Time Tunnel

"It's just an old folk story, nothing to worry about..."

Writer: Nigel Fairs

Format: Audio

Released: March 2015

Series: Short Trips 5.03

Featuring: Third Doctor, Jo

Synopsis 

Reports are coming in to UNIT of trains emerging from a railway tunnel in Sussex, their passengers and drivers dead. The Doctor elects to drive a train through the tunnel himself, but when he emerged Jo sees to her horror that he is covered in ice. Something in the tunnel has driven him close to the point of death. What can it be?

Verdict 

Time Tunnel was a pretty interesting and decent audio adventure! I'm slowly finding my way through the fifth series of Short Trips but I must admit I do seem to be taking my time! At just £2.99 an audio, you'd think I would do one from this series more often but the fact of the matter is there is just so much content from other areas of the Doctor Who world that I'm more interested in at the minute. Whether it was with my listening of Only the Monstrous or my reading of The Betrothal of Sontar, I've found myself prioritising what I would call 'better' adventures. I obviously don't know until I listen to the stories (or read/watch) if they actually are better but if I've got the time then I'll definitely prioritise something I consider feature length (over forty-five minutes) to a shorter story like this, which just reached the half an hour mark. I have my strange ways but today I found myself with a free night actually but with plans for entertainment and relaxation as a reward for a Tudors & Stuarts presentation in university today, I thought I'd delve back into this series. It's actually been nearly three months since I listened to Little Terrors and goodness knows how long since Flywheel Revolution before that, but I did quite enjoy this one. Katy Manning did an excellent job of portraying both the Third Doctor and the Brigadier, but I thought her impressions of Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton were pretty poor sadly. That actually surprised me because in the previous Short Trips and Companion Chronicles that I have listened to her perform in, she's been really terrific. She still was in this story for a large proportion of it but the attempted capturing of those aforementioned regulars during this era was slightly disappointing I must say. Speaking of the era, I thought the story fitted in well with the early 1970s stories of the Third Doctor era which I definitely think is important for a story that is being written and performed over forty years since the era that is housed actually occurred. There's no real reason to break away from the era but thankfully this audio adventure fitted right in the exile years of the Third Doctor. The plot of the story was pretty intriguing I must say with the mystery of the train tunnel, as you might guess with the name of the story! I liked the idea of the tunnel and now time went a whole lot slower than outside but the thing that bothered me most about the story as a whole was that we never got to find out what was inside! The whole story was about the tunnel but we didn't really get to solve what was in it which really annoyed me I must say. I really liked the reference to The Curse of Peladon in this adventure but the ending was far too similar to Doctor Who and the Silurians. The Doctor didn't even get an opportunity to argue against the Brigadier's decision to blow up the tunnel. Obviously the decision had come from Geneva but the Doctor really wasn't happy about another innocent alien species just being blown up. From the Doctor's first exit out of the tunnel, on the train and not foot, it would appear that whatever was inside may be hostile but that wouldn't actually turn out to be the case. However, that didn't seem to matter as the order was given and UNIT blew up the tunnel. The story as a whole was a good one but I just did not like the climax at all. Overall, pretty decent for a Short Trips audio however the ending was just not for me.

Rating: 7/10