Doctor Who Review: ‘Eighth Doctor Adventures: Sisters of the Flame’ (Audio)
By James Aggas
When the Doctor goes missing, it’s up to Lucie to search for him. But with the Time Lords in hiding and Lucie arrested, is there any way she can find him in ‘Sisters of the Flame’?
And so, the second season finale begins. Sisters of the Flame is the first part of a story that will not only have a huge impact on the Eighth Doctor Adventures. It will also have a large presence that stretches all the way to The Night of the Doctor.
What’s really surprising about Sisters of the Flame is that its very much a Doctor-lite episode. Like Turn Left (which was also made the same year), the episode focuses on the companion without the Doctor. At the same time, the huge events of the finale are carefully set up.
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It’s wonderful that this episode focuses on Lucie so much as she tries to find out where the Doctor is. Partially, it’s because Lucie is such a well-written character. She has flaws, she gets frustrated and sometimes, she jumps to the wrong conclusions. She doesn’t know what’s going on, and most of all, she really misses her best friend. It’s great to explore her character in a very desperate situation.
Equally brilliant is Sheridan Smith’s performance in the role. She’s had an impressive career on British television, and with this story, it’s clear to see why. She’s wonderful to listen to, portraying all the strengths and flaws of Lucie nicely.
One of my favourite scenes from Sisters of the Flame shows Lucie missing the Doctor a great deal. It’s handled really well, and shows how much the pair have grown since they first met.
Straxus
There’s a really great sense of scale given to this episode, too. As soon as the episode begins, there’s a lot of foreboding. With Sisters of the Flame, there’s a strong sense of a storm approaching.
This only increases when Straxus shows up. A very shady Time Lord introduced back in Human Resources, it’s from his perspective that we’re given a strong idea of just how desperate things are. We learn that the Time Lords are very, very worried about events going on in the universe.
Straxus really is a fantastic character. Not a villain, but someone who’s only focused on the safety of Gallifrey and nothing else. Nickolas Grace (who also stars in recent Tenth Doctor adventure The Sword of the Chevalier) portrays the character brilliantly. He gives the part just the right amount of pompousness and deviousness that you’d expect from someone like Straxus.
The episode also carefully re-introduces a nice piece of mythology from the original series. For Halloween, I re-watched and reviewed The Brain of Morbius. This story is a direct sequel to it, but at the same time, you don’t have to have watched that story to understand what’s going on. Even better is that it avoids repeating The Brain of Morbius by telling another Frankenstein-esque horror story, and instead goes for an epic and large-scale finale.
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