Morbius Part 3

Doctor Who – Dark Gallifrey

#1.03. Morbius: Part Three ~ 7/10

◆ An Introduction

The second part was essentially one long exposition dump, but that’s where we left things. Unfortunately for Gilda and Argento, Morbius has risen once more from the ashes. Their hopes of stopping him rest in the hands of one man… dressed in a ridiculously long scarf!

The first mini-series of ‘Dark Gallifrey’ is drawing to its conclusion, and here’s hoping Tim Foley can end things with a bang.

◆ Publisher’s Summary

Morbius has been brought back to life on the Isle of the Dead. But a desperate Captain Argento has called for help and received an unlikely ally. Here is a stranger who knows the tyrant of old and is the only one who can put his plans on ice. But perhaps even the Doctor cannot stop the threat of Dark Gallifrey…

◆ The Third Morbius

Having spent two episodes as nothing more than a background presence, Morbius has finally been resurrected at full strength. A commanding orator who demands loyalty and respect from his people, but nonetheless a ruthless dictator. He genuinely believes that his forces will rally at Dark Gallifrey, but like most dictators throughout history, his arrogance would be his undoing.

Rounding off this trilogy with an excellent performance, Samuel West showcases this tyrannical dictator at his most confident… mere moments before falling fowl of his own deranged schemes!

He’s watching his own breath: we forget how precious it is, we forget what is important. Sometimes Morbius wishes he could travel back, see himself as a child; lay out his destiny before him, tell him nothing else matters. Perhaps he will, when he’s ruling all of time! He would rather mould the universe to his image than the other way around. Morbius knows more than most that life is pain. He was the brightest and the best, but since he was of bad blood, the Time Lords disdained him: they will shun him no longer! Morbius believes there is only one route to power when it is not gifted to you: it must be taken, and skies will be torn, lives will be destroyed.

◆ The Fourth Doctor

Hundreds of crows appeared in the skies above the Isle, squawking as the cultists began resurrecting their tyrannical leader. Argento used the Horn of Rassilon, hoping the man himself would come to their aid… but they actually received an eccentric future Gallifreyan President! I’ve not heard Tim Foley write for this incarnation of the Doctor before, but he certainly does a damn good job.

Over the past couple of years, the directors have become increasingly blasé when working with Tom Baker. For some baffling reason, I attempted Series Seven of ‘The Lost Stories’ range, where he delivered the most overindulgent performance of his entire career. It sounded like he went and got hammered moments before stepping into the recording booth! That’s what worried me about his appearance in this episode: both were directed by Samuel Clemens. Thankfully, he appears to have reined in the scarf clad icon, allowing him to deliver a genuinely great performance.

He was a tall man, with wild hair and piercing eyes, dressed in Time Lord battle robes, yet he did not look set for battle. The Doctor has been on water slides, pogo sticks, astral hoppers, even rocket powered-bicycles, but THAT was the worst journey he has ever undertaken! He’s not certain about anything right now: he’s a little bit disorientated. He’s not your typical Time Lord. The Doctor has met Morbius, and it wasn’t a meeting he particularly enjoyed: it was back on Karn. A mad scientist by the name of Solon had stolen Morbius’s brain and was trying to bring him back to life. He was lucky that time – a patchwork body made him vulnerable to defeat – but he doesn’t suppose that’s what he’s dealing with here. Speaking as someone who hails from the repository of Time Lord knowledge, he tells Gilda that sometimes understanding is overrated. Gilda believes he seems so out of place here: there is a lightness about him, and it is something of a comfort. It always feels wrong when the Doctor sees his own history, and he often feels nothing but shame.

◆ Lying on the Shores of Paradox

The previous episode spent a great deal of time meandering about inside the Temple of Morbius, but we’re finally told what it really is: it’s Morbius’s future TARDIS, sent back to himself by a future incarnation, along with instructions on how to raise an army from another realm altogether.

That sounds like a really interesting premise, yet one that seemingly goes nowhere. This army will doubtless appear in future ‘Dark Gallifrey’ trilogies, but that just means this episode amounts to nothing more than a rematch between Morbius and the Fourth Doctor… which isn’t what you’d call groundbreaking.

◆ Sound Design

This part essentially showcases the evil machinations of Morbius falling apart, as the man himself comes face-to-face with an old enemy. One of my favourite scenes was when he chased the Doctor through the bowels of the Proteus, its internal dimensions constantly shifting the walls about… to the point Morbius has to punch his way through solid wood! The sound design in those scenes was pretty good.

