Skip to content
TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Written by

Jacqueline Rayner

Directed by

Helen Goldwyn

Runtime

164 minutes

Tropes (Potential Spoilers!)

Lost the TARDIS, Spaceship

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Desperus, Tigus

Synopsis

Steven Taylor thought he'd left a life of adventure behind when he said goodbye to the Doctor and forged his future as the leader of a world. But decades later, when a broken and grieving Steven awakes aboard a mysterious spacecraft, terror is close at hand.

What is the purpose of the ship's voyage and why has it collected a random group from different points in time and space? What sinister presence lurks within the darkness that smothers its corridors? And can Steven really trust the new arrival claiming to be the Doctor...?

Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat

Edit date completed

Characters

How to listen to The Living Darkness:

Reviews

Add Review Edit Review

10 reviews

This review contains spoilers!

A disappointment that shares a lot of DNA with ‘Fugitive of the Daleks’.

Steven, now an old man, wakes up in a mysterious spaceship. Disoriented, he soon meets up with a ragtag group consisting of 2 women, a teenager and a dog. While looking around, they discover they’re in some kind of zoo. And a certain Time Lord is also one of the exhibits.

While this synopsis sounds fine on paper, the problem is that everything that happens, once again, lack emotion, growth and connection. Characters feel flat. The plot feels generic, and while the Doctor and Steven have one incredibly good talk, it is saved for the end so there’s no time to actually do anything with the character growth it presents.

You know what it reminds me of? An annual story. That alone isn’t a problem, but an annual story usually doesn’t drag on for more than 3 hours. The story tries a little with some location changes and small character dynamics, but it doesn’t lead up to anything. It happens, and we move on.

Honestly, I don’t think I have much more to add here. Take all the criticisms I gave to Fugitive of the Daleks, and apply them here. Flat, long, nothing to build on. Another character farewell ruined.


Joniejoon

View profile


A great story about guilt, though it took some time to truly become great. The first few parts are a bit rough, but it all comes together very nicely at the end. Steven's characterization is great as always.
A. Maybe B.

Azurillkirby

View profile


For a first Doctor box set there isn't much of him to be found, also Dodo is in this for a grand total of 1 part out of 6.

This should've been a four parter.


TARDIS_Janitor

View profile


This review contains spoilers!

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Fugitive of the Daleks


Not quite as good as Fugitive of the Daleks in my opinion but still really solid and an excellent character piece for Steven. As far as 6-parters go, it's not exactly breezy but it's a lot better paced than most of them. It mainly suffers in the middle. I think it could have done with being 2 parts shorter.

The start is very good, we have a brilliant mystery being set up and it's reminiscent of The Great Beyond - another 6-parter that released fairly recently that also has the Doctor trapped in a prison-like place (although the similarities disappear very quickly).

Dodo is barely in this one... again. This time it's a Dodo from after she's left the Doctor (I think. That whole thing was fairly confusing to be honest). Admittedly she does get some nice character stuff but it feels like they don't know what to do with her.

Peter Purves and Stephen Noonan have great chemistry, both putting in excellent performances. Noonan's impression is really good now. Perhaps it's because I'm just used to it but I can picture him as 1 perfectly.

I think this story is a bit too heavily tied to The Daleks' Master Plan. It's been a while since I did that so a lot of the emotional beats and general elements of the story didn't mean much to me and it took me a bit to remember what they actually were.

I did enjoy it, mainly for the performances, but it's definitely not doing anything to win me over on the 6-parter format.


Next Story: The War Machines


thedefinitearticle63

View profile


This story is driven by it's characters, and with an excellent cast it does very well, Stephen Noonan continues to excel as the First Doctor, and Peter Purves is excellent as ever playing Steven. The side characters are all excellently written and excellently played, I was a little disappointed to see Dodo's role significantly reduced again though.


KamelionFan27

View profile


Open in new window

Statistics

AVG. Rating43 members
3.74 / 5

Member Statistics

Listened

52

Favourited

3

Reviewed

10

Saved

2

Skipped

1

Quotes

Add Quote

STEVEN: I suppose everyone thinks of the war they were in as the war.

— Steven Taylor, The Living Darkness