The Broken Clock

"Hell in a purple peacoat."

Writer: Nev Fountain
Format: Audio
Released: February 2019
Series: Missy 1.03

Featuring: Missy

Synopsis

Tonight, on Dick Zodiac's America's Most Impossible Killers, Detective Joe Lynwood hunts the most impossible killer of his career.

There's a trail of bodies. Impossible bodies. And Joe has one long night to solve the case.

Luckily, DI Missy Masters from Scotland Yard in England, London, England is here to help...

Verdict

The Broken Clock was yet another brilliant audio adventure to continue Missy's own spinoff series! This is turning into quite the boxset and I loved how this was totally different to a traditional Doctor Who universe adventure. The format of a television show worked tremendously well because it wasn't quite what it seemed. Missy took a little while to enter the story but the use of the spiral scratch to mark her appearance was just magnificent. She couldn't understand why Joe didn't comprehend that meant that she was in control. I loved that. Just what Missy was up was unknown, but her disguise as DI Missy Masters was pushing the subtly to the limit, but I adored the audacity. Michelle Gomez was once again sublime in the story and her speech to Roy goes down as one of my all time favourite moments from Missy/The Master. It was incredible stuff and lasted about four minutes with her actually being quite angry with how he kept needing confirmation that he was going to die. Her likening it to being told you had dropped a pen and then simply pick it up was magnificent. I could listen to that one scene all day, it was phenomenal. Amanda Freylove's maid being interviewed was terrific stuff and the use of an Asian accent and speech was just perfect. It didn't step over the boundary of being stereotypical which is obviously important. The prospect of the murders that were being committed by the man with the pointed beard being time travel murders was very exciting and I think that concept worked very well with a televised show format. I must admit that I initially thought the murderer was going to be a specific past incarnation of the Master, but that would sadly not prove to be the case. What I certainly wasn't expecting it to be was the Master's TARDIS from the Time War! I thought that was incredibly audacious, but it was a mark-212 and had developed sentience. Honestly, I wasn't a big fan of that revelation and it is what prevented this audio from getting full marks. Mark. Ahh, that was very naff to be fair. Thankfully the rest of the story was so good that it didn't have much of an impact with how late it came in the story. It was interesting that it wanted to find a new pilot after all of the torment from the Time War, but it didn't find suitable candidates and kept returning them to where it picked them. Or shortly after. And dead. That was the reasoning behind the time travel murders. The use of Dick Zodiac's narration was fantastic throughout and it basically knowing what would happen was superb. Missy got really angered by it which was really good to see with her own little scheme going slightly south. Mark basically committing suicide and taking Missy with it seemed like a definitive end, but of course it's quite impossible to kill the Master as she acknowledged. Of course, she'd found the factory reset of her former TARDIS – perhaps the one that developed into what we saw in Spyfall? A nice thought. One thing I should mention is how good the music was in this audio and it definitely helped with the pace and enjoyment of things. It just fitted the television show format brilliantly which was brilliantly unique. Missy debating whether she was good or evil was an interesting note to have in the story and it definitely seems that the Twelfth Doctor is having an impact on her in a good way. Overall, another excellent audio!

Rating: 9/10