My Review of Dracula's "The Dark Compass"

Written by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat
Directed by Paul McGuigan

Jack Seward (to Dracula/Zoe): "It's going to be a beautiful day."

Well, um, this happened then. After a terrific opening episode and a quieter second episode that led to a bit of a game changer for this miniseries, I hate to admit that in spite of some interesting moments, the third act kind of let things down to be honest.

First of all, let's go back to 1897 where Sister Agatha traded her own life so that Mina Murray could live and largely be inconsequential in this adaptation. Then let's focus on Dracula telling Agatha that she was going to be a part of him for centuries to come because he wasn't being fanciful with words there. He actually raised a point.

Then let's cut to 2020 where Dracula emerged from the sea and the woman who greeted him wasn't Sister Agatha, but her descendant, Zoe Van Helsing (also played by Dolly Wells), who has spent her lifetime work tracking down the Count while helping to run the Jonathan Harker foundation with Bloxham (Lindsay Marshall).

Of course Dracula initially escaped Zoe's clutches but his inability to keep a low profile and Zoe's determination soon resulted him in being a prisoner at the foundation until his lawyer Renfield (Mark Gatiss) showed up to get him out of there, much to Zoe's irritation.

Now a free man, Dracula had fun adapting to 21st century life and getting food one swipe away but he soon found himself drawn to social media party girl, Lucy Westenra (Lydia West) - also the object of Zoe's protege Jack Seward (Matthew Beard). Unfortunately for Jack though, Lucy soon became engaged to a certain Quincey Morris (Phil Dunster) but that didn't stop the Count from pursuing Lucy nonetheless.

I've seen people online being quite vocal about Lucy's fate and while there was certainly a further unpleasant element when they went down the Bloofer Lady route with the character, there's no getting away from the fact that the character usually always suffers an unpleasant fate in most adaptations. Here it did seem like Moffat and Gatiss went somewhat overboard but at least the character had more to do before Jack ended her misery for good. The same certainly couldn't be said about Mina.

As for Zoe, I think Wells did a good job of differentiating between her and Agatha but I preferred the latter as a character and something about Zoe dying felt a little predictable. Still though, her tainted blood did become key into Dracula's own demise after the latter had his own epiphany and that's probably what felt the most unsatisfying as well. Not the character dying as such but the way it happened just didn't work for me.

- Did we lose one of Lucy's other suitors so she could have a gay best friend in this episode? Jack should've copped off with the best mate to be honest.
- I found it funny that Lindsay Marshall effectively played a similar role here to the one she played a decade ago in BBC3's Being Human. I really loved that show. Mark Gatiss also had a Dracula documentary on BBC2 after this episode aired.
- Standout music: This episode has now added another horror element to Robbie Williams Angels. Thanks for that.
- Chronology: 1897 and 2020 of course.

The Dark Compass was somewhat a disappointing way to conclude this series and for the time being, I'm going to assume this is a conclusion. If it gets a second series (and I'd be surprised if it does), I'm not sure where else it can go to be honest but for three nights, we got some excellent performances from Claes Bang and Dolly Wells and that's something good we can definitely take away from this interesting but uneven adaptation.

Rating: 6 out of 10