Doctor Who: Worldwide Web

The Eighth Doctor Adventures #3.8

by Eddie Robson

London, 2015. The Doctor’s looking for a lost space probe. Lucie Miller’s feeling just plain lost, on a world she no longer quite belongs to.

Perhaps there’s someone who can help. A chance encounter with an old sparring partner leads Lucie to the Eightfold Truth – a bunch of crystal-bearing cranks who reckon a rebel sun is on its way to purge the Earth. As if!

But what if they’re right?

The apocalypse is upon us. As humankind counts down the last days of its existence, the Doctor races to unmask the Eightfold Truth – and uncovers an old and deadly enemy.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Time Travel

Audio CD

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Eddie Robson is a comedy and science fiction writer best known for his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully and his work on a variety of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who. He has written books, comics and short stories, and has worked as a freelance journalist for various science fiction magazines. He is married to a female academic and lives in Lancaster.

Robson's comedy writing career began in 2008 with material for Look Away Now. Since then his work has featured on That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Tilt, Play and Record, Newsjack, Recorded For Training Purposes and The Headset Set. The pilot episode of his sitcom Welcome To Our Village, Please Invade Carefully was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 5th July 2012. It starred Katherine Parkinson and Julian Rhind-Tutt.

His Doctor Who work includes the BBC 7 radio plays Phobos, Human Resources and Grand Theft Cosmos, the CD releases Memory Lane, The Condemned, The Raincloud Man and The Eight Truths, and several short stories for Big Finish's Doctor Who anthologies, Short Trips. He has contributed comic strips to Doctor Who Adventures.

Between 2007 and 2009, Robson was the producer of Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield range of products, and has contributed four audio plays to the series. He has also written books on film noir and the Coen Brothers for Virgin Publishing, the Doctor Who episode guide Who's Next with co-authors Mark Clapham and Jim Smith, and an illustrated adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Reviews

[Emilija · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this finale. I haven't seen the Third Doctor's Metebelis story, so I didn't have the problem that a lot of others have had, that it feels like a recycled plot.

I did have a laugh when the Doctor, in the middle of an invasion, drove to a drive thru for three burgers and a coke. I just love these little random moments that Big Finish get away with that wouldn't be in the main TV show.

Also, the Headhunter. I quite enjoyed her randomly popping up through the series, and again in this story. And Karen, who could forget Karen?

