The Red Lady

"Her face! Her terrible face!"

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: October 2015

Series: Doom Coalition 1.02

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen

Synopsis

An anomaly in time brings the Doctor and Liv to London in the 1960s, where they meet a young lady named Helen Sinclair – desperately trying to make a name for herself in the face of sexism and prejudice. 

Whilst the Doctor tried to uncover the secrets of a mysterious artefact, a far deadlier mystery awaits Liv and Helen in the collection of a recently deceased antiquarian. 

Because that's where they find the Red Lady. Because if you do, you might not like what you see.

Verdict

The Red Lady was another excellent episode to continue my way through the first volume of Doom Coalition within the ongoing Eighth Doctor Adventures! This range always feels so exciting because the restraints are far less significant than the first seven incarnations as on screen we only got to see the Eighth Doctor's debut and regeneration, with other media filling in the gap. With Liv well established now as a really strong companion, I think it's great that Helen joins the crew here! She has a strong debut and I love how she starts with showing complete dismay about being overlooked for the post at the National Museum to a man who she believed was substandard to her. She was absolutely outraged which was a fine introduction to her. I thought the Doctor and Liv returning to the 1960s was fun and as the Doctor acknowledged, this is a period he has spent considerable time. He was only hoping for a quick dash so wasn't too worried about running into any past incarnations (or future if The Devil's Chord is anything to go by), and the quick investigation of the anomaly that coincided with the Eleven's departure from Gallifrey was a good basis for the story. Except he wouldn't feature and a very different threat indeed would arise. I thought the concept behind the Red Lady artwork was fascinating and different onlookers seeing it at different distances and in differing positions was tremendous. It was quite chilling and scary actually! It felt a little reminiscent of 73 Yards also with the mystery and ambiguity regarding her appearance. The significance of Dr McCallum's collection was intriguing and the safeguarding he had undergone to tackle the Red Lady is absolutely staggering! It would seem to have killed his parents and then came for his loved one and child, so he'd actually blinded himself in an attempt to prevent her power from simply being looked upon. That was horrifying and showed just how deadly the Red Lady was. The testament of his will being to have the collection locked up and hidden became understandable, but the earlier suggestion that his entire collection had never been gazed upon was initially very confusing! I loved how things came together though and made sense by the end. It was all very mysterious and I liked the Doctor deducing the truth about the blindness. The additional mystery of the tablet translation not being recognised by the TARDIS circuits was fun too and I liked how it came to be revealed by the end as a message for the Doctor from Gallileo! Helen couldn't quite believe it but even she couldn't argue too much with the Doctor suggesting that the only logical explanation was that he and Liv were time travellers. And after her involvement in losing the collection, Helen was due to face time imprisoned as well as losing her job. The Doctor was keen to prevent that and rather excitedly invited her to join his crew as the new companion! I must admit that I was a little surprised by that, but I'm absolutely all for it. She had a strong relationship with Liv and that only bodes well for the future. I thought the only slight issue was that the Red Lady was defeated a little easily in essentially being trapped in a poem and a bit of folded paper, but it was quick and significant. Overall, a fantastic episode once again! 

Rating: 9/10