STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES
PLACE BETWEEN THE BIG
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.
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!
right?
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... |
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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 she’s 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…
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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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