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Londra, 2015. Il Dottore sta cercando una sonda spaziale perduta. Lucie Miller si sente semplicemente persa, in un mondo a cui non appartiene più.
Forse c'è qualcuno che la può aiutare. Un incontro casuale con una vecchia conoscenza porta Lucie all'Ottuplice Verità - un gruppo di svitati in fissa con i cristalli che ritengono che un sole ribelle sia sulla strada per epurare la Terra. Come no!
E se avessero ragione?
L'apocalisse è alle porte. Mentre l'umanità conta gli ultimi giorni della sua esistenza, il Dottore corre a smascherare l'Ottuplice Verità - e scopre un vecchio e mortale nemico.
2. Grazie all'Ottuplice Verità, i cristalli di Metebelis coprono la Terra, e gli Otto Zampe, ragni giganti di quel mondo lontano, sono pronti a prendere il controllo del pianeta.
Mentre il Dottore tenta di affrontare l'invasione e la sua connessione con un manipolatore stellare da tempo perduto che aveva visto l'ultima volta su Orbis, Lucie Miller si ritrova ad ospitare La Grande. Riuscirà a liberarsi del controllo del capo ragno o sarà persa per sempre?
E la Terra può evitare di rimanere intrappolata per sempre in una rete mondiale?
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A mio parere, questa serie funziona decisamente meglio quando è in due episodi, con una lunghezza equiparabile ai serial classici, perché gli autori hanno tutto il tempo per sviluppare una storia complessa e approfondita. Qui Eddie Robson riporta in auge gli Otto Gambe di “Planet of the Spiders”, canto del cigno di Pertwee, con un piano per conquistare l'umanità molto più grandioso.
Nel 2015, 6 anni nel futuro per Lucie, sta prendendo piede sempre di più una setta che con i suoi cristalli fa il lavaggio del cervello ai suoi adepti. Purtroppo per Lucie, la sua vecchia conoscenza Karen la convince a partecipare a una seduta, facendola cadere nella trappola. Nel frattempo il Dottore, alla ricerca di una sonda spaziale, incappa di nuovo nel manipolatore stellare che gli ha causato tanti guai. È quindi una corsa contro il tempo per scoprire come le due cose siano collegate.
Nel primo episodio la presenza degli Otto Gambe è tenuta nascosta, anche se non è difficile fare il collegamento pur non avendo letto la trama del secondo. Lucie rimane per la maggior parte del tempo condizionata o posseduta, ma se la sua personalità non trapela, Sheridan Smith ha comunque l'occasione di brillare in un ruolo diverso dal solito.
Oltre agli Otto Gambe, c'è anche il ritorno della Cacciatrice di Taglie in compagnia di Karen a completare la trama iniziata su Orbis. È un peccato che gli episodi in mezzo non abbiano nessun accenno a questo collegamento, perché sarebbe stato più intrigante se avessero nascosto degli indizi che richiamassero questa storyline, un po' come nelle stagioni di RTD.
È anche un finale definitivo per la Cacciatrice di Taglie, andando a chiudere il suo arco narrativo in maniera inaspettata (e forse solo un filo out of character considerando quello che avevamo visto in precedenza), ma va bene così.
Gli Otto Gambe sono ripresi molto bene. Anche se il loro piano non è così dissimile da quello di “Planet of the Spiders”, è qui implementato su una scala esponenzialmente più elevata, ponendo in pericolo l'intero pianeta Terra e i sistemi circostanti. È stato quindi un ascolto molto affascinante che ha riservato interessanti sorprese. Questa volta niente cliffhanger, ma finiamo con una nota positiva che ci preannuncia l'arrivo di un episodio natalizio (ce ne saranno addirittura due nella prossima stagione: appropriato dato che la recensirò a Dicembre).
Nel complesso la stagione è stata piacevole, ma non mi ha riservato molte emozioni. Tuttavia sono sicura che la prossima sarà molto più pregnante, a mano a mano che ci avviciniamo agli ultimi episodi di Lucie Miller.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Eight Truths" sets the pieces in place for this finale. "World Wide Web" sets those pieces in motion with a vengeance. Whereas not much happened in "The Eight Truths," this one is pacey and interesting. The villains are revealed as the Spiders, sorry, the Eight-Legs from Metebelis, with a new queen spider planning maker herself the next Great One. She has recruited The Head Hunter to assist her in accomplishing this. The Head Hunter has delivered to the Eight-Legs the remote stellar manipulator from "The Vengeance of Morbius" and "Orbis," and in conjunction with millions of Metebelis crystals distributed through the Eightfold Truth cult, the new Great One is harnessing human minds as the amplifiers to make her universally worshiped. The new Great One has taken control of Lucie, but we find out that plucky Lucie ain't so easy to control. Stephen Moore gives a good performance as cult leader Goodman, thoroughly baffled that new age nonsense he thought he invented turned out to be true. For anybody who has seen "Planet of the Spiders," there is much deja vu about this story, though, which brings it down just a bit. Overall, though, it is a satisfying season ender.

[Isiel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cults, spiders, and crystals, oh my!

This was an interesting story connecting back to the Third Doctor’s stories about Metebelis 3. (Thus the spiders and blue crystals). The 8th Doctor Adventures in general really excel at taking old enemies and giving them a twist to create surprising new stories. However, there are certainly stories that have pulled that off better than this one. If nothing else, I will say that this story is at least memorable.

Oh, and Karen and the Headhunter are back. Again. Yay?

Honestly, the first half of this two part story was SO MUCH BETTER than the second half. It set up so many interesting possibilities, but ended up predictable and boring.

Overall, it isn't nearly as epic as the finale for season 1 and 2, but it is an interesting story and worth the time to listen to it.

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid ending to the series 3 final, and a final close to the Headhunter story arc. Though, I wish we did get to see more about her personally. As i quite enjoyed her popping up in these adventures.

Some great moments here, and good set of strong characters that had you invested in them.

Did the 8th Doctor really drive to a fast food drive-thru, during an invasion of the eight legs and order burgers and diet coke? All the while, while the server then realized he was an enemy of the eight legs and drove off hastily?

Amazing.

[Leila Anani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spin off from the Pertwee episode Planet of the Spiders this has the 8th Doctor and Lucie attempt to foil a spider invasiom.

