Morbius is back from the dead and finds himself dealing with… Morbius. Captain Argento has one last trick up her sleeve and it may be the only thing that will stop him.

Director Samuel Clemens, writer Tim Foley and sound designer Howard Carter have crafted a third act for this story that explodes out in scope and ambition, but locks the characters at the core of the action. We spend time with all of them, feel the weight of their choices and sit with them as they realize just how bad things have got. Not everyone makes it out but everyone has a role to play and the exceptional cast give each choice, and loss, real weight.

Much of that weight is carried by Samuel West playing three different versions of Morbius. West is always impressive but this is a pirouetting performance that gives us three different takes of the same monster all unified by his vast intellect and non-existent morals. Morbius feels viscerally dangerous here, mercurial and off-handedly vicious. He’s an idea almost too big to contain, a villain whose existential threat transcends linear time. The script’s choice to bring the Fourth Doctor in to fight him is a gambit that makes perfect sense as a result. It feel logical, and at the same time unprecedented, and the decision to have this be a post-Brain of Morbius Doctor is inspired. His clashes with Morbius inform one another, building on Tom Baker’s playfulness and West’s mercuriality to create something which feels dangerously fast and deeply powerful. This is the Fourth Doctor at his most impish, and eloquent, and Baker’s extraordinarily good here.

But the true joy of the script is that he isn’t alone. As the story builds, Rachel Atkins and Lara Lemon step to the fore as Captain Argento and Gilda. The former, bent double under the weight of a regeneration she wasn’t expecting, is one of the most interesting supporting characters the range has had in a long time. Argento wants peace, and unlike many of these characters, she gets it in a surprising way. Foley’s script gets so dark that the moments of light shine especially brightly and Argento’s plot is one of them. The other is Gilda’s plot. Lemon is superb here, the definition of plucky as Gilda struggles with events far outside her control but which she’s a vital part of. Her ending, like Argento’s, is a surprise and her position in the plot is unique. She touches on the mercuriality of Morbius, the light touch of the Fourth Doctor and the weight of Argento but finds a very different route to all of them. She’s fascinating and while I’d love to see her show up again I suspect this is her story done, and done well.

The one issue here, oddly, is Dark Gallifrey itself. The concept is referenced in passing and it feels like the only point where the story isn’t especially subtle. We get a little foreshadowing, enough for it to register and that’s it. It’s not a big problem at all but in a series defined by ambition and subtlety, this is the one moment that feels a little forced.

Verdict: That aside, this is a fantastic ending to a great opening act for the series and one that bodes very well for what’s to come. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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