Dying Hours: Dawn of an Everlasting Peace

"I don't have time for a backstory."

Writer: Jacqueline Rayner

Format: Audio

Released: September 2023

Series: BF Doom's Day 1.01

Featuring: Doom

Synopsis

Venus, 3975. The day of the non-aggression pact. The perfect ironic location for an assassination! But Doom's mission is about to become much more complicated thanks to an explosive plot to underwire the treaty itself. 

Verdict

Dawn of an Everlasting Peace was a really strong start to the Dying Hours anthology that acts as Big Finish’s contribution to the ongoing sixtieth anniversary celebration Doom’s Day saga! There’s been a lot going on with this series of adventures and as we get close towards the end now it still feels like Doom is doomed and not going to get any closer to finding the Doctor she needs to save her life. There was no Doctor around this time, but having Doom enter the world of the Space Security Service and what we would encounter in The Daleks’ Master Plan was magnificent. I’m a huge fan of that serial and the world it creates so entering it here was tremendous. Hearing Zephon again was good fun and whilst I wasn’t a huge fan of Doom impersonating the delegate, or was it the minister, it was good natured fun. The way she got her vortex manipulator through security by aiding Lonnet with her wheelchair using son Klorin was actually rather clever and showed how clever and skilled she actually was. We potentially haven’t seen enough of that in the stories so far. It’s been a refreshing change of pace to get a full cast audio adventure here and it’s lovely to hear Sooz Kempner fully embrace the role. It’s been a long time coming as all we’ve really had up to this point is the goofy online updates or trailers to promote the next release. Sadly, they’re seen as a bit of a laughing stock which is a great shame as this celebration has had some really strong moments! I’ve enjoyed the run. Sure, it could be better and one thing I think would have helped is if the Big Finish releases in particular had been spaced out across the hours. We are going to finish with a bang, but it does seem odd that the most fleshed out stories with a full cast will come last. Anyway, back to the story at hand and the story concerning Lonnet and Klorin was really emotional. It turned out despite him having the appearance of an elderly man in his nineties, he was actually her son of just three years. It was something familiar as we know what happened to Sara Kingdom in this region of space as she was aged to death by the Dalek time destructor, and the taranium was in use to age Klorin. Except his pap had saved him when the delivery of death came and he took the brunt of the exposure. It was a horrifying story and I actually got a little emotional as I was listening to the story with my little boy of two years running around the room. I couldn’t imagine what Lonnet would be going through. The confusion of Klorin not having the special goodbye from his father was also powerful stuff. Doom getting to impersonate his pap thanks to her telepathic suit was nicely done, although I wasn’t a big fan of her not going through with the assassination on Lonnet. I know it was the easy way to confirm that Karlton was the traitor and the hit was out for the Compuvac, but if she’s the universe’s greatest assassin I thought she wouldn’t show remorse. The Compuvac itself was very intriguing and rather resourceful in being able to fix any problem! It was an obvious target for assassination, but Lonnet hoping to get her son cured was further emotion when it claimed the damage was irreversible. I liked the lead into the next episode with Doom set to head to early twenty-first century Earth and encounter Jackie Tyler! She’ll at least get some knowledge I’m sure. Overall, a great opener!

Rating: 8/10