As mentioned in the first half of this two parter, Lucie being brainwashed is fairly subdued, but otherwise thumbs up from me. Love Planet of the Spiders and this one's lots of fun.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Headhunter… DIES?!!! I was pretty shocked by that. The threat of the Eight Legs is really large and fun. The Doctor barely saves Lucie from being lost and just manages to save the Earth. The attention to detail with the sound effects from the original story this is a sequel to being used is really cool.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

スパイダーたちはクリスタルを持った人間の精神を吸い出し、抜け殻となった人間の体を乗っ取る。ほとんどの人間がスパイダーに身体を乗っ取られる。

ヘッドハンターとカレンのコンビのお話の締めくくりという感じ。ヘッドハンターは自分を犠牲にして地球を救い、ドクターはカレンが良い方に変わるかもしれないという可能性を見出す。そういえばカレンは世界を壊す恐ろしい存在になるからということでタイムロードに追われていたんだったというのを思い出したわ😅
その伏線の回収だったのね。

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

An improvement over the first part, but this story still suffers from being split in half (other two-parters in the series didn't fare this badly). Would it really have been too hard to make a double-length release?

[SuperPiggy5000 · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was, eh. A step down from last episode. The first half I can't even remember what happened. Other than wrapping up the stellar manipulator and headhunter plots, I don't think this one (or the whole series 3) is really that relevant to the overall story.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you use "Planet of the Spiders" as another season finale please improve the issues from the original story. This feels like the same thing again of an underwhelming threat that just makes the plot feel unnecessarily simple.

[Krystian · Rating 5 out of 5]

All Praise to the Great One.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this one.

[Nicholas Whyte]

"The season finale, by Eddie Robson, takes Lucie and the Doctor to near-future London where I have to admit that I was pleased and delighted by the revelation at the end of the first part of who the baddies actually were (though the titles of the plays contain pretty good clues). That was the best bit of it, unfortunately; yet another religious cult turns out to be brainwashing people for alien invasion, and the Doctor and Lucie spend a lot of time running around being imprisoned and attacked. Poor Stephen Moore, as the displaced cult leader, sounded more and more like Marvin as his lines got less and less interesting."

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following on from the cliffhanger of "The Eight Truths" with lots of callbacks to the last Third Doctor story and a fair bit of running, jumping and standing still. Sound and fury, for the most part not signifying an awful lot -- and Big Finish really needs to be better at their casting, as several of the female characters are practically indistinguishable from Sheridan Smith, who plays companion Lucie Miller.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a little difficult to follow in places. It wasn't my favorite episode, and in places it felt like a chore to get through. In other places it was somewhat enjoyable. It was nice to see a resolution to the headhunter arc. Unfortunately, there was a little too much of River Song's ending in this story for my liking.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was originally planning on saving this listen for tomorrow. But given how little part one (The Eight Truths) gave me, I felt like I had to get to this conclusion right away. Overall, it was just okay. Better than "Arachnids in the UK," at least. The story title is clever, I'll admit. And it appears that the next story, Death in Blackpool, takes place right after this.

[Shaun Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

As usual, the second part can't quite live up to the epic first part, but still an amazing adventure, tons of fun and callbacks and awesome performances by Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith. For our full thoughts, visit https://travelingthevortex.com/?p=8701

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10
Verdict: Recommended

Fun if contrived. Psychic warfare isn't really my deal and I think it led to the ending feeling a bit cheap. Some pretty bad character deaths as well, I think the last one was a bit of a disservice.

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did quite enjoy part 2. The spiders were nice and there was a good mixture of plot. I really liked the Headhunter again. I hope we've not seen the last of her..

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second half of a two-part story. As is usual, I have reviewed it in the entry for the first half, "The Eight Truths".

[Christopher Hatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good end to this third season after a slow start.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sheridan Smith's work has always been a pleasure and she entertains here but I was at a disadvantage as this story although it can stand alone really relies for full enjoyment on a knowledge of preceding stories which I lacked and ultimately I felt I didn't care enough about what happened for it to be more than OK.

Some good elements though - the brainwashing is not exactly a new idea but somehow here it was depicted in a way that spoke to our own time, and I enjoyed Lucy's exasperation that the Doctor always seems to escape this experience (not true I think but still...)