Night Thoughts

 


Night Thoughts by Edward Young

The Fourth Hex Adventure - third, perhaps, if you skipped Dreamtime, as I did, and there's already quite a common theme of them being among the darkest Big Finish adventures there are, to an almost oppressive extent. The lack of variety in tone, this consistency is something to both be applauded, and also the arc's greatest downfall at the moment. Especially considering Night Thoughts is probably the darkest and scariest of the lot (I know the BBC say it was LIVE 34 that made them freak out, but there was worse before and since.) When I say scary, I mean, scary. Night Thoughts is just - holy fuck. I had to pause the thing to breathe before pushing on around three times. Don't listen to this at night, kiddos. It will be two hours of regret. All the same, it's an interesting one to be sure, and a really good script, filled with brilliant psychological horror as well as some more visceral imagery too - it really goes for the jugular, and many plays since have tried to imitate it. Despite Torchwood descending to the lowest of the low of what stories can do, I don't think a story has ever terrified me as much as Night Thoughts. I will most certainly never relisten to it - with one listen I already remember more about it than half the other plays I do. But I can't deny it's good, oh, it's good. It does exactly what it intends to do. Perhaps a little too well. If it was stuck between some other stories, I'd probably be singing it a lot more praises. But it's a miserable and frightening listen, stuck between a medical horror, a dystopia, a bleak historical, and a war story. I think I'd love it much more if it was stuck into a fluffier range. As it is, it's just - it's breathtaking in what it does, and technically I have to give it a perfect score, but no, I am a scared baby, and I am going to give it a Trauma/10 because that is how I feel, damn it! (Sigh) My god, this one was tough - yes, it would ordinarily be a 10, but hey. Trauma. God. You know when someone enjoys Hostile Environment and Corpse Day and yet your story is hard to get through, you're at least doing something...

Comments

  1. Gemjax MajoranSeptember 25, 2021 at 7:17 PM

    I really liked this one in terms of darkness, but its downhill from here

    ReplyDelete

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