Day 582: Arc of Infinity Part 3

A lot of Arc of Infinity is set on Gallifrey, and as such the Doctor spends some time meeting up with old acquaintances to get their help as he tries to stop some unknown creature with connections to the Time Lords enter into our universe from a universe of anti-matter. This is all handled terribly. When we meet old friends of the Doctor, we never get any sense that these two characters have kniwn each other for any period of time beyond the scenes that they share together. Take, for instance, Damon, a Time Lord working in the records room. All we get as an explanation as to how he knows the Doctor is that the two are friends. There's no explanation as to how they became friends, or why they trust each other, instead we are just expected to accept that these two characters know each other on the basis of trust, and trust alone. It doesn't help that Damon is also severely lacking in any form of character, meaning that we also don't really care for him whatsoever.

Similarly, there's Councillor Hedin, who is also introduced on the grounds that he and the Doctor are old friends. Now, at the end of this episode, it is revealed that Hedin is a traitor. This is meant to be a major plot point in the story, that one of the Doctor's oldest friends has betrayed him. But we never get any sense that these two are friends. They never talk with each other about old memories, of how much the Doctor looked up to Hedin, of any sort of history between the two characters. This means that when we see that Hedin is the traitor, all we see is not some hero of the Doctor's, revealed as a villain, instead just another character in a funny hat who just happens to be slightly more evil than the rest of the characters in this story. It all goes as just more criticisms to put on the ever growing list of problems with Arc of Infinity.