One of the themes dealt with by Embrace the Darkness seems to be the horror of facing the loss of sight. As it is recognised by studies to be one of the most frightening concepts to most people, I can understand why it was chosen as the central threat of the story. However, as I’ve already gone through that process myself and come out the other side, I sometimes find it difficult to be objective when listening to this story. Not because it in any way causes upset or offense, but because I genuinely don’t understand the reactions. More of this later.

From the standpoint of the drama, it’s a very atmospheric production, and calls upon a number of traditional Doctor Who devices to create the story. In many ways, it is a classic “base under siege” scenario. Add the element of fear created by a world of complete darkness, and an artificially intelligent computer with attitude, there is a lot to please a wide range of science fiction listeners. I can easily see this story being translated to the screen, with all the classic Doctor Who features of running around in corridors and playing debating games with ROSM, the computer. But naturally, the one thing that would stop at least the first part being rendered visually is that it takes place in total darkness.

What is odd is that the crew of the Cimmeria IV base seem to fall apart so fast when the lights go out that anyone standing nearby would be injured by the shrapnel. These are people who have been deliberately sent to a planet without a sun. Therefore they would have known right from day one that any kind of power failure would leave them in the dark. So the sheer panic just doesn’t ring true to me. It’s only when Charlie arrives at the base, and tells the crew what has really happened to them that I would expect them to have a traumatic reaction. It’s not so much the loss of light that frightens people, but the fear or knowledge that they will never get it back. But, in the interests of the plot, it’s necessary to crank up the tension very early on. So having said my bit, I’m prepared to move on and enjoy the rest of the play.

And indeed I do enjoy the great majority of it. The 8th Doctor and Charlie go from peril to danger just as we are used to in the traditional 25 minute television series format. Charlie is the initial focus of the threat, and the Doctor has to use his ingenuity to talk his way into the ROSM’s confidence. This state of affairs remains a fragile alliance at best, but it’s a delight to hear the Doctor reasoning his way out of a problem. I also very much like the ROSM and its mobile units as characters, although that sounds odd as they are basically machines. ROSM is stubborn and literal, and this gives a number of opportunities for humour and irony.

The crew of Cimmeria IV Base come across well as a unit. They are clearly friends and colleagues. Haliard, played by Mark McDonnell, suffers the most. His physical and mental anguish are well presented, and create some of the creepiest background noises during the story. We will also come to recognise McDonnell’s distinctive tones in some of the Doctor Who spinoff productions like the Dalek Empire and Cyberman series. The voice of the ROSM and its roving units are provided by Ian Brooker, and have just that right amount of personality to allow it to seem just this side of mechanical, and just the other side of intelligent. ROSM is completely believable as a force to be reckoned with. Orllensa does veer from a calm and well-humoured individual to a bitter and pessimistic soul in a very short space of time. But given the limited time span for the story, this has to happen in order for things to move along at a reasonable pace. The trauma suffered by her clearly has a drastic effect on her personality, to the point where one does start to wish someone would kick her off the ship again.

The Cimmerians are given a fascinating history, and the events that lead up to the disappearance of the Cimmerian sun are suitably epic and tragic. The external threat to everyone in the play, however, does end up being slightly disappointing and confusing. Not so much because of who they are, as that’s a significant part of the plot. Mainly it’s their behaviour on arriving, followed by their revelation of what they are doing there. I can’t quite see Tony Robinson opening fire on a couple of campers he stumbles across on his site...

I particularly enjoyed the sound design on this release. Because a great deal of the action takes place in the dark, sound plays an especially important role, even for an audio adventure. It also does allow expository dialogue to happen in circumstances which otherwise would have sounded much too contrived. I can only imagine that Nicholas Briggs had quite a sore throat at the end of this.

All round an enjoyable play, which only lightly touches on the main theme of the series. The next two stories start to lead us into the main event with high drama, so Embrace the Darkness is suitably self-contained to act as a refreshing change beforehand. I would particularly like to see the ROSM unit back again in a future story, as it has clearly been a trial for the Doctor in its own way.

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All the best,

David

I loved the 'smallness' of this story. While other stories in this 'season' dealt with fairly far-reaching themes, this story doesn't really touch on the Web of Time, or with Charley's fate, but rather on the effects of an alien force against a small space crew. And the Doctor and Charley of course.

As the review says, the atmospheric sound design is really effective here, always adding to the sense of doom, darkness and claustrophobia. The first cliffhanger is possibly the play's most immediate moment, but the subsequent breakdown of various characters (especially the manically laughing Halliard) and the ROSM units is all extremely unsettling.

Nick Briggs often comes up with the unexpected for me as a writer. Some of his stuff (this, Creatures of Beauty and Sword of Orion for example) blows me away, whilst other stuff (The Nowhere Place, Vengeance of Morbium, Sirens of Time)leaves me cold.

This is the one story in this season that can be enjoyed as a standalone, rather than as part of a group. I love it.