Confession time. I don’t like every Doctor Who story. There are several things that annoy me either through overuse or just because they don’t work for me. This includes: saving the entire universe (can somebody please explain the idea of BIG one day; reset the universe to get over some inconvenient death and destruction; it was all a dream / illusion / projection; the Seventh Doctor in silly mode (too much spoon bending or being the jester). Your tastes may vary. All of these are included in the January 2020 main range release Dark Universe. Guy Adams writes well, but for me this mix of the Doctor, Ace and The Eleven was not a hit. You’ve been warned…

Dark Universe

Here’s the teaser:

The Eleven has a plan. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos.

With Ace working for the enemy, the Doctor must rely on scheming Time Lord Cardinal Ollistra for help. The stage is set for an epic confrontation.

Because the Doctor has a plan to stop the Eleven. A grand plan. An appalling plan. A plan that endangers all life in the cosmos.

Whichever one of them wins, the Dark Universe won’t want to lose…

I won’t over-dwell on the many things I didn’t like. There are good things in this tale, including yet another show-stealing Mark Bonnar performance as The Eleven as well as older Ace. The idea of Ace working for the wrong side was strong and I’d have liked more.

It goes downhill from there with a yet another Time Lord portal to yet another super weapon yet again connected to Earth. We’ve been here before. A few times. When the Eleven does seem to get his way, we’ve also a strong sense of been there, done that. If you’ve heard Ravenous 3, this new offering really is nothing special.

The case are all excellent (Ollistra as played by Carolyn Pickles in particular) as is the music and direction. For me it just isn’t a success for the reasons given. I accept a lot of people really liked this story – I’m just jaded!