Tangled Web

Doctor WhoFleeing from a Dalek strike force on Halalka, the TARDIS is piloted to momentary safety, but not by the Doctor. He checks and discovers that Molly seems to have more than a passing acquaintance with the operation of a TARDIS, which seems highly unlikely for a girl plucked from a World War I battlefield. The Doctor probes Molly’s memories and discovers that she first found herself in a Gallifreyan time machine on her second birthday, when she went missing from home for a time and was found by a man named Kotris. Still pursued by the Daleks, the Doctor and Molly take refuge on another planet, but the Daleks are only a step behind them… and claim they want to help the Doctor, just as they have helped themselves to overcome their warlike tendencies.

Order this CD written by Nicholas Briggs
directed by Nicholas Briggs
music by Andy Hardwick

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), Ruth Bradley (Molly O’Sullivan), Peter Egan (Straxus), Toby Jones (Kotris), Nicholas Briggs (The Daleks), John Banks (Thelus / Mezcoranis 2 / Srangor Herder), Alex Mallinson (Mezcoranis 1), Tim Treolar (Lord President / Sandum), Beth Chalmers (Catherine O’Sullivan), Jonathan Forbes (Patrick O’Sullivan)

Notes: The “future Daleks” claim to be descended from the few survivors of a “great war” that wiped out most of the Daleks and all of the Time Lords.

Timeline: after Fugitives and before “X” And The Daleks and Night Of The Doctor

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Review: The plot, as they say, thickens with this third installment of the Dark Eyes saga, but much of the aptly-titled Tangled Web is a misdirection; the visit to a Dalek future in which the metal monstrosities have shaken off their own genetic programming in favor of peace and reform is, naturally, Doctor Whoa deception that’s all about keeping the Doctor in one place long enough for the Daleks to catch up to him. There’s a token nod in the vague general direction of the new TV series’ Time War mythology, but otherwise this is the soft center between the more action-packed parts of Dark Eyes.

In keeping with the story’s constant hinting in the direction of the new TV series, the Doctor’s distaste for the Time Lords is heard to be almost as powerful as his hatred for the Daleks. (To be fair, their manipulative nature is cranked up to 11 here, so it’s hard not to share that view of them. Doctor WhoBut those vital developments are crammed into the open space left by the red herring “A” story, which take up an awful lot of time to ask a simple question: has the Doctor become as accustomed to waging war as the Daleks have? And if they somehow managed to break off hostilities, could he do the same? It’s an intriguing notion, but is shrugged off very quickly to get back to the bit of business at the end of the story that cliffhangs into Dark Eyes‘ final installment.

You May Also Like