The Living Darkness is a competent character piece for Steven, accompanied by a surprisingly likeable side cast and an immersive exploration of its central themes.

Following the intrigue posed by The Companion Chronicles about Steven’s life after the Doctor, including the death of his daughter Dodo, was an inspired decision. If there was a character who deserved (and almost required in order to complete his character arc) a revisitation, it was Steven Taylor. After all, a space-pilot left to be King on a completely alien planet is an interesting plot thread never followed up on in the television run.

 I’m well aware of Peter Purves’ desire for a return to Steven’s planet only to find that he had become a ‘despot’, but I think Big Finish have done something much more natural for Steven’s character throughout their time with him post The Savages.

Speaking of Purves, the story relies on his skillful audio acting, as well as the firm grasp he maintains on the character of Steven Taylor, even almost 60 years later. I believe what I’m hearing, this is an older Steven who has matured and grown into a strong and dependable leader. To see the contrast between an unsure Steven leaving the Doctor at the end of his television run and a Steven who has lived a lifetime without him was fascinating. I wish there was more to say, but Purves is such a dependable actor and Steven such a wonderful character that it’s hard not to just call him perfect and move on.

I found Noonan’s Doctor a delight as always, The First Doctor on audio has been played by so many (Including Purves himself, who I’ll admit is a favourite) but to me, no one else has managed to capture the essence of Hartnell as well as Noonan. I can picture every clutch of the lapels, ‘Billy fluff’ and comforting moment as if it were actually the Doctor himself.

He brings such a sense of vigour and freshness to the First Doctor which many others fail to do, his excitement at new situations and reuniting with old friends feels real and tangible.

Throughout her run, I’ve always enjoyed Lauren Cornelius’ Dodo Chaplet, however I found myself slightly disappointed with her this time. Dodo does not appear in this story until very late in, which already had me desperate to hear her again.

Her reunion with Steven was excellent, both actors understanding how the characters play off of each other (Purves and Lane were a brilliant double act throughout Season 3). But this Dodo lacks range: always practically bouncing off the walls with excitement, deliriously optimistic and while I’ll discuss her ‘exit’ more later on, it felt sudden and simply a way to explain a somewhat odd plot hole from the original run of episodes. 

This interpretation of Dodo may just not be for me. While I know she could be childish, impulsive or foolish, she had her moments of fear or nervousness which provided nuance to her character. And while I do like her character to ‘go with the flow’ she seems hardly bothered by anything that happens in the story and is more curious about an alien squirrel bat creature than catching up with Steven or pondering leaving the Tardis.

(Spoilers from this point on)

Moving on to the plot, I’ll admit I had very few expectations going into the story, simply happy to have the focus on Steven. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed how the plot evolved and connected to Steven’s journey. At first I worried that Steven awaking on a strange and unfamiliar spaceship wouldn’t provide a proper opportunity to explore his character (it has been done so many times before, after all). But the setting is utilised perfectly and keeps changing and this variation manages to keep it fresh for the length of the story.

Watching the story unfold to reveal such deep links to The Daleks Master Plan was brilliant and had my brain working trying to figure out where they would end up next. Hearing that Arva (Dido Miles) and Umbriel (Laura Rollins) had connections to the SSS, I thought having those links was just a nice little reference to Season 3. However, my heart skipped a beat when they arrived on Desperus. It was at this point I wondered how far they would take this plot thread, if the Saudade really was in the same spatial area as the locations of MasterPlan, what else could we encounter? 

Steven realising Arva and Umbriel were SSS from their combat was brilliant, he’d been so impressed with Sara’s skills and had wanted her to teach him that of course he’d recognise the style even all these years later.

By the end, when they were arriving at the planet, my mind was racing at where it could be. For a moment I wondered if it could be Kembel, but I’m not disappointed that it was Tigus. In ‘Volcano’ it was an interesting setting and I’m surprised it hasn’t been revisited before. 

However, I do have some problems with the story’s heavy links to the SSS and how this relates to Steven himself. Firstly, I understand that Steven has had time to grieve, but Sara (and Bret) feel more like plot devices to bring everyone together rather than actual characters who suffered horrific fates.

The writing fails Steven slightly here, I think. He’s back, retracing the steps of one of the most traumatic series of events in his life, and he doesn’t stop and think about it for long. I enjoyed hearing his panic at arriving at Desperus, it’s where everything started to go wrong for him and where Katarina’s fate was sealed, but I would've liked more of that throughout. Secondly, while I understand its set long after MasterPlan, there is little to no critique of the SSS from Steven or the Doctor. It’s an institution that is heavily associated with war, doesn’t value its soldiers and had been deeply corrupted by Mavic Chen, however aside from Compuvac (which I hadn’t realised had already featured in Doctor Who from the 60’s onwards), there is little to no criticism of the SSS and its methods. 

Steven has first-hand experience of watching an SSS soldier break away from the programming that controlled her life and made her do terrible things and prevented her from living an ordinary life, surely he should have more to say about the morality of the institution in a negative way?

Lastly, for a story so focused on ‘fixing’ plot holes, it has one that becomes more noticeable as the story goes on. If Compuvac is taking people connected to Sara, Bret and Daleks Master Plan, then where is Anya Kingdom? I understand she would probably have to be timescooped, but even then surely she would be a priority to bring in for Compuvac? She is SSS and a direct relative of Sara and Bret, a perfect fit for a story like this. I understand why she’s not in it from a production perspective, but having her meet Steven could have been wonderful and it's a missed opportunity.

