The Infinite Today

"I wasn't willing to let you go. Not before your time."

Writer: Sharon Bidwell
Format: Audio
Released: January 2020
Series: Short Trips 10.01

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Jo

Synopsis

Jo Jones is travelling. Setting out from London Gatwick to Mexico, she lands back at Gatwick.

Jo Jones is travelling once agