Time to round out Series Two of the new EDA's by bringing you Vengeance of Morbius, part two of the two part finale that began with Sisters Of The Flame, the review of which can be found
HERE.
The richest man in the galaxy has just bought a backwards planet with no obvious mineral wealth in the outer reaches of the universe. An obscure mystical sect has been revived after centuries of neglect. A new race of aliens are hunting for prey. Why?
As the Doctor and Lucie attempt to discover the answer, it becomes clear that someone is attempting to resurrect the past - and they need a Time Lord to help them achieve it.So What's Good With It? I think the most obvious thing to open with is the fact that we get the long awaited and overdue return of Morbius, which is most definately a good thing. There is enough continuity throughout the story to keep the older fans happy while at the same time being light enough so that newer fans don't get lost in the plot. I always bang on about how good Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith are in these audios, but it's never truer than in this story. They really go at it and put in excellent performances, both with each other and seperately. There are two great cliffhangers which at the time were made worse, though exciting, as a third season had not yet been announced.
But What's Wrong With It? Despite being the second half of a two parter, I found this story felt quite distant. The problem here though is that while Sisters of the Flame could have worked well as a stand alone story with enough material to justify a second part, this one doesn't work as well and felt a bit of a let down after what was a particularly good first half. SOTF set up some brilliant characters that just went to waste when it came to finishing the story off in this audio, which I think is partly due to the length. Everything about this story felt packed in and there just wasn't enough time to let the story breathe and develop as it should have. While the return of Morbius is appreciated and a great hark back to the classics, unfortunately his character here feels a bit one dimensional and not nearly fleshed out enough. You can tell from the script that he has the potential to be an amazing villian, but his potential is unfortunately not realised here. It's a shame, but after what has been a pretty strong run, the series ends, for me at least, on a bit of a damp note.
Final Verdict: Lots of great ideas that don't really mesh and the ones that do don't have the time to develop properly.
Vengeance Of Morbius gets 2/5 TARDIS's
Extra Info: 60 minutes long on 1 disc with bonus features. Some of the extras here, including interviews and insights, are actually pretty great and go a way to make up for the poor story. You can get it on
Amazon for £9.89
