Big Finish Productions releases the audio drama box set Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 2, featuring the episode The Traitor, starring Paul McGann and Nicola Walker. 
The Doctor lands the TARDIS in the heart of a Dalek command ship during the Dalek occupation of the Nixyce system. Tapping into the Daleks’ communication network, he learns of the most-wanted human resistance fighter, a guerilla warrior calling himself the Hawk, and a stubborn medic known as the Traitor, who cooperates with the Daleks in order to provide the Daleks’ human slaves in the Nixyce system with medical supplies and services. The Traitor turns out to be Medtech Liv Chenka, who barely survived an encounter with one of the Doctor’s previous incarnations. And her newest patient is Carna – the Hawk himself – in critical condition. The moment Carna awakens, he’s ready to begin the fight anew, regardless of the cost in lives – a price Liv Chenka believes is far too high… but will she betray him to prevent him from carrying out his plan?
written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Wilfredo AcostaCast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Nicola Walker (Liv Chenka), Chris Porter (Carna), David Dobson (Kavel), John Dorney (Aldin), Nicholas Briggs (Daleks / Dalek Time Controller / Control / Auto-Voice), Brian Shelley (Roboman), John Dorney (Roboman)
Notes: The Doctor (then in his seventh incarnation) first met Liv Chenka in Robophobia (2011).
Timeline: after “X” And The Daleks and before The White Room and Night Of The Doctor
Review: A somewhat ambiguous opening volley for the new quartet of eighth Doctor adventures, The Traitor shows us that the Doctor’s back to his old Dalek-battling ways, though this time he’s paired with Liv Chenka, a character we’ve met before (but who has to come to grips with a completely new face and personality of the man she knew). In Carna, we have a character who thankfully manages to avoid being Abslom Daak with the serial number filed off; instead, he’s a bit of a Doctor-by-proxy, inviting comparison between Carna’s near-fanaticism and the Doctor’s constant readiness to fight the Daleks. What separates the two? How thin is that dividing line? How worried should Liv Chenka be – or the audience, for that matter?
It’s good to hear Liv Chenka again, even if it seems like she’s been forced to play a very familiar role under Dalek occupation: some of the choices she’s had to make are very much like those made by Susan Mendes in the Dalek Empire audio series (and admittedly, that’s been a few minutes, so anyone who’s just jumped aboard the Big Finish train may not recognize that plot element). Listeners are left to wait for the promised return of Molly O’Sullivan, though – The Traitor offers no instant gratification in that department, though one can draw some parallels (Liv is a doctor, Molly was a nurse) and ponder how this will play out.
So far, so good. The downside: the Robomen barely worked on TV, and I’m even less convinced that they’re a good idea in audio form. The Traitor does little to change my mind there.
LogBook entry & review by Earl Green