Tangled Web

"I got lost in the storm."

Writer: Nicholas Briggs

Format: Audio

Released: November 2012

Series: Dark Eyes 1.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Molly

Synopsis

Something happened when Molly O'Sullivan was just two years old, and the Doctor thinks it's high time they found out exactly what it was. 

Meanwhile, the Daleks are fully activating their Temporal Chamber. And while the Doctor and Molly get closer to the terrible truth, the nature of reality itself seems to be in question.

Verdict

Tangled Web was was another excellent episode to continue my way through the first series of Dark Eyes Eighth Doctor Adventures! Whilst each individual episode has stayed just shy of a perfect rating, I can’t heap enough praise on this series so far. I’m absolutely loving the pairing of the Eighth Doctor and Molly and the mystery surrounding the importance of the new companion was put even deeper here. I liked how things started with Molly as a two-year-old who’d gone missing on her second birthday. The person who’d found her? The equally mysterious Kortis. He’s a fascinating character with him being a Time Lord on the side of the Daleks. That’s a dangerous place to be and the suggestion at the episode’s conclusion from Straxus that he was genetically modified by the Daleks was very exciting. Just what is he then if a Time Lord altered at the genetic level in favour of the Daleks? I can’t wait to find out. The Time Lords having designated him as simply X does seem a little naff, but I’m very much looking forward to finding out what role he has in wiping out the Time Lords and what sort of role Molly will have. I think she’s absolutely tremendous and her accent is to die for with how she pronounces Daleks and still refers to the TARDIS as the Tardy-box. I just love it. I think it’s really good to have her as a quite innocent woman who does believe that there could be good Daleks. Her analogy to the men of war and the German women doing what she was doing on the front was tremendous. She certainly hasn’t forgotten her routes which I love. The Doctor though, here in his eighth incarnation, refused to believe that there could be any such thing as a good Dalek. And yet here Daleks were hoping they wouldn’t get cold in a cave, laughing with children, and apparently mutating to the point that they only went in the traditional Dalek casing as a comfort point for a nap. That was extraordinary! Hearing the Doctor wish that this could be true and that there would be some non-evil Daleks was very good, as he knew it just couldn’t happen. His little reference to Davros as being a madman was glorious and I thought this was a stellar performance from Paul McGann. He evoked so much emotion and dealt with whatever was in the Doctor’s head with genuine anguish. Just when he was becoming himself, he’d be essentially comatose and that’s a dangerous place for the Doctor. It allowed Molly a chance to explore the peaceful planet of Skaro where even flowers now grew. There were no longer any petrified forests. Of course, this wasn’t reality which was kind of expected but discovering that it came from the Doctor’s mind was really fun. Does he really desire the Daleks to be good? I really liked the further exploration of Molly’s ability to pilot the TARDIS and it’s clearly just instinct. She remembered being in the TARDIS of Kortis when younger which was intriguing and her mind is certainly tangled. Overall, a really fun episode that continued the emotional development of the series in a fine way that sets us up for a fun first boxset finale! I can’t wait for more. A fantastic listen. 

Rating: 9/10