While investigating a debris-littered battlefield in deep space, the TARDIS crew are salvaged by an ancient race of collectors known as Dar Traders.
Separated from the Doctor after an accident, Adric, Tegan and Nyssa find themselves at the mercy of the Traders' curiosity. But the Traders have salvaged a cabinet from the battle that could be very dangerous indeed.
What does the suave assassin, Damasin Hyde, know of the cabinet? And why is everybody so interested in the missing Time Lord?
To find the Doctor, the TARDIS crew will have to enter a violent inter-planetary war. Where someone will die, and it will change everything.
This was the first story in the Companion Chronicles range to feature a companion who saw regular use in the Main Range with their Doctor, as the Chronicles were originally designed to get around the deaths of the first three actors to portray the Doctor and Tom Baker's initial refusal to work with Big Finish. After this story featuring Nyssa, Companion Chronicles featuring stories with Big Finish's "current" Doctors would become more regular.
The Darkening Eye contains examples of:
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Damasin Hyde, immortal assassin of the stars, wears a beautiful black suit, with explicit comparisons being made between him and the Master's manner of dress.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Damasin's cabinet traps him and Nyssa in one of these, in a mindscape that looks like Nyssa's grove on Traken. Nyssa wins.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Damasin makes the fatal error of confusing Nyssa's gentle nature for weakness and taunts her about her dead father. It's the last thing he ever does.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: It is revealed that Alzarians have some of their organs on the opposite side of their bodies from humans, including their hearts, which turns out to be very lucky indeed when Damasin stabs Adric in the left side of his chest.
- Call-Back:
- The pod retrieved by the Dar Traders is made of dwarf star alloy.
- Though not explicitly named, it is clear that the patient whom Nyssa is treating suffers from Lazar's Disease, and Nyssa tells him that she herself had been infected with it.
- Adric demonstrates once again that Alzarians heal much faster than humans.
- The Dar Traders say that death follows Adric very closely. At the time of the story, Nyssa and Tegan think they are talking about the almost fatal stab wound that he suffers here, but the older Nyssa says that another death was coming for Adric all too soon.
- Upon finding Damasin Hyde in the stasis chamber, Nyssa at first mistakes him for The Master wearing her father's body.
- Complete Immortality: Thanks to the power of his cabinet, Damasin doesn't just not age, his body is frozen in time, unable to be killed. Nyssa finds another way to stop him.
- Dead Guy on Display: The corpses of people the Dar Traders have "salvaged" are hung on the walls of their ship. It's very much For Science!, but Tegan still calls them ghouls for it.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Nyssa is stabbed by one of the soldiers and Tegan holds her as she dies. It's only for three minutes, as the Dar Traders bring her back, but it still counts.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Nyssa starts to have visions of herself in the near future, dying surrounded by leaves.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since the story is being told by an older Nyssa on Terminus, it's clear that the visions she has of her own death aren't going to come to pass.
- Framing Device: An older Nyssa on the spaceship Terminus relates this tale to one of her patients suffering from Lazar's Disease.
- Good Thing You Can Heal: Adric gets stabbed in the heart (or where the heart would have been if he were human), but because of his rapid healing he recovers by the time the story is over.
- Hidden Depths: Despite her fear and knowing she is hopelessly outmatched against Damasin, Tegan was still about to rush him before the Doctor stopped her.
- No Name Given: The patient Nyssa tells the story to is only ever called "The Patient".
- Prequel: For "The Death Collectors", when the Doctor encounters the Dar Traders again in his seventh incarnation.
- Really 700 Years Old: Thanks to the advanced technology of his time cabinet, Damasin is incredibly old.
- Taken for Granite: By accessing the power of the Doctor's energy inside Damasin's cabinet, Nyssa is able to turn the assassin into stone.
