X and the Daleks falls into the traps that often stop finales from getting top marks, it just gets all a bit too overcomplicated. There are plans on plans and we're constantly being pulled between them. There's a brand new civilian character introduced who gets an exposition dump from Straxus and then taking the hit for the Doctor and Molly at the end (yeah, we've seen that one before). The Doctor calls Molly 'dark eyes' approximately a hundred times even as she begs him not too to the point where I wanted him to sock him too.

It sounds like I'm being negative, but overall the story is a lot of fun buoyed by strong performances. It turns out our evil Time Lord Toby Jones is Straxus from the future which I did not see coming who thinks the Daleks are better than the Time Lords. Because of some paradoxes there is a retrovirus building inside Molly that can wipe out someone, Time Lords or Daleks. In the end, the only person who really gets wiped out is Straxus. Molly leaves somewhat abruptly, but within character to return to her girlfriend I mean her mistress Kitty.

The story is exciting and fun, but a little too complicated for its own good. Still, it's overall a great capper to the story of the Doctor and Molly...for now. This is definitely a great jumping on point for Big Finish.

Looking back on the entire four-episode boxset, I'll say I'm hooked for the rest of Dark Eyes. These were actually some of the earliest plays I listened to, years before I found this site, when I was first getting into audio DW. But I don't remember them that well, hence this revisit.

Molly is a great companion specifically because she's not my ideal companion. I love when we get someone from a particular time and I know the 8th Doctor in particular has a lot of companions not from modern-day London (*ahem* 9th and 10th, get it together). Molly's a competent full adult with her own ideas and sort of take-no-s**t attitude in the authority role where the Doctor finds her. She's not just a starry eyed child, which is refreshing.

I liked the first two episodes more than the second two. Which is interesting because I usually like the timey-wimey future stuff more than historical stuff. But the sound design for the World War I era scenes were just SO good. Looked up the relevant folks to give them a shoutout here: Producer David Richardson and Sound Designer Andy Hardwick really deserve praise for taking us to this battlefield, then ushering us into a train of wounded soldiers. You can feel the tension as this cloud of mustard(?) gas pursues us through the night. Really excellent stuff. Makes me want to learn sound design.

The later episodes, including X and the Daleks, does lean heavily into the timey-wimey stuff. It has us fully abandon the earlier setting and gets very complex very quickly. Like 15thDoctor said in their own review, I had to rewind a few times to understand what was going on. Glad that wasn't just me.

Overall, excited to start the next boxset today.

What a marvellous set. They carve out a really interesting character with the early 20th century, Irish, aristocratic servant Molly, who reacts to things in a very different way to any typical companion. A bit like the 2nd Doctor’s Jamie but more clued up.

After strongly establishing the character in her own time (volunteering during on the battlefield of the First World War) they bounce around time giving us plenty of entertaining character beats for Molly, taking in both the “modern world” (1970s) as well as The Doctor’s “Tardy Box”.

I loved The Doctor sussing our the imagined “good Daleks” in the third story and slowly learning how Molly had been altered to become a trap for the Time Lords - it’s quite a journey over the four stories.

I can see how some might be disappointed that the high drama of the first couple of stories spins into “technobabble” in the final quarter but for me it all ties up neatly and makes sense - though I did need to listen carefully and rewind back a fair few times.

I really, really hope that I enjoy the future 8th Doctor box sets as much as this - there seems to be a wide range of opinions out there...!

Decent finale. I did not see the Missy/Master type plot twist coming, but thought it was a cool twist.

Now, for the whole Box set..

Honestly, I'm not sure if I really liked it.. On the one hand, it felt like a great whoniverse mini-series, but on the other hand it felt like a long, drawn out single story that I got lost with a few times. So really not sure what I'd rate it. I'll probably have to come back to this after I get used to the format.