Orbis

"The universe can't do without him."

Writers: Alan Barnes & Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: March 2009

Series: EDA 3.01

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Lucie

Synopsis

The Doctor has fallen to his death. His companion, Lucie Miller, has returned to her life on Earth, grief-stricken. Then, one night, an alien visitor arrives at her front door and shoots her.

Could it be that Lucie's days with the Doctor are not over? She will only find the answer on the planet Orbis. A planet where all forms of life are facing violent extinction.

Verdict

Orbis was an excellent start to the third series of the Eighth Doctor Adventures! I was lucky enough to have the entire series as a birthday present and following on from the incredible cliffhanger at the end of The Vengeance of Morbius, it didn't take me long to get listening. I thought the continuity from that finale was very good and that led to things not quite feeling like a season opener. That's not a problem at all as I was very keen for things to get resolved and I was happy with the way that was done. We all knew that the Eighth Doctor wasn't really dead but how he would survive falling into oblivion with Morbius was quite something to get out of. The answer lay in the control for a stellar manipulator that Morbius had intended on using, and it was the Sisterhood of Karn who wanted to make sure that it was retrieved. Including the Headhunter, a familiar character in the EDAs by now, as a bridge between those and the Doctor, as well as bringing Lucie and the TARDIS to Orbis, was very good. The story proceeded at a logical pace and everything seemed to be timed just terrifically. This really was very close to getting a perfect score, but the plot wasn't quite there for that justification. Lucie was excellent as the companion in this one and with her thinking that the Doctor was dead, we got to see a side of her that she has rarely shown in her travels in the TARDIS. She admitted that she had cried for days after the Doctor's death, but here she was answering the door and getting shot with a time bullet. The concept of those was great and I liked how Lucie then ended up shooting the Doctor with one to save the universe, even though it meant taking Orbis out of existence. The Doctor's place on Orbis, along with the planet itself, was really intriguing and I really enjoyed how he was referred to as 'Old Doctor'. When it was learned that he'd been there for 600 years and was experiencing memory loss, my interested in things certainly deepened. I was just fascinated and it really did seem something resembling The Time of the Doctor, despite the fact this was released some four years previously. Selta was a lovely character and the moment where she had pulled Lucie from the water and found that she had tights was just incredible. It was only topped by the emotional reuniting of the Doctor and Lucie, or so it appeared, only for the former to be absolutely delighted that he had access to a pair of tights! It was brilliant stuff. Once Lucie had arrived on Orbis, things started to come back for the Doctor, especially once he realised that the TARDIS meant she was being translated. The conflict on the planet between the Keltans and the Molluscari was good and I really enjoyed that the Headhunter's true purpose in being there involved those and the right to the planet. Of course, she begrudgingly had to admit that the Doctor was needed if the universe was in danger, but that was just all talk and a ruse for Lucie. The scenes depicting the TARDIS manual were very funny, but the comic highlight of the audio goes to Lucie for her 'Jelly Furtado' comment. Sublime. Overall, a superb start to the series!

Rating: 9/10