Dreadshade

"Imagine forgetting the Daleks."

Writer: Lisa McMullin

Format: Audio

Released: September 2020

Series: The Eighth Doctor: Time War 4.02

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Bliss

Synopsis

The Time Lords, including the General and the Twelve, adjust to life after the Time War, until the Doctor and Bliss return with a warning.

Verdict

Dreadshade was an excellent episode to continue my way through the fourth Time War volume of Eighth Doctor Adventures! This was a triumphant follow on to Palindrome as a double length opener and really did follow up the climactic events of The War Valeyard in the previous boxset finale. It was incredible to think that at this point in time, long before the War Doctor was even a factor, the Time War was thought won. The only issue was that the Time Lords had forgotten who their opponents had been! That was a really fun situation to be in and with the trip from the portal playing havoc with the memory of the Doctor and Bliss, it was only the Twelve being in stasis that provided them with the answer. She revelled in that answer though and this was a tremendous outing for the female incarnation of this whacky and wonderful Time Lord. This is what I was hoping for coming off her previous appearances in the story where she wasn’t appearing to be wholly evil. She was the villain of the piece here which was delightful. I thought the Doctor and Bliss forgetting each other provided a fun dynamic with the latter’s reaction to being labelled a companion very amusing. Her questioning what the Doctor did with these companions and how many he had at a time was a delight. It was such good and innocent fun. The General playing a major role in the story was fantastic and he’s such a booming presence. His description of events to the Doctor was great as he revealed that the Time War was over. Except they had no idea who they had been fighting. The description of the scale of conflict was amazing and I love the prospect of them being in a state of decommission ahead of the Daleks returning for restoration. That’s going to be a big surprise for sure! Despite being completely forgotten, it now feels like it’s advantage Daleks. That’s really fun. I thought the titular character of the Dreadshade was a really intriguing concept and the desire of the Time Lords to fill it with complete fear of the Daleks was horrifying. The weaponisation of a being like that showed the lengths the Time Lords were going to and throwing her into a bunch of them and petrifying her into destroying them was quite something. I certainly appreciated the unique nature. The Doctor understandably wasn’t impressed, but once he returned she had forgotten what she was scared of. The Twelve pouncing on that and injecting her with fear of the Time Lords was tremendous. She wanted to force her way onto the High Council which was an interesting career aim and I appreciated the effort. The General retorting how you had to earn your place on the Council was fantastic. The Twelve joking around about being the only one to remember the Daleks was good fun and her exterminate mock impression was a delight. I think this was definitely the best episode yet for the Twelve in this incarnation, although I must admit I much preferred the interaction with the previous incarnations within her mind in the previous incarnation. It doesn’t quite feel the same but I guess that’s down to the inhibitor. The way she sparked the Doctor and Bliss’s memory was good stuff along with the Dreadshade was a fine way to end things and wrap things up, as we head into what is sure to be an explosive finale! A fantastic listen. 

Rating: 9/10