Morbius Part One

"When the gods fight amongst themselves, it is the mortals who suffer."

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: April 2024

Series: Dark Gallifrey 1.01

Featuring: Morbius

Synopsis

When things turn dark, and you're all alone, there is one traveller of time and space... a wanderer in the fourth dimension... a renegade Time Lord... who will always be there to bring back the light.

But the thing about Time Lords... is they can't all be heroes.

The time has come for the last Time Lord battleship, the Proteus, to leave the planet Karn and return to Gallifrey victorious. But her voyage home will not be easy. The Captain is sick, the crew is restless, and there are dark forces lurking in the hold below...

Verdict

Morbius kicked off the brand new and extremely exciting Dark Gallifrey spinoff series in spectacular fashion! Whilst I would prefer each episode to have its own title rather than splitting this Morbius adventure into three parts of the titular character, this was a fascinating look into ancient Gallifreyan history. Morbius is a tremendous character to kick off this wonderfully titled series and the synopsis meant I had to pre-order the collection right away. I thought it was very exciting to delve this deep into Gallifreyan history and explore the immediate aftermath of events detailed in The Brain of Morbius. We would see the Proteus returning back to Gallifrey after a successful victory in defeating Morbius and his cult, but those loyal to him survived and that's where his presence was more felt. He lived within the likes of Veritas who was a prisoner being transported back to Gallifrey, and wherever Morbius has loyalists then his potential is frightening. His chilling personality was on show for the relatively brief moments he actually appeared in mind, but his presence and his standing on Gallifrey were felt in a massive way. I thought the narration at the start of the episode was strong in laying the groundwork for where we were with Morbius and his importance to Gallifrey. Morbius had done battle with the Lord President who had succeeded Rassilon and I was intrigued that their name had been lost to history whilst the tyrant Morbius lived on in infamy. I thought the characters on board the Proteus were excellent with Middlewitch the stand out for me. His relationship with Captain Argento was terrific and I loved the way she devolved throughout the episode. You could tell how early this was in Time Lord history as she wasn't exactly coping well with having recently been given the 'gift' of regeneration for someone of her standing and the journey back to Gallifrey through the Vortex was not instantaneous. That was intriguing and the way the Vortex was likened to as a sea was intriguing. It was difficult to navigate and it was getting longer after the battle with Morbius caused considerable damage. The threat of the ship getting smaller as the interior dimensions were damaged was superb and coupling that with the arrival of the Shimmering Man was really good. He was a divisive figure so the fact Argento gave him some of the Elixir was a big shock! She knew she was dying and the journey home was hopelessly delayed so she wasn't sure she would make it. Gilda as a representative of the Sisterhood of Khan was another brilliant character and the fear the red of her robes inspired was fantastic. Argento wasn't a fan of the treaty that meant Gallifrey had to help the Sisterhood but she was going mad. That was fun to play with. I have my doubts if she would be able to survive the crash that served as the cliffhanger finish to the third chapter of this episode, where it seems Morbius may play more of a presence. Rolko was a good character too and I liked how she basically sided with the cult of Morbius by the end. His presence grows and that's very exciting considering he's supposed to have been recently imprisoned and defeated! Overall, a quite brilliant start and it's just a shame we have to wait a month until the next instalment. A fine start to an exciting range! 

Rating: 9/10