Deadly Strangers: The Gloaming

"Just a little girl lost in a dream."

Writers: Lauren Mooney & Stewart Pringle 

Format: Audio

Released: December 2024

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures 14.03

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Charley, Audacity 

Synopsis

The Doctor, Charley and Audacity arrive on Gloaming, a luxury sleep clinic in orbit around a dead world. Gloaming is filled with wealthy Sleepers, dreaming through the dark ages of their world in suspended animation.

But something is growing here, creeping into minds and poisoning dreams. Something the Doctor fought long ago...

Verdict

The Gloaming was an excellent audio to conclude the Deadly Strangers series of Eighth Doctor Adventures! This was certainly the best in the boxset and it coming in the finale is a great thing. I'm going to jump right ahead and dive into the surprise return of the Mara which was fantastic! I didn't see it coming and whilst I did work it out once the first hint was provided within the story, I really should have been paying more attention to the cover artwork for the boxset! Except, was this really a return at all? The Doctor referencing the likes of Kinda and Snakedance when it comes to his previous encounters with the Mara was magnificent, but this wasn't quite the same creature he'd fought and defeated before. That was a really intriguing element which I really enjoyed. This was a newborn Mara which was exciting but also convenient for the Doctor in that it became considerably easier to defeat. It almost feels like the Mara is being cheated on when the companion is not Tegan because her relationship with the creature was deep to say the least. The focus was firmly on Charley here who became possessed by the Mara and having the setting of the Gloaming where the wealthy came to sleep was excellent. That's a place rife for the Mara to have some easy pickings in digging deep into their desired prey's subconscious. I thought the story had strong Sleep No More vibes which is a big positive and I was worried whilst writing the synopsis that it would be a bit of a knock off. Thankfully, it was far from it and exploring the Mara as a nightmare was marvellous. I thought Audacity improved here as companion and it was good for her to be the one that realised she and Charley had been drugged into sleep through the tea by Meryl. She was an intriguing character who was clearly also going through a lot in her current predicament. Dekkar was a bit of a snobbish character which was absolutely the intent and it sold really well alongside Franz just what awful people the trio made. The fact they had abandoned their entire people and planet to burn whilst they came to just sleep it out and pay their way into the future was terrible. It's an incredible concept and did represent that kind of rich-kid stereotype very nicely. I definitely had a raised eyebrow opinion of them all. I thought exploring deep sleep was good and I love the potential that comes from it because as humans are we ever more vulnerable than when we're sleeping? That's quite scary to consider as well and the presence of the Mara invading from within is dark stuff that I really enjoy exploring. I thought the Doctor standing up to the Mara was really impressive and the discussion they had about regeneration and linking that to the snake form and how he shedded his skin was brilliant. That was really strong stuff. I was impressed with his confidence in saving Charley and freeing her of the Mara's pull and I feel like her love for him also played a part, but it also allowed for some tremendous references. Getting throwbacks of early Main Range adventures with the likes of Sword of Orion and The Stones of Venice getting mentioned as good times for Charley to draw back on was fantastic. I also liked the logic behind the newborn manifestation of the Mara dying out without a host. That makes sense and also develops the background of the species a little which I can appreciate. Another mention of the Causeway in the form of an investment peaked my ears as that's the title of the next boxset so I'm keen to hear how things play out from here. Overall, a fantastic finale! 

Rating: 9/10