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A Part 1... Crystals and Intrigue

By:Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA
Date:Saturday 5 September 2009
Rating:   10

The Eight Truths is the first part of a two-part season ending story for this third Eighth Doctor and Lucie season. Something is disrupting the operations of government satellites, and the Doctor offers his expertise on the matter. Having left Lucie at their hotel before dashing off early for that, she runs into Karen, the Headhunter's old assistant, outside the hotel, and is persuaded by her to go and check out The Eightfold Truth, an organization that she says teaches a "life course." Lucie begins to be influenced by the strange, insidious crystals being used by the members, and is persuaded along to their "Center of Balance," which is located at a former BBC television center. All of this results in the Doctor getting knocked out of action for a rather long time, and by the time he's coherent again, a new sun has approached Earth (the "rebel sun" of the Eightfold Truth prophecy), the population is in a panic, and Lucie has become very strongly involved in the rapidly growing, cultish Eightfold Truth organization. I will not reveal some major spoilers about what happens near the end of this story, and I hope other reviewers keep it to themselves too - the end of episode 2 is one of those OMG, no WAY! kind of developments, which reveals yet another old alien, and also finally explains what happens at the end of episode 1. Very cool. And in addition to all of this, we have the involvement of the Headhunter, and a certain Gallifreyan artifact... So another important thing happening here is that the ongoing storyline left dangling at the end of Orbis is finally picked up again in earnest.

Well written and produced, The Eight Truths is set in contemporary England (well, 2012 actually), along with some of today's issues, like global warming and economic troubles. The members of The Eightfold Truth speak like many of today's "New Age" authorities, and the story seems to be poking fun at or criticizing these movements, or turning them around into something truly nasty here. With a good script, good incidental music, and nice direction, The Eight Truths is a gripping, thought provoking and snappy production.

Now we'll see if it all holds up in the final story of the season, Worldwide Web.



Part 1 of the Climax

By:David Layton, Los Angeles, United States
Date:Monday 21 March 2022
Rating:   7

The finale of this season of Eighth Doctor adventures begins with The Doctor and Lucie seemingly taking a break in London of the early 21st century. The Doctor, however, can't help but do some meddling when he learns of a space probe to Mercury gone missing. Lucie, meanwhile, just happens to meet Karen once more, this time played by Kari Godliman, who promises that she has left The Head Hunter (would you believe her?) and has joined a new self-help movement called The Eightfold Truth. What connects these events? It's the arrival of a "new sun," or so it seems, just as the cult leader Clark Goodman (played by Stephen Moore) has foretold. The cult is very much modeled on Scientology, and the idea of the story seems to be "what if the cult based around aliens coming to Earth were true?" One of the problems with this one is that it is all setup for the next story, and so in itself does not seem to get us much of anywhere. Writer Eddie Robson spends most of the story putting the pieces in place. Therefore, it really must be listened to in conjunction with "World Wide Web."



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