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25 February 2025
This review contains spoilers!
Shout out to David K. Barnes for this two-parter (The Silent Priest/The Silent City). I really do feel lucky being a Doctor Who fan. Here we have a spin-off featuring a Doctor from the Classic Series, the Doctor from the TV Movie and villains from the New Series blended seemlessly into an atmospheric two-hour adventure exploring themes of income inequality, crime, memory and morality. There's simply no reason for a spin-off like this (tacked onto a boxset where the pitch is: What is a classic doctor faced a nu-villain?) to be this good. And yet it is.
I really appreciated the setting of Sunset City. With audioplays, I frequently imagine some generic sci-fi backdrop (especially when the setting is not explained very thoroughly) but this city felt real. Not just aesthetically, but the whole *vibe* of this torn-down city at war with itself as rival factions battle for control and then (in part two) when the war is over, things still don't feel quite right. I imagine sound design plays a huge role here too, but I don't understand that element enough to say.
I wish we got an entire season of Doctor Who set in a place like this. Sunset City itself or something like it. A location that, being featured across 8-12 episodes, becomes a character in itself. That would be a really fun break from the formula. And as this two-parter shows, you could really dig in and do some interesting things with your characters.
jiffleball
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