Missy Part Two

"This is the day they all die."

Writer: Rochana Patel

Format: Audio

Released: May 2025

Series: Dark Gallifrey 3.02

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Missy

Synopsis

Missy needs to find the Doctor. 

However, it's very important it's the right Doctor – she wouldn't want to accidentally slip up and meet an earlier incarnation by mistake, because the consequences of that could be truly catastrophic...

Verdict

Missy continued in excellent fashion with this second part of the story comprising the third series of Dark Gallifrey! This is a range I am loving and I'm enjoying then monthly release schedule very much, although I do think we shouldn't have to wait until the third part to get a mention of the series title and how it fits in! I suspect the whole concept of Opus Thule being time severed will play into it, but at least an allusion to it would have been helpful. I did think that with the Seventh Doctor featured here he would play into the lore of Dark Gallifrey itself given the tendencies of his incarnation, but alas that didn't happen here. I like how helpless Missy feels in not being able to get off the planet and the prospect of engaging with the Doctor actually excites her because the history of Opus Thule states that it was he who left and took the secret of his escape with him. So for Missy to see the TARDIS filled her with hope, until she picked the lock and found an empty wooden police box! That image is always so strong and I loved the idea of the inside being separated from the outside. It absolutely was the TARDIS, but the inside was detached from the outer plasma shell that gives it its bigger on the inside feel. Missy then asking Sly Boots about the Doctor and describing the Twelfth was fun because of how it similarly matches the Seventh, who she would soon convene with. That meeting was delightful as Missy awkwardly tried to avoid revealing her identity, but that didn't last long at all! The Seventh Doctor worked it out very quickly and the way he almost repeated her line from Dark Water's cliffhanger as she revealed her identity was masterfully done. It was a fun way to foreshadow and homage the future. Missy had initially claimed to be a time agent which was so much fun with her announcing herself as Jackie Harkness! That was beautifully Missy. I am intrigued by Sly Boots continually mentioning the audience and with the way the opening titles were interrupted by Missy, are we going to get a breaking of the fourth wall? Is everything that's happening on this time severed planet even real? It would be a good way out of the incredible cliffhanger! I thought Missy touching upon her history with the Doctor was fantastic and I liked that she referred to this one as her favourite. The mocking way she asked about Ace and referenced Survival in her almost becoming a cat was delicious and I also enjoyed how she mentioned they'll always have San Francisco as The Movie would see this incarnation regenerate. She played a big part in events there and couldn't change the Doctor's future otherwise it will alter her past. That would of course all be thrown completely out of the window. Missy mentioning how the drums from The Sound of Drums that have plagued her entire life were gone now was actually quite powerful stuff and she does seem to be at times on the verge of some sort of reform as a character. But when it was proven that the planet was time severed and the rulebook was completely thrown out of the window, she actually had an incredible victory. Causality and history meant nothing so she was free to discuss with the Seventh Doctor about the Time War! She even blamed this very incarnation for goading Davros into pressing the trigger on the Hand of Omega during Remembrance of the Daleks as a means to kickstart the conflict. I liked the mention of time locks as a way that this meeting shouldn't have been possible either side of the War, but that meant nothing here. Her knowledge of Genesis of the Daleks was intriguing as she also discussed that, but this was the opposite of genesis for the Doctor. Missy was testing the theory all too well at the end and whilst she remembered the Doctor watching her burn alive in Planet of Fire, she went one step further here. She pushed the Doctor through the door and into regeneration! The description of it being a light show now was spectacular and she seems to think that without a link to the Vortex, the regeneration will fail and the Doctor will just die. As cliffhangers go, that's pretty tremendous! It changes everything for both of them and whilst she does have trepidation about achieving victory, she's rather boastful in a subtle way. It's so impressive! She has saved the family of Sly Boots and Voltaire was dead now despite her meeting him in the future. I can't wait to hear how this all wraps up! Overall, a superb part to continue the story. 

Rating: 9/10