Hello, Guide! This review is long overdue - I finished this story months ago, and yet am only writing the review now, but at least it's being written! I mostly enjoyed this story, with some notable issues bringing the story down, and gave it a 3.5/5. Vague spoilers throughout.

The first thing I noticed is that the segues into pieces of exposition didn't always work - they often felt awkward or clunky, but I don't feel like that affected my overall view of the story. The second thing I noticed was the character exploration - the cotnrast between "nightmare eldritch horror who kills children" Doctor and fun-loving spinny-chair-"wheeeee" Doctor was amusing and well-done, and I really appreciate what this story was going for with the idea of the Doctor's darker side. I did not think it was possible, but this story made me love Evelyn even more, with her willingness to admonish the Doctor while still wanting the terrible things he did to not be true creating a very interesting dynamic. She's not exactly becoming doctorified, is she? Maybe because she's more sure of herself than other companions, so there aren't really insecurities for the Doctor's codependent personality to leech off of in the way we see with a lot of the others. She provides an excellent anchor of common sense to his recklessness, and generally felt very fleshed-out and well written in this audio.

I really enjoyed the world building of this one (which I'm sure will come as no surprise if you check who made the pages on things like the species and locations involved in this story on tardis.wiki/wiki), and would love to see the Galyari again! Some really interesting politics were explored here too, with the Galyari colonisers being presented simulatneously as sympathetic victims and oppressive imperialists. This is their way of life; it never occurs to them that it harms other species, but we see both the effects of their actions on the people they invade (through Nintaru), and their own people's fears and horrors (through the Doctor, their childrens' skins being stolen, etc). One line hit especially hard - "your "promised land" belongs to another race". I absolutely adored this aspect of the story, and do not think I can say anything else here - that line says it all.

One thing that severely impacted my enjoyment of this story was the voices. Nintaru's constant tremble got on my nerves, and the Galyari voices were completely and entirely unintelligible. It took me several weeks to get through this audio because I had to keep rewinding, and I only understand what happened at all because I eventually found a transcript. I really cannot emphasise enough that the voices were entirely beyond understanding.

Finally, the thing that really brought this story down was the ending. I am struggling to restrain myself from releasing a litany of curses here - the resolution was beyond terrible. Psychic bonds made with blood and feathers sounds cool on paper, but in practice, it felt rushed and out of place, and honestly the villain being who he was felt completely out of left field as well. A sore disappointment of an ending to an audio which I feel had good potential, if it weren't for this ending (and the Galyari voices).

A story with some interesting concepts and solid worldbuilding, but poor execution, and a truly terrible ending. I am just about giving it a 3.5/5, but I could definitely go lower here. I don't think I'd recommend this story, although it definitely wasn't all bad (and I definitely wouldn't recommend it without a transcript!)