The Great War
The first episode of Dark Eyes had a massive job to do.
After the massacre that was To The Death, it had to settle a Doctor who was scarred, alone and hopeless. It had to find a source of passion for him, yet let him grieve for the friends he lost. It would be difficult to do, this was a man who had lost all chance of redemption, of finding peace again, but Nicholas Briggs stood up to that task and gave it the best possible shot. And he did it well.
Dark Eyes is more than your run of the mill series or box set, it’s four heavily linked stories. From the advertisements, I had thought these would be stand-alone adventures, with major plots threads being tied between them. It’s nice to be wrong. Right from the beginning, The Great War would be trying to fit in too much into one story. Giving the Doctor hope, introducing a new companion, a new incarnation of Straxus and also bringing the Daleks back, with a new villain, this would be a lot to get into a one hour long episode. Fortunately, Brigg’s doesn’t overload it, giving instead a simple story that does feel so much larger than it really is.
To start, giving the Doctor something to believe in was more simple than I believed it would be. This man was broken, damaged, and almost ready for death. But one intruder in the TARDIS gave him something to believe in. At first, we aren’t told what that belief is, but it’s enough. Quite quickly, he’s back to the man we know. This is both the good and the bad. For someone who lost everything, he bounced back too quickly for it to be completely believable. Our hero was ready to die, but he was told about one woman and he materialised quicker than I’ve seen before. On top of this, there is almost no mention of who he lost. Three of his best friends were killed by the Daleks, but any time he talks of them, he is delusional or doesn’t sound in the least bit sad. It just seems completely wrong.
Molly O’Sullivan’s introduction was something I was wary of. Lucie Miller would be a hard act to follow; she was one of the best. Something too similar would feel like a cheap copy, but someone so far away would simply be irritating. It was more important than normal for BF to get this
right, and thankfully they did. In Ruth Bradley, Molly was brought to life spectacularly. The whole character had the potential to be irritating and
obnoxious, but was played so well that it didn’t show at all. After so many before her, I believed that it would be impossible for anyone to create a companion that was completely unique, so breathtakingly new. Molly does just that, she is so different to anyone else. The First World War has hardened her spirit, so almost nothing shocks her, yet hearing the amazement in her voice on seeing the Daleks or on how the Doctor fixes the railway track was what made this episode for me.
As for the story itself, it wasn’t the closed escapade that I had believed it would be. The blurb spoke of glowing gas and noises coming from the battlefield at night; both of which created dark, ominous thoughts in my head. In the end, these didn’t really come to the front, staying more as an afterthought, rather than the driving force behind the episode as I had originally imagined. That said, they both do create a tense and disturbing atmosphere to a time that had far too much of that already. Setting the episode in the war was a brilliant move on Nicholas Brigg’s part, this whole episode is a credit to his talents.
The plot moves into the next episode, which I found slightly disappointing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it so much I barely noticed the time go by. Before I realised, the end credits played and I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief. The Great War had been everything I hoped for, and more. This is defiantly the best way to spend an hour one evening.
While it is too early to say if Dark Eyes was a success, based solely on this story, but separately, there is no end to the amount of praise I have for it. As I say, this episode is a credit to Nicholas Brigg’s name, and certainly to everyone else who contributed towards its production.
After the massacre that was To The Death, it had to settle a Doctor who was scarred, alone and hopeless. It had to find a source of passion for him, yet let him grieve for the friends he lost. It would be difficult to do, this was a man who had lost all chance of redemption, of finding peace again, but Nicholas Briggs stood up to that task and gave it the best possible shot. And he did it well.
Dark Eyes is more than your run of the mill series or box set, it’s four heavily linked stories. From the advertisements, I had thought these would be stand-alone adventures, with major plots threads being tied between them. It’s nice to be wrong. Right from the beginning, The Great War would be trying to fit in too much into one story. Giving the Doctor hope, introducing a new companion, a new incarnation of Straxus and also bringing the Daleks back, with a new villain, this would be a lot to get into a one hour long episode. Fortunately, Brigg’s doesn’t overload it, giving instead a simple story that does feel so much larger than it really is.
To start, giving the Doctor something to believe in was more simple than I believed it would be. This man was broken, damaged, and almost ready for death. But one intruder in the TARDIS gave him something to believe in. At first, we aren’t told what that belief is, but it’s enough. Quite quickly, he’s back to the man we know. This is both the good and the bad. For someone who lost everything, he bounced back too quickly for it to be completely believable. Our hero was ready to die, but he was told about one woman and he materialised quicker than I’ve seen before. On top of this, there is almost no mention of who he lost. Three of his best friends were killed by the Daleks, but any time he talks of them, he is delusional or doesn’t sound in the least bit sad. It just seems completely wrong.
Molly O’Sullivan’s introduction was something I was wary of. Lucie Miller would be a hard act to follow; she was one of the best. Something too similar would feel like a cheap copy, but someone so far away would simply be irritating. It was more important than normal for BF to get this
right, and thankfully they did. In Ruth Bradley, Molly was brought to life spectacularly. The whole character had the potential to be irritating and
obnoxious, but was played so well that it didn’t show at all. After so many before her, I believed that it would be impossible for anyone to create a companion that was completely unique, so breathtakingly new. Molly does just that, she is so different to anyone else. The First World War has hardened her spirit, so almost nothing shocks her, yet hearing the amazement in her voice on seeing the Daleks or on how the Doctor fixes the railway track was what made this episode for me.
As for the story itself, it wasn’t the closed escapade that I had believed it would be. The blurb spoke of glowing gas and noises coming from the battlefield at night; both of which created dark, ominous thoughts in my head. In the end, these didn’t really come to the front, staying more as an afterthought, rather than the driving force behind the episode as I had originally imagined. That said, they both do create a tense and disturbing atmosphere to a time that had far too much of that already. Setting the episode in the war was a brilliant move on Nicholas Brigg’s part, this whole episode is a credit to his talents.
The plot moves into the next episode, which I found slightly disappointing. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it so much I barely noticed the time go by. Before I realised, the end credits played and I sat back and breathed a sigh of relief. The Great War had been everything I hoped for, and more. This is defiantly the best way to spend an hour one evening.
While it is too early to say if Dark Eyes was a success, based solely on this story, but separately, there is no end to the amount of praise I have for it. As I say, this episode is a credit to Nicholas Brigg’s name, and certainly to everyone else who contributed towards its production.