The Final Darkness

"Our armada shall scent our blood."

Writer: Stephen Cole

Format: Short Story

Released: June 2006

Series: Doctor Who Files 04

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Rose

Synopsis

A journal is translated by UNIT Alien-English software documenting the final days of the Sycorax who came to Earth for Christmas, and discovered that it was defended.

Verdict

The Final Darkness was a pretty average story to continue my way through the short stories from the Doctor Who Files! Incredibly, it's nearly twenty years since these books were first released and for some reason at the time of reading them when I was 11-12 years old, I have no recollection of bothering with the prose story at the end. I was all for the facts that make this book one of a file, but now I'm much older it was nice to jump back in for some nostalgia and get an extra story with the Sycorax! I remain quite surprised that they have never returned on screen as they seem like an enemy ripe for a rematch with the Doctor, especially given the way their demise was met at the hands of Torchwood. There could be something there for another branch to come for revenge on Earth, but alas we go on. At least on screen. They have returned in prose, comics and audio but there's nothing quite like the show on the screen! This story followed a unique format in that it was a series of journal entries from a Sycorax scribe experiencing the events just prior to and then during The Christmas Invasion as the Sycorax headed for Earth. I thought that was intriguing although the style and language of the Sycorax was very child like. I know the target audience for the books is the younger fans, but at times this just made the Sycorax feel a bit stupid and immature. That's a shame as that's not really the impression I got on television. I thought it was great to depict the Sycorax encountering the package displaying the likes of culture and even blood from Earth and the scribe knew the significance of having blood. The scribe knew this was a mistake from Earth to send this and the tricks would soon be out in force. I liked the significance of the Sycorax leader being presented, but then from there we just got an alternative perspective of the Christmas Special we saw on screen. There wasn't much in the form of new story and rather just reaction to one we have all seen before. It was fine but it wasn't all that endearing for quality. The emergence of the Doctor from the TARDIS and the way he threw the whip from the Leader was good. The description of Rose as the yellow girl was quite amusing and I'm not sure it's something she would have appreciated, which made me enjoy it even more I think. I thought it was a bit of a shame to get so much of a repeat of the events that happened with the Doctor and the Sycorax Leader, although I did like the immediate shift in mood in our scribe when the Doctor's 'witchcraft' saw his severed hand grow back. Nearly all sense of confidence was lost at that moment! I would've also liked more translation on the Sycoraxic language we saw repeated, but it was a little fun for Rose to apparently quickly learn the language once the TARDIS translation circuit was completed with the Doctor's emergence thanks to spilt tea. It was nice to go into the Sycorax rock of a ship once they had agreed to leave bound by the rite of combat, but then detected the threat of the Torchwood beam that would wipe them out. Their blood would be left in this part of a space, but the Sycorax wouldn't return home. Overall, a decent idea but something just felt missing. 

Rating: 6/10