-6) RELEASED IN

 SEPTEMBER 2009.

 

 BLURB

 London, 2015. The

 Doctor’s looking for

 a lost space probe.

 Lucie Miller’s feeling

 just plain lost, on a

 world she no longer

 quite belongs to.

 Perhaps there’s

 someone who can

 help. A chance

 encounter leads

 Lucie to the Eight-

 fold Truth, who

 reckon a rebel sun

 is on its way to

 purge the Earth.

 As if!

 But what if they’re

 right?

 The apocalypse is

 upon us. As humanity

 counts down the last

 days of its existence,

 the Doctor races to

 unmask the Eightfold

 Truth – and uncovers

 an old and deadly

 enemy...

 

 PREVIOUS                                                                                  NEXT

 

The Eight Truths

30TH MAY 2009 - 6TH JUNE 2009

(2 EPISODES, PARTS 1 & 2 OF 4))

 

 

                                                       

 

 

As was the case with Sisters of the Flame last year, The Eight Truths by Eddie Robson is billed and sold as a self-contained story, but in truth it’s only the first half of what promises to be a tense and dramatic season finale.

 

Set in an England of the near future, Robson’s story initially put me very much in mind of the thrilling climax to David Tennant’s second season as the Doctor on television. Much like The Sound of Drums, The Eight Truths is the story of an alien force insidiously taking power... and with titles such as The Eight Truths and particularly Worldwide Web, it doesn’t take a Kelly Westwood to work out which one!

 

“Spiders! Huge spiders! They just appeared from nowhere...”

 

Lucie’s thread of the plot introduces us to the cult that the Metabelis 3 Spiders have evidently infiltrated with a view to enslaving the human race – the so-called Eightfold Truth. Whilst the Doctor is off looking for a lost space probe, Lucie decides to do a bit of shopping where she bumps into Karen, the Headhunter’s apparently superfluous apprentice who has now signed up to this bizarre cult. And with a little bit of persuasion and a lot of blue crystal-brainwashing, Lucie joins up too, only to discover that shes the ‘Chosen One’ that the cult has been waiting for; the ‘Chosen One’ that will bring about the final stage of the Headhunter’s stratagem…

 

It’s a real joy to her Sheridan

Smith, Katarina Olsson, and

Kelly Godliman back together

once again, particularly with

Robson pulling their strings.

Fair dues, the stakes feel a

little higher this time around, and things are certainly much darker, but that indelible spark of humour that binds them all together is still present and correct.

 

I think for me though, what makes these two episodes so special is that they really cater to Paul McGann’s strengths. This season I have been gushing with praise for Smith and Lucie Miller, but The Eight Truths is the first story since Orbis to really give McGann something to truly rival her with.

 

“Do you know what this crystal means? It means things are even worse than I thought.”

 

For starters, The Eight Truths really plays upon the eighth Doctor’s energy and playfulness. His scenes with Sophie Winkleman’s (Peep Show, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth) character -

a former cultist now trying to bring down the organisation - manage to be both dramatic and fun; so much so, at times, that I was often put in mind of the tenth Doctor. The TARDIS time travel scene in particular reeked of Smith and Jones through and through, and the stealing from the handbag skit was simply sublime. Even McGann’s scenes with David and Sangak-kara searching for the lost space probe, which could so easily have smacked of early UNIT-era stuffiness, felt lively and cheerful thanks to the eighth Doctor’s boundless enthusiasm for the cause.

 

Better still though, the events of this story force the Doctor to confront the destruction of Orbis – the destruction of his home for six hundred years – head-on, as the stellar manipulator that tore that world apart is now bound for his other home from home…

 

“Spread the message to all members worldwide. Their reward is at hand.”

 

In all then, The Eight Truths is a complete cracker. It has all the weight that the first half of a season finale should have, but it also has a lot of comedy (bringing the recent Peep Show episode Mark’s Women to mind) and heart too (there is even a little Buddhist in-joke for fans of Barry Letts and of the original Planet of the Spiders). And what’s more, the performances are superb; the sound design is, as ever, exquisite; and as for the cliffhanger…

 

Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2009

 

E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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