The Satanic Mill

"You are aware you're being exploited?"

Writer: Edward Collier

Format: Audio

Released: October 2015

Series: Doom Coalition 1.04

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen

Synopsis

The Satanic Mill – a vast Victorian factory floating in the deep of space. 

As the Doctor closes in on his quarry, long-buried anomosities come boiling to the surface on this ancient and powerful satellite, in a final confrontation that could have unimaginable consequences. 

And even that is only the beginning...

Verdict

The Satanic Mill was a great episode to conclude the first volume of Doom Coalition within the Eighth Doctor Adventures! I thought it was brilliant to get the Eleven back to bookend the boxset and he was in brutal form. I loved how there was definitely more of an obvious plan in play and whilst he was rather disappointed with the outcome in The Galileo Trap, which is rather putting it mildly, he was quite amused by the coming of the Doctor to him. It was hardly the means he had expected, but here was the arrogance of the man in not believing that he could be defeated! I thought the Eleven's reaction to seeing that the Doctor had picked up an additional companion was terrific and his plan for Helen and Liv was absolutely dastardly. He really did relish the prospect of essentially dissecting and destroying them. This was evil on another level for a Time Lord and given the regenerative failure of his condition, it wasn't wholly surprising that by the eleventh regeneration he was in this kind of state. The titular mill was an unexpected part of the overall story arc but I really liked the simplicity of a Victorian factory being used to power a solar supernova. The link backs to Omega and the founding of time travel that essentially kickstarted Time Lord society on Gallifrey was great and the intended use for the Doctor was frightening and exciting at the same time. The death of a Time Lord would be the trigger event and the Eleven obviously intended on the Doctor! I thought that was good and it was great to hear just how much he relished in that prospect. He was giddy with excitement, but there were doubts from within from previous incarnations which must be incredibly frustrating! Just imagine being disagreed with constantly by yourself. No wonder he's a madman. The Doctor's relationship with Paine became quite touching and it was sad that the latter thought there was literally nothing to life other than working. He couldn't grasp how the Doctor didn't know about the factory from which he was within and that work would become their life. Paine thinking he was born that very day was quite a shock and showed just how brainwashed he was, especially considering he had a concept of yesterday. The concept of the future was a little less obvious to him though and that's where the Doctor stepped in. The mechanical security gods were a fun element of the story and really did remind the listener that we were very much far from the Victorian age. I enjoyed the moment the Eleven and the Doctor confronted one another with the former revealing his intentions. It felt like a monumental moment and almost up there with encounters with the likes of the Master and Davros. The Eleven has made a huge impression in this boxset and I can't wait to hear more from him moving forward. I think the ending is why my rating is a little lower than I was expecting for much of the episode because it was a little too open ended and ambiguous. It seemed to set things up for more boxsets rather than answering the question with the Eleven claiming there is a far bigger picture. That seemed to contradict much of the direction of the episode, but it also excites me. Given the overall umbrella title, it does seem the Eleven could be just one element of a much bigger coalition against the Doctor. Either way, the stellar manipulation occurring and even Galileo getting involved with the sun and proclaiming the end of the world was very exciting. And things just seemed to stall which was odd and left a little bit of a weird feeling at the end. It didn't feel complete which is not what you want for a finale. Overall though, still a really strong episode to round out what has been a hugely enjoyable boxset! 

Rating: 8/10