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TARDIS Guide

Review of The Crucible of Souls by Guardax

10 July 2025

This review contains spoilers!

Now this was a great story. Compared to the chaos and jumping around of the middle stories of Doom Coalition 3, this story was structured expertly. We start with the Doctor and River in one story, and the Nine, Liv, and Helen in another. Halfway through, Liv splits off and meets Padrac, who we had last met in Doom Coalition 1 as the Doctor's ally. There is a lot of fun character misdirection as the Nine impersonates the Doctor, and the Doctor impersonates the Clocksmith which leads to a lot of fun, fluid alliances. At last, the overall plot, which had been rather obtuse up to this point, is unveiled in full. The Doom Coalition is a group led by Padrac including the Eleven, Caleera, and the Clocksmith to use the Crucible of Souls to destroy all life in the future to ensure Gallifrey is not destroyed. Padrac turning evil is a surprise, and I was surprised at how well the threads seemed to be pulled together. Meanwhile, the Nine is ignorant of being part of the coalition in the future, and wants to absorb all life in the universe into himself. This was a very well-done story making the whole series worth it, and I'm looking forward to the final set.


Guardax

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