Time Heals

"All the watches stopped at the same time."

Writers: Iain McLaughlin & Claire Bartlett

Format: Audio

Released: December 2004

Series: UNIT 1.01

Featuring: Brigadier

Synopsis

The UK branch of UNIT is under threat. The Government wants its own military investigative organisation, one under its sole control. The public want answers to the strange things that have been happening recently.

When the division's commanding officer goes missing whilst transporting a dangerous cargo, Colonel Emily Chaudhry, UNIT's political officer, is thrown in at the deep end. Things are not helped when a series of accidents show a bizarre pattern. 

The Brigadier, meanwhile, is trying to enjoy his retirement but it seems it is time again for him to come to the rescue.

Verdict

Time Heals was not the greatest of starts to the full series of the UNIT spinoff series. I really didn't understand the direction of the adventure and I think there needed to be a greater deal of familiarity. That is specifically true of it being a first because the Brigadier is always wonderful and he was actually terrific, but he really should have been more involved in this story in my opinion. He could have been used predominantly as a way to introduce us and pass the torch if you like to the new characters that were the main cast for this story. They just weren't interesting and it wasn't the fault of the characters but more so the writing and the general direction of this series because I don't know anything about them! Why they decided to jump straight into things without any introductory work is just beyond me. It was so different to the likes of the main characters in Dalek Empire or the new regular characters in the modern UNIT series alongside Kate and Osgood. It just didn't make sense and that made getting interested in the story rather difficult. I was also incredibly frustrated that there was no continuation from The Coup! What was the bloody point of that story then? It left on something of a cliffhanger with the Brigadier introducing the Silurians to the press and revealing all about UNIT's past, and then here there was just one passing comment about a rubber mask? So what did happen to the Silurian Ambassador? I was not a fan of that at all. Now, as my rating reflects, this wasn't all bad despite being very low for my standards. I did like some elements and I thought the first half an hour or so was actually really great. I liked the idea of the train crash quite a lot, especially when things began to get timey-wimey with the watches all stopping. What was good about that was the intrigue of them all stopping half an hour after the crash had occurred. That peaked my interest but then things soon shifted away from that and became more concerned with the submarine and chase for the package. I think when something so catastrophic as trains clashing is established, there shouldn't be too much deviation. The chase seemed to drag on too much and whilst the Brigadier was experiencing the time glitches, he needed to be more prominent. Dalton was a pretty good character and probably my favourite of the new cast because of his lack of involvement with UNIT up until now. The ending where he sees the files of historical alien invasions and the like being signed off by the Prime Minister was fantastic considering he'd dismissed the idea of extraterrestrial involvement throughout the story. That was a nice way to come full circle, it's just a shame that the journey to get there was not thrilling. There was so much potential with the playing of a terrorist threat and feeling very much like the real world, but the likes of Aliens Among Us from Torchwood dealt with those factors so much better. This just didn't feel like it knew what was going on and I need something to get me more invested in the main cast. Hoffman was pretty good but for Chaudry to be something of the main character, I'm going to need a lot more from her character to get invested. Overall, some good elements but a disappointing full start to the spinoff series.

Rating: 5/10