Also, I find the reasoning for having the human eye print used to open the Eye of Harmony works here and thus makes its use in the TV Movie more plausible then it did originally.
4 Likes
I quite liked this story. It’s definitely very bombastic and big, sometimes to a fault. I did find myself zoning out a bit at points where it was just all loud noises and explosions. And it was a bit too long- definitely could have been an entire box set rather than an over two hour story.
I didn’t quite get the thing about the retinal scanner. After everyone saying it’s setting up the TV Movie now I understand but why set it just for Evelyn, they could have set it for any one specific person, how come her being human was important? Do all Time Lords have the same retinas?
It’s brilliant to have Romana in this, I can imagine how exciting that would have been back when it was first released!
I just struggle to keep track of which Time Lord is which, and that makes me worry about my future ability to enjoy the Gallifrey series…
I give it 6/10
5 Likes
For me there is nothing quite so boring as stories set on Gallifrey. I find Timelord politics & intrigue rather dull & endless scenes of Daleks shouting at each other is my bête noire, so this one was a chore to listen to again. The Lord President sounds like he’s got a mouthful of spittle most of the time, very off-putting. The imprisonment of Romana doesn’t really have much in the way of repercussions, then again 20 years isn’t a lot in the life of a Timelord, should have been 200. Evelyn seems completely out of place in this one & not written in keeping with her character.
In fairness it had its moments, Colin & Lalla work well together but it just went on too long & the attempt at something epic doesn’t quite work given the messy, at times incoherent, sound design. Before the Time War releases & Day of the Doctor this was probably seen as quite fresh, & giving listeners something that couldn’t be done on TV but at the same time it doesn’t quite work on audio.
1 Like
Six and Evelyn fight the Daleks and also there’s Romana and other time lords and Gallifrey and more big season finale material? I mean all of Sixies audios have been my favorite so far so I was expecting to really love this one.
And then it’s. Like. I thought it was the worst adventure with Six yet.
It tries to be this grand end of the universe story.
And to be honest it succeeds in that. Because grand end of the universe stories are usually really boring.
Daleks go EXTERMINATE everyone else goes no please dont do that they fight exterminate exterminate blah blah
I’ve already forgotten most of what happens, because it all just blends together in my mind. Part 1 is the daleks attack, the doctor gotta do something about it. Part 2 is: the daleks are still attacking, doctor still doing something about it. Maybe something interesting happened that I either missed or forgot, in which case I’ll happily give it a relisten in a few weeks, but all i got was they fight for most of it. At least 1 hours of it was just screaming daleks.
At the end of the story we have this big REVEAL oooh, that the Daleks actually weren’t just mindlessly attacking, all of this was precisely going as part of their plan! okay man. It’s almost as if they realized how boring the story itself was, and made up something at the end to make what previously happened look more intricate than it actually was. You can act at the end like all that happened was actually part of a very interesting sneaky plan, but from the listeners perspective at the time, that doesn’t change anything. The story itself is still boring (imo ofc). You can’t retroactively make it better. Or maybe you can and I’m just being grumpy ahah
Things I did like were: Evelyn.
And.
When Evelyn said sentence.
I think that’s at least not a very controversial opinion to have 
3 Likes
A contender for the worst Dalek story in the old ‘Monthly Range’.
I still remember writing my old reviewe of this one, and remembering how it was basically just a wall of noise the caused me a blinding headache.
Evelyn also felt weirdly mischaracterised.
3/10.
4 Likes
I rated this a 4/5 (8/10).
I really enjoyed this one. All the cast was great, and Lalla Ward didn’t sound like she’d missed a step. She came across as a real badass. I’m getting more and more charmed by Evelyn.
7 Likes
Well I really enjoyed this one - definitely much better than the Genocide Machine, which just didn’t feel like a 7th Doctor story to me.
I’m assuming BF just went with the Virgin continuity as to how Romana returned from E-Space and ended up as President of Gallifrey, since none of this was explained in the story - which would have been very confusing for anyone unfamiliar with the books.
The Daleks came across as a genuine threat and force to be reckoned with here - for me personally, this was more convincing on audio (allowing me to use my own imagination) than on TV on a BBC budget.
Evelyn came across as a competent & very experienced companion here - for me the way she just took everything in her stride just didn’t sit right coming immediately after Lanyon Moor when she was deeply affected by her experiences. I had to once again make the assumption that she & 6 have had a great many unseen adventures in between.
That was the only negative for me TBH.
9 Likes
I’ve been really enjoy 6 and Evelyn’s adventures together, and this one is no slouch either. It’s so fun hearing Lalla Ward back as Romana along with having what almost feels like a prelude to Time War events (even though that wouldn’t become apart of canon until 2005 but I digress). I love hearing Time Lord politics at play while dealing with the Daleks, and every one does a very good job acting wise, quite fun of a story.
11 Likes
Romana! I love her. It´s a really interesting situation she´s in in this one.
Evelyn is a delight too, I will definitely have to listen to more of her stuff to (there´s too many good things!).
The plot was a bit confusing to me, I was finding it kind of hard to follow.
11 Likes
Romana and Six - pretty cool combo.
Otherwise it was average for me. Nothing too special.
Kinda wanted more oomph considering it’s a follow up to the genocide machine
7 Likes
It’s been a while since I listen to that one, but from what I can recall, I really dig this one. Having Romana here is lovely, she and six have such an interesting dynamic, Evelyn as lovely as ever.
This one was one that had a much bigger scale, some may say a bit too ambitious, but I appreciate that BF early on this did this already. That said, it can get messy very quickly. That also being said: It has Romana, which makes it go higher if it didn’t have her.
Overall a flawed Story, that I still enjoy
5 Likes