Doctor Who: Orbis

As the kick-off for the “third season” of the 8th Doctor Adventures, this is a somewhat strange beast. I suspect it's intended to be a comedy, which seems a rather odd way to start a season off, even if there are clearly serious events going on as well.

There are undeniably funny bits in it, and I particularly liked the way that Lucie's re-uniting with the Doctor was written. The acting is also good, with Sheridan Smith once again doing a great job bringing Lucie to life. (She seems to me particularly reminiscent of Donna here, who may well have been the on-screen companion at the time this was written, although Lucie obviously dates back earlier than that). Andrew Sachs clearly also has a lot of fun hamming it up as a homicidal oyster, and the Headhunter is properly menacing for perhaps the first time.

But the ending really rather lets it down. Without giving too much away, what happens is pretty horrifying, but the story fails to do anything with that, as if a high death toll doesn't really matter if the victims don't happen to be humanoid. Maybe that wasn't the message the writer intended, but, taken as a whole, the story is uneven enough for it to be hard to tell.

But, then again, the acting is good, and there is some good writing too... it just seems to lack something in the way of consistency. All in all, 3/5 seems fair.