The Darkened Earth

"We all think we'll live forever, even in a war."

Writer: John Pritchard

Format: Audio

Released: July 2018

Series: Short Trips 8.07

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Constance

Synopsis

Mrs Constance Clarke has faced perils on many planets, but now she finds herself in the most dangerous place on Earth. A place like home, yet terrifyingly different, where ordinary decent folk might hand her over to a dreadful fate. And as night falls, she and the Doctor realise that something is on the prowl outside, a creature darker than the dark. And hungry...

Verdict

The Darkened Earth was a good little story to (I believe) actually complete my listening of the entire first twelve series of Short Trips! It's been a long time coming and a roundabout way of doing things, but better later than never, right? I had to wait to catch up a little on the Monthly Adventures range before getting to this one as I hadn't yet met Constance as a companion, but I'm now familiar with and felt it was the right time to take the plunge and dive into the Short Trips. She's an intriguing character and I think the decision to place her on German soil and the wrong side of the war that she is still desperately consumed by was very good. It almost felt like something too big for this range which was fascinating! I can't express enough how much of a deal this is for Constance and she played it really well. I think Miranda Raison did a decent job with the narration here, although her take on the Sixth Doctor was something that left me wanting more. It's difficult to try an impression of the opposite sex and sometimes I do advocate for not even trying, but it just felt like everything was too much in the voice of Constance Clarke. That's not the worst thing in the world and I wouldn't say it impacted my listener experience, but I know it could have been better and more engaging whilst providing different voices to the characters. The use of Peter as the little boy that the Doctor and Constance first encountered was good stuff and he was great, but the voice still just sounded like the rest of the story. The concept at the heart of the episode was good and intriguing. The description of the scorch marks and the very nature of something being incredibly dark was exciting. That meant it was going to cause chaos at night and that's exactly what happened! The Doctor felt very much in the background which was something I was fine with because with the actress who plays the companion as the narrator, the focus should absolutely be on Constance. I thought her worry about the TARDIS translation circuit was amusing but I couldn't blame her! She still felt a responsibility no matter her TARDIS privileges. I thought the way she announced that she didn't want to cheat her way through to the end of the war was excellent and something I really admired. She had to live it and experience it to fulfil her duty. Getting to encounter Peter's parents was interesting although it did seem to take away a little from his character because naturally he was just inferior. I think it's a shame that we never got an official name for the creature, but the concept behind it was strong in feeding on light in the dark. The idea of being darker than dark as the synopsis alludes to is something that messes with my brain a little. How can anything be darker than the dark? I like when things like that make me think as it is something that should be impossible, but yet here it is! The resolution was relatively simple with the Doctor realising how it fed and the use of a fire to establish that was really clever. That was a powerful image. The Doctor overloading the creature with too much energy to send it packing who knows where to beyond Earth or another dimension was really interesting. Talk about wrapping things up! Overall, a good little adventure! 

Rating: 7/10