The Dying Light

"I realised something was wrong with the sunset."

Writer: Nick Wallace 

Format: Audio

Released: December 2013

Series: Companion Chronicles 8.06

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe 

Synopsis 

The TARDIS materialises on a dying world circling a dying sun, where the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe are welcomed to Sanctuary - an entire monastery carved out of a mountain.

But little here is quite what it seems.

Quadrigger Stoyn has waited through the centuries. And it is time for the Doctor to pay for his first terrible mistake.

Verdict 

The Dying Light was an excellent audio adventure and continued the fiftieth anniversary trilogy from the Companion Chronicles in a big way. I was glad to hear both Frazier Hines and Wendy Padbury performing in this story and together they really were terrific. Those two along with the Second Doctor really do make up a terrific trio and to hear them all together in this story was an absolute treat. Of course, Patrick Troughton has long since passed and so didn't reprise his role but I must say that Frazier Hines does an incredible impersonation of the Second Doctor. It really is no understatement to say that he brings the second incarnation of the Doctor back to life and it is actually pretty incredible how accurate his impression is. It's just a joy and a pleasure to listen to. The Companion Chronicles can sometimes be guilty of lacking the Doctor and that's completely natural given what they are and just the one usual familiar actor cast. There are no such problems though with a Frazier Hines performed story and it's fitting that for the fiftieth anniversary we got to hear the Second Doctor once again. The arrival of the TARDIS was good and I liked the intrigue the time-travelling trio had in the sun. Zoe was particularly mesmerised and immediately my interest in the audio was captured. The story was predominantly about Quadrigger Stoyn getting his revenge on the Doctor for the events that occurred in The Beginning and although it had been a lengthy amount of time for both, Stoyn had been planning their meeting for quite some time. He'd gone to considerable lengths to be reunited with the Doctor and he had known every destination that the TARDIS had been to! Upon his emergence, references to The Highlanders and The Moonbase were brilliantly made in Jamie's direction whilst The Wheel in Space and The Invasion got brilliant mentions in reference to Zoe. I liked how Stoyn only referred to his and the Doctor's species as gods and I think it's important that things are kept in line with the television series of the time and by then there was not even a whimper of a species called the Time Lords. Of course, that would soon change and I liked how Stoyn seemed to foreshadow the events of The War Games in mentioning that the Time Lords would soon catch up to him. The lengthy equations stretching all across the monastery were particularly interesting and I liked how Zoe was trying to make sense of them. She seemed to have done a good job though! I did enjoy her not picking up on the Doctor's signal involving the vase and it was left to Jamie to knock out the guard with it. The cliffhanger was pretty decent but I was hoping for a little more to be made of it at the start of part two. However, it didn't really alter the quality of the story which was very strong throughout. Stoyn was homesick and just wanted to get back to his own people which was something that could be sympathised with but the Doctor was never going to give him the TARDIS. He did give him the key but that didn't do any good for Stoyn. The way the story ended was a little bit of a shock and although we know that Quadrigger Stoyn returns in the next story to complete the trilogy of audios, his fate seemed pretty sealed with the way this ended. I look forward to his inevitable return being explained but for now he didn't quite get his revenge. Overall, a brilliant audio adventure!

Rating: 9/10