Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, Ben Arogundade, Doon Mackichan, David Shaw-Parker, Sam Stafford.

Occasionally what Doctor Who needs is a good old fashioned ghost story…or at least what can pass for one in the world of science and speculative fiction, and like the classic New Who tale The Unquiet Dead, there is a lot more to take in than what may be read or heard as things that go bump in the night cannot be explained simply as a ghost, but as something far deadlier to The Doctor, Rose Tyler, and the Knights of Atlas in search of the lost spaceship Vesterbold.

Dark Tides, written by Tim Foley, sees the Doctor and Rose pushed to the edge of their wits in a story that has the listener catching their breath as they are reminded of the classic series of Doctor Who and their passion for stories with a Gothic framing to them, for whilst the tale of light and dark is very much of its future as the listener is concerned, the undercurrent is of our own time, one that embraces the sense of decay many understand to have underscored the our society; the breakdown in trust and governmental competence whilst fewer people are able to afford a life that is stable.

In times of crisis, we look to such stories as enlightenment, a way of focusing the mind, and as the terror comes out of the light to escape its own interminable prison, the sense of being thrown into chaos is fearful and acute.

The long-lost ship Vesterbold is the hunting ground for the creature standing in the light, and its evil, its callousness is captured with great effect by Doon Mackichan as the sinister shadow, and as it claims more victims so time itself seems to catch up on the intrepid duo, as decay finishes the job started by rust, so life is exhausted by that which we cannot see chasing us.

Dark Tides captures the essence of the classic years with patients and a sense of delicious cruelty displayed by the antagonist; after all The Doctor is nothing without his villain.   

Ian D. Hall