Learning to Liv again (DARK EYES 4 SPOILERS)

No, seriously, I know the CDs have only just gone out but I just finished the mp3 version and I wanted to get one thought out while its fresh (SPOILERS AFTER THE PICTURE):

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SPOILERS

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SERIOUSLY

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READY?

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I was afraid that Dark Eyes 4 would end with the death or departure of Nicola Walker as Liv Chenka. Big Finish have already announced there will be a new companion for the Eighth Doctor in Doom Coalition come November and I worried they'd want to make the Dark Eyes era as self-contained as possible.

If they had done that (which they have not) I feel that Liv Chenka would have ranked as one of the great missed opportunities of Doctor Who companions. I feel Nicola Walker could be playing one of the great companions but circumstances have conspired so that she isn't doing it yet. Dark Eyes by its nature was Molly O'Sullivan's story, even in the stories in which she didn't appear. The series was literally named after her and the last three box sets have really just been paying off the consequences of her introduction. Its been one hell of a ride but it gave Liv very few chances to shine.

In Dark Eyes 2 Liv was a traumatised survivor of a Dalek occupation and the third series was far too hectic to get many decent character moments in for her. The first two discs of Dark Eyes 4, though, gave Liv a chance to loosen up and act like a person for really the first time since she joined the Doctor. It seems clear that she and the Doctor have been on a few trips together since the last series ended and they're more comfortable with each other.

There's a real likeness to the characters of the Eighth Doctor and Liv that has been paying off in Dark Eyes 4: they're both survivors of Dalek atrocities learning to live their lives again. Dark Eyes started with the Doctor quite literally trying to kill himself by forcing the TARDIS to take him to the end of time, a scene of such despair and violence that it has really dark implications given how the TARDIS tends to be viewed as the Doctor's life partner. At the end of the series he's talking to Liv about hope being other people.

Liv, on the other hand, isn't quite there yet. She talks about sticking around as long as the Doctor needs her and at various points in the box set it seems clear she's still uncomfortable in normal social situations. Walker herself, in the behind the scenes interviews, says she doesn't think Liv could have handled her situation in the first disc if she'd known she was on a date. Not in any overly traumatic way, you understand, just that she wouldn't know how to handle herself in that situation.

Dark Eyes has had a lot of themes: its been about how Molly O'Sullivan's existence threatened the universe; about the Doctor recovering from his bereavements at the end of To The Death; and it has been the story of Liv Chenka beginning to find herself again and put her traumas behind her and only in that last one does the series really fail to pay off.

Honestly, I think Liv's traumatic backstory is going to define a lot of the character going forward, which is only natural. I'm looking forward to seeing it explored in more detail, to be honest. Like I say, I think Liv could be one of the greats now that the character has more room to breathe.