The Darkening Eye

"I went beyond death, and I believe I can save you."

Writer: Stewart Sheargold

Format: Audio

Released: December 2008

Series: Companion Chronicles 3.06

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan

Synopsis 

While investigating a debris-littered battlefield in deep space, the TARDIS crew are salvaged by an ancient race of collectors known as Dar Traders.

Seperated from the Doctor after an accident, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa find themselves at the mercy of the Traders' curiosity. But the Traders have salvaged a cabinet from the battle that could be very dangerous indeed.

What does the suave assassin, Damasin Hyde, know of the cabinet? And why is everybody so interested in the missing Time Lord?

To find the Doctor, the TARDIS crew will have to enter a violent inter-planetary war. Where someone will die, and it will change everything.

Verdict

The Darkening Eye was a brilliant Companion Chronicle that was wonderfully performed by Sarah Sutton who, once again, reprised her role as Nyssa. Now, I've sometimes been a bit critical of the pairing of the Fifth Doctor and Nyssa in the Main Range stories due to the seemed poor performances by the actors but here Sutton threw all that doubt back in my face because she was tremendous! I loved having a new Season 19 story, if you like, and it was intriguing hearing the takes on both Adric and Tegan. Sarah did a great job of including the Australian accent of her fellow female companion and also captured the somewhat youth-like tone of Adric. Her impression of the Doctor, who didn't appear too much, was also very good in my opinion. The story itself was excellent with a ghoulish theme of death! The Dar Traders were an intriguing species and what they hoped to experience was rather daunting. But I really liked it. They wanted to know and capture the threshold between life and death, if there was one at all. I found the concept mightily intriguing! Is there anything between life and death, just for a split moment? If there was, the Dar Traders wanted to experience it to fulfil whatever sadistic fantasies they had. Their use of trading was an interesting one and they literally meant it in regards to just about everything! The emotional references by Nyssa to The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis were really heartfelt and it really made me realise just how much she went through in her early days in the TARDIS, of course then with the Fourth Doctor. The descriptions of the Master wearing the face of her father, Tremas, was also full of emotion. She utterly despised the renegade Time Lord but how could she go about destroying the one thing that was left of her father? With this emotion it was very good how Nyssa took the central role amongst the companions (as was always going to be the case of course with her performing). Her consoling of Tegan was nice but there always just seemed a bit of tension between her and Adric. The arrival of the assassin, Damasin, was good and his apparent killing of Adric was great! But, being Alzarian, his internal organ structure was different so he survived the stabbing he received. The triumphant return of the Doctor was superb and the way the downfall of the suave assassin as it seems he's known was tremendous, despite the fact he couldn't be killed as he was stuck in a flux between life and death. I almost envied him, I'd love immortality! A good climax to a great little story. Good relations amongst the TARDIS crew, unique concepts and characters and a fantastic performance by Sarah Sutton.

Rating: 8/10