The Cold Equations

"We're all on borrowed time."

Writer: Simon Guerrier
Format: Audio
Released: June 2011
Series: Companion Chronicles 5.12

Featuring: First Doctor, Steven, Oliver

Synopsis

In the remnant of a shattered satellite, far above the ruined planet Earth, Steven Taylor and Oliver Harper are dying. As time runs out, they face their pasts... and a secret long kept is revealed.

The borrowed time is elapsing, and they realise they are facing an enemy that cannot be defeated. The cold, hard facts of science.

Verdict

The Cold Equations was another great little Companion Chronicle audio! It was nice to continue on from The Perpetual Bond with the trio of the First Doctor, Steven and Oliver and I was intrigued from the get go to see how this new team would fare in their first trip in the TARDIS. I was glad, first of all, that this was actually their first trip and that there was no skipping ahead in the timeline for these characters. This was Oliver's first trip, but things started well into the adventure as we heard Steven and Oliver in space and they were trapped. There was nobody coming to rescue them and no hope of salvation. To all intents and purposes, they were doomed. I'm not sure how I feel about a pre-titles sequence in a First Doctor era story but it worked well and let us build towards that moment occurring in the story as it was then told. We also got what I'm sure will be a bit of a spoiler for The First Wave regarding the trio's future and how they were arrested in the past from the perspective of Earth in this adventure, but in their own personal future. Peter Purves was magnificent pulling double duty as both Steven and the First Doctor and Oliver definitely helped filling in alongside him. They made a good pairing of companions and I thought it was a humorous moment where the Doctor called Oliver primitive because of the time from whence he came. His reaction to that was also comical! It was good again to learn more about Steven's upbringing in space far into the future from now, and it obviously worked out well for the TARDIS that he had with the six-dimensional thinking required. My favourite element of this audio was probably the selling of how dangerous space is. Steven did not hold back when it came to making Oliver realise that this was no laughing place and that mathematics were the law. If the equations didn't match up then that was that, you were at the mercy of space and the vacuum that it was. There would be no going back. The revelation that the doomed planet below was actually Earth would probably have been more effectual if it wasn't stated in the synopsis, but I still liked both of the companions reactions to that bit of information. The mention again of galactic law was interesting for a story of this era and I liked how Oliver was used to identify some of the ancient relics from the Earth Empire that could be valuable and traded. One of them was as simple as a bed frame. Steven's disbelief at the Doctor being able to save he and Oliver from total doom was a lovely moment and I actually quite liked that how he was able to do so wasn't really explained. Some things are good when used ambiguously and how the First Doctor was able to defy mathematics is unknown, but I quite like that. I think this an exception though so I wouldn't like it to be a regular occurrence! Finding out Oliver's secret was a little bit of a letdown to be honest, but I do think that was the point. It was highlighting how terrible and different the 1960s were for homosexuals. I was expecting something that was actually bad and would have an impact on the Doctor and Steven, but that was not to be the case. I'm intrigued to see where things go from here with the trio though and just how they end up with mugshots! Overall, a very good listen.

Rating: 8/10