It might just be an
affinity I have with surrealist stories, be it The Mind Robber and its land of fiction or The Deadly Assassin and its trippy Matrix like third episode. Doing surrealism on audio can also be a more
personal experience as you make your own visuals to the story unhampered by
subpar special effects. The Very Dark Thing does a spin on the
surrealist story by taking the non-traditional universe and spins an anti-war
story where the not so subtle metaphor has a good, if extremely ham fisted
message. That’s the story’s real fault
in the audio is that it thinks that an apology and acknowledgement of problems
can just make them go away. The audio
was really good, but the ending really let the story down because of this awful
ending making everything really just come across as dumb. The rest of the story is really good on the
whole however.
Time has passed between Planet X and The Very Dark Thing and the Doctor is now on the planet Trematz
which is this fantastical world with unicorns that murder people, babbling
brooks, a humming in the air, and a very dark thing that is just there with its
presence. It’s a setting that feels like
a happier version of Night Vale from the podcast Welcome to Night Vale.
McCormack does a great job at writing this setting and slipping in hints
into just how horrible this planet has been in the war. The playing with expectations as some
characters see and hear some things while others see and hear different things
is just done perfectly. You as a
listener go into the idea of an unreliable narrator as you don’t quite know
what is going to be real outside that someone, somewhere is threating a planet,
probably Trematz, with a doomsday weapon.
It’s a great way to get the audio going and to raise the tension of the
story as you know that the world could end.
The titular dark thing is also terrifying as it really is just there,
and when what it is reveals itself is actually pretty scary overall in the
entire story revolves around it.
The character arc of the
Doctor, who has been called the King of the Universe, and the man who ran away
from the war. Warner plays this Doctor
in a unique way and makes such an impact throughout the box set because of how
he isn’t trying to be familiar. He is
meant to be unfamiliar and his character just grows on you considering the
Doctor doesn’t have a plan to deal with the villains of this story. The villain is the Admiral who only wants an
apology which just ruins her character in the end, but the comradery between
her and her troops is portrayed really well in the story as they follow her out
once they get their goal of an apology reached.
Lisa Bowerman and David Warner have this chemistry throughout the audio
as they bicker and try to figure things out.
The humor between them is just the highlight of the story proving just
how good Bowerman is as Benny and how good the story is just through the simple
acting.
To summarize, The Very Dark Thing while poorly
dealing with a ham fisted message through thinly veiled metaphors that
symbolize that war is evil, which we already know. It does this heavy message but the story
itself is actually a comedy romp which actually helps cushion the blow of a
very lackluster ending, but the rest of the production can of course compensate
well. I cannot say enough how good this
one is and just how the quality of The
New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield has stayed consistent and hasn’t
really had a story below very good in quality.
90/100
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