Back to the positives, I truly enjoyed the side cast. I’ve never been a big listener of the full cast audios, mostly sticking to smaller scale stories, but it was lovely to have such a dedicated and interesting set of characters. I feel that them each embodying a core value which would later be used to stop Compuvac wasn’t too obvious, with each character having more nuance and development than just one particular characteristic. I found Qyz (Jack Ayres) a delightful presence and greatly enjoyed the journey his character went on. I found his bond with Steven wonderful and honestly wish they spent more time together. 

Overall I think Steven played off of the side cast very well with the exception of Umbriel who, I think in the context of Steven’s relationship with Sara and the SSS, should have interacted with Steven a lot more. 

I mostly loved Dog- which I didn’t expect to. It was a lovely and inspired callback to Purves’ own life to give Steven his own canine friend. However, after a few parts the same stock dog barking that was used every single time became rather irritating. 

I should probably discuss Compuvac and the Hadria now. I think the Hadria were well established and I always enjoy the idea of aliens preserving and collecting humanity, this time as part of their ‘solar system exhibit’. They fit their purpose in the story: red herring monsters who create suspense and drama in the first half of the story. Sure their psychic diadems and neural network are just a way to allow the Doctor and Steven to interact at a distance, but I think it fits the story well. Plus, I found it funny that the idea of a spaceship seemingly managed by an intercom going by the name ‘Nanny’ ended up being quite similar to ‘Space Babies’.

As for Compuvac, I enjoyed the pivoting of attention away from the spaceship itself and towards the guilt-driven computer very much. When listening to it, I hadn’t realised it had previously appeared in other stories and had originated from the Terry Nation Dalek books of the 1960s and 70s. Upon learning that it was a previously established part of the Doctor Who universe, I found it much more interesting.

The idea that a computer solely dependent on instinct feels the guilt of losing its chosen soldiers that it embarks on a literal guilt trip and breaks the rules of time and space to bring together the Doctor, Steven and the others is fascinating. I appreciated Littledale’s performance, bringing both logic and instinct into one vocal display.

I found practically all of the cliffhangers to be great. The stand outs for me are of course part 1 and part 5; Steven seeing the Doctor and Dodo again. However I found the cliffhanger to part 3 very disappointing. Everyone believing Steven to be dead is sudden, does nothing for the plot nor the emotions of the characters and is resolved without much worry because obviously Steven is not in fact dead.

A highlight of the story for me was the dynamic between the Doctor and Steven. It's clear effort was put in to have their relationship evolve now that Steven is old (over 100 in fact) and wise. There is much less arguing and more open mutual respect for each other. The Doctor still calling Steven ‘my boy’ is rather amusing and honestly I wish the other people had called him out on it, if just to try and hear an explanation for the timey wimey shenanigans at play.

The Doctor is clearly proud of what Steven has achieved and it's heartwarming to hear that Steven named his planet ‘Tardisum’ in the Doctor’s honour. They play so well off of one another in this story, clearly bringing out the best of them both.

I had worried when the description for the story read ‘can Steven really trust the new arrival claiming to be the Doctor...?’. I didn’t want to spend unnecessary time with the pair not trusting each other, or even that a similar fakeout to Fugitive of the Daleks might occur. However my worries immediately disappeared when the Doctor and Steven reunited and remained a united front throughout the story.

This story was a fascinating exploration of Steven’s grief in relation to his daughter Dodo. He’s not had a happy time of it, poor Steven. You can hear the emotion in his voice when it comes to hearing her voice from the automated Nanny (Helen Phillips), and it’s especially harrowing when for a moment he tries to return just to hear her voice again. I found the wrong Dodo twist obvious, but not in a negative way, more in a: I know what’s coming and I worry for Steven way. Absolutely heartbreaking. 

I will say it was amusing for a 100+ year old Steven to spend practically a quarter of the story getting into full on fights, throwing himself into things or sliding down chutes. I worried for his physical health at points if I’m honest, he really must be resilient if he can recover from all of that with relative ease.

I found the overall theme of picking up the pieces after death and tragedy, as well as longing for old times fascinating. No one in the story is directly grieving, more so recovering from loss long ago. This creates a more hopeful atmosphere for the human characters which contrasts with Compuvac’s internal struggle. Steven’s nostalgia for the adventures he had when he was young is always a good plot thread to pick up on, to go from a forever travelling and capable Tardis member to a settle King provides ripe foundations for anything of that sort.

Overall, this story is up there as one of my favourites. It’s a love letter to Steven Taylor and everything he stands for: grief, leadership, hope, strength and so much more. Rayner’s understanding of his character and the world he inhabits (or has inhabited, or will inhabit?) is incredible. The links to Daleks Master Plan elevate this story and building on previously established lore helps the story to resonate with Steven even further. With every new location or hint my thoughts went racing trying to figure out the key to the mystery of Saudade. The performances were excellent, almost perfect. The atmosphere that the music and pacing created was suspenseful and intriguing. The few problems I have with this story are far outweighed by everything I loved about it. 

I’m overjoyed we continue to get such impactful stories managing to further Steven as a character, and am looking forward to whatever Big Finish does with the First Doctor Adventures next.

Also: STEVEN MARRIAGE???? It was me guys I married Steven