This was enjoyable if a little run of the mill. Anthony Head continues to give a great performance, and McCoy is brilliant as ever. I think the plot here is a little on the weaker end, but I think the worldbuilding and ideas on display here bring it back up.

It's very rare you get the more mythical in Doctor Who without a technological explanation, and it's nice to see that not only do they not explain the relic or the spiritual aspects of this planet in this final(ish) part of the saga, but also I really like the use of souls as almost fuel(ish) here is interesting, almost reminds me of Class.

The implication that The Doctor had been going around without his soul (or at least without all of it) for at least one full regeneration is something, not sure what the implication there really is, but the way Greyvorn then uses that to draw on The Doctor's knowledge is fun and making him a more deadly enemy. I also like that you get a bit of The Doctor dealing with the destruction of Excelis, not much, but it's there at the end which is nice.

Overall a 6 out of 10 for me.

6️⃣🔽 = PASSABLE!

Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“FLAT ENDINGS!”

The third Excelis story begins by slowly easing us and Seven into a changed Artaris, locked in war and under totalitarian rule. It's an Orwellian story, and the Doctor's arrival stirs up things yet again.

This story is pretty straightforward, exposition-heavy, and slow, and it takes a good while for the Doctor to figure out who is the person behind all the stuff going on in Excelis, while it's clear to us from the beginning.

McCoy is good, and Anthony Stewart Head is once again great as yet another slightly different tale on Grayvorn/Maupassant/Sutton.

The best part is the fact that Sutton uses the souls of the population to create genetically engineered super soldiers (meat puppets). Sadly, this idea is hardly used at all but could have brought great excitement to the adventure.

The climax is lengthy and talky and doesn't grow a lot, so this ends up feeling a bit flat. Perhaps even pointless.

Oof, what an absolute letdown that absolutely soured me on the whole Excelis Saga. After all the neat ideas of this planet, that even get elaborated on here with some clever ideas, instead these interesting plot points around the Excelis world are told through godawful, mind-numbing exposition, well, all of it feels like it got flushed down the toilet.

Everything was lining up for this to be great. Grayvorn having planned out and figured out the Doctor over these three encounters, turning Excelis into a totalitarian nightmare, and even a pretty ballsy ending - these are all ingredients that could have come together into something truly special. Instead, I found the plot very meandering and the acting even worse. I was excited for Yee Jee Tso to return since I really liked him in the Doctor Who movie, he felt really stiff and awkward. Even Anthony Stewart Head felt like he was struggling with the material a bit. It is so disappointing and so unfortunate, with way too much of the plot being conveyed to exposition. Another character played a young man and he seemed kind of fake to me as well.

It's a real shame, too. I really liked Sylvester McCoy here, especially at the end. He has to make a tough choice and the destruction is beyond enormous, which I think was conveyed well through the special effects. I also did appreciate how each Excelis story had its own sense of music and mood to it, I just wish this one lived up to the dark atmosphere it had created. A lot of these plot points felt severely underdeveloped. There is a gem of an anti-fascism theme I think could have worked well for this audio, but it quite simply did not come together well at all. All told, Excelis hardly feels like it would have been ideal for the main range, yet alone a special side series.