A hard-light projection of the Doctor appears aboard the Proteus, crackling energy following in his wake. Icy winds howl across the Isle, snow crunching underfoot, as the cultists and their leader prepare to fully awaken the Temple from its slumber. The Shimmering Man is ripped to shreds by the mental strength of Morbius, his screams echoing through the tundra. The Temple’s holographic emergency programme fizzles away as it’s powered down. Morbius activates his Temple: it whirrs into action, rapidly draining the life from almost all the cultists. Morbius puts his fist through one of the temporal mirrors, sending shards of shattered glass across the floor. The internal dimensions of the Proteus creak as the walls begin moving around Morbius, like an ever-shifting maze. The gurgling of the Morbius monster as it appears within the darker recesses of his mind. Captain Argento sends the Proteus hurtling towards the Temple in a kamikaze attack, resulting in a tremendous explosion, accompanied by the squawking of crows!

◆ Conclusion

“They called me a Time Lord of bad blood, but name one of the elite who posses such charisma.”

Morbius intends to use his future TARDIS, sent back to himself by a future incarnation, to raise an army from another realm altogether. Unfortunately for him, an old enemy has arrived who could put the kybosh on those plans. Quickly realising that the Doctor is nothing more than a projection, who cannot be harmed physically, he decides to engage him within the darker recesses of his mind!

I’m baffled this finale is currently the highest rated episode of the trilogy, because it essentially boils down to a mental rematch between the Fourth Doctor and Morbius. The plot is wafer thin and retreading old ground, surely someone else has noticed this?

One thing I cannot fault is the performances. Rachel Atkins has been delightful throughout this mini-series as the short tempered captain of the Proteus, and I would honestly call Argento the most interesting character here. Samuel West deserves a fair amount of praise too, though I generally think his best performance was during the first episode.

Overall then, what did I think of the ‘Morbius’ trilogy? Overhyped was the first word that came to mind, because most of the episodes just felt like standard fare for BigFinish. It probably doesn’t help that Tim Foley has been deified in recent years – the fandom have convinced themselves he’s the modern-day equivalent of Rob Shearman – so expectations were certainly high.

⭐9/10

😍Great! → Strong recommendation!

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

PRIMARY NOTES:

The concluding part of the first Dark Gallifrey story picks up where the second part left off: Rassilon returns to combat Morbius' return, but we realize this is actually a hologram of the 4th Doctor, joining the two main characters from the previous chapters.

John Dorney largely sticks the landing with this one. He maintains the tense and dark atmosphere from the previous parts and seamlessly integrates the story with established lore from The Brain of Morbius. Additionally, he enhances our comprehension of the intended role of the titular Dark Gallifrey.

I don’t know whether the Doctor’s involvement is needed here, as the story has worked very well so far without him. Tom Baker doesn’t seem to put in his best effort and uses a lot of time to recount his earlier encounters with Morbius.

Gilda and Argento continue to be interesting characters, and both are given great scenes with the Doctor.

Samuel West's portrayal of Morbius is truly captivating. His back-and-forth with Baker is quite magnetic.

There's positive tension in the lengthy battle between Morbius and the Doctor towards the end. The epic nature of this battle surpasses that of The Brain of Morbius.

I'm somewhat bummed that this one is tightly linked to Brain. Feels forced.

The story concludes satisfactorily for Argento, Gilda, and Proteus. I love how the narration bookends the entire story at the end and how it is revealed that the narrator is an old Gilda (which I guessed early on), who was sent back in time to look after her younger self.

While I liked this, it was probably the weakest of the run (4.5/5 instead of 5/5)

These are not big issues, but they're annoying, so I am going to spend a lot of time on them:

Weirdly, I think the weakest parts were the bits with the Doctor. Obviously, Tom Baker's performance was great, but it felt like whenever he's around, the story's priorities changed. The writer stops caring about telling the story he's been telling for the past 2 hours, and is just writing fun lines for the human man Tom Baker to say. There's this weird thing that expanded universe writers will do whenever they're making more than a passing reference to a tv story, where they'll have the doctor stop and reminisce and give a full summary of the story, regardless of plot relevence. The other characters don't care. Most of the audience of a Big Finish story featuring the 4th Doctor and Morbius have already seen The Brain of Morbius and know all this, and the rest don't care. It feels like the only reason it's there is because fans get a nostalgia hit hearing Tom Baker say Solon

This kind of thing does have an impact on the story itself. I'm still not totally clear on why the Horn of Rassilon summons the Doctor, rather than Rassilon, but hey, we get that awkward conversation where two people who've never met the doctor before have to try and naturalistically prompt him to explain where he is in relation to his TV timeline

Again, these are minor issues, and most of the story is great, I just can't shake the feeling that Tim Foley got a little distracted by continuity once the doctor showed up, and the story suffers slightly for it

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.