Morbius Part 3

All three of these episodes are quite good. Tim Foley is by far my favorite writer currently working with Big Finish. Scott Handcock and Robert Shearman  have moved on to greater things and John Dorney doesn’t necessarily ensure a phenomenal episode the way his name did during Doom Coalition. But I digress. Tim has impressed me with every episode he’s written so far, and he brings freshness and authenticity to Doctor Who that Big Finish can sometimes struggle with. He certainly delivers with this first series of Dark Gallifrey.

The first episode is slow, as it’s really a long, 3 hr 30 minute story and the first hour is just the first act. The second part is seriously very captivating and includes political themes that genuinely surprise me with their nuance. The relationships between the characters feel very authentic, something Foley excels at. I especially loved the way Argento is repeatedly compared to Morbius, the two being foil characters for each other, with Morbius haunting Argento both literally and mentally.

Though he is second billed and on the cover, I was not expecting very much Tom Baker in episode 3. But they truly deliver a 4-Morbius rematch. I’d even say it works even better than his showdown with the Morbius Beast we got on television. It feels like proper, exciting Doctor Who, and while the characters we’d been following the past two episodes are pushed aside for the third act, they still get satisfying endings.

However, I do not recommend buying this. I was not planning on buying this. To be honest, the only reason I did was because of the upcoming Morbius the Mighty, and I do follow the War Doctor range pretty religiously. Big Finish sure know how to get me. But I will say I found it very difficult to justify the price. I paid $35 for this, and it’s worth about $25, if that. This monthly release schedule worked for Sontarans Vs Rutans (which I did not buy because of the price) because they were separate stories. This series of Dark Gallifrey does not work unless you binge all three episodes, because it’s one story with many nuanced characters. There is no reason why this should not have been a box set. The Dark Gallifrey storyline they set up in episode 3 is very intriguing, though unless a future series receives phenomenal reviews or I need to listen to understand a range I closely follow, I will not purchase future monthly releases from this range, and I don’t recommend it to anyone on a budget.