The Hollows of Time

"No use knowing and flowing unless you know where you're going."

Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead
Format: Audio
Released: February 2010
Series: Lost Stories 1.04

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri

Synopsis

The Doctor and Peri have been on holiday, visiting old friend Reverend Foxwell in the sleepy English village of Hollowdean. But why are their memories so hazy?

Piecing together events they recall a mysterious chauffeur, who is not what he seems, and Foxwell's experiments that could alter the nature of reality. Huge sand creatures have been sighted on the dunes, and many of the locals are devoted to a leader known as "Professor Stream".

But who is Stream? And what lies within the Hollows of Time?

The Doctor will soon discover that not every question has a definitive answer...

Verdict

The Hollows of Time was a bit of an average story to be honest and I think for the first time I'm not too disappointed that this Lost Story didn't make it to the television screen during the 1980s. It wasn't bad but the best way I can describe it is simply as bland. There just wasn't enough excitement in the story and I also noticed that the lack of incidental music really made things just feel a little boring. The only remotely exciting moment of the first part was the cliffhanger but the way that was resolved just didn't seem to have much of an impact which was a shame. I thought the Sixth Doctor and Peri were terrific together though and they were the obvious highlight of the audio. The style of them already being in the TARDIS following the story's events and retelling aspects of it to each other was fresh and interesting and I thought the humour surrounding the Doctor forgetting the name of Bessie, his old famed car of his third incarnation, was very good. This story saw the return of the Tractators which was a bit of a surprise I have to say. I really enjoyed their debut in Frontios and the Doctor's references to that story were good but I just would not have expected them to return at any point, especially in the 1980s given how far in the future their first appearance took place. Professor Stream was a very good villain but after some further research, I can't help be disappointed by the change in the script that saw him not to be revealed as the Master. Obviously, the anagram is a fabulous disguise and so typical of the Master at this time so I think the name should have been changed for this audio as a lot of listeners could have worked out that the name was an anagram but be left disappointed. Foxwell was a decent character and his past with the Doctor was intriguing to explore but I thought the best guest character was certainly Simon. His relationship with Peri was wonderful and I just liked his enthusiasm throughout. The chauffeur was an unexpected villain and the way he was able to prise control of the TARDIS was quite shocking. I wasn't a fan of how he was able to fuse it with a Citreon though, that just seemed a little silly to me. I did like the use of time corridors in this one and the Doctor's constant telling of 'up and down' to Peri was very funny. The time rotor having things thrown into it again seemed just silly but it seemed to workout in the end. Mrs Streeter was also pretty good but as a whole, I thought this story was just severely lacking in some oomph. It definitely had potential and wasn't bad, it was just needed a bit more.

Rating: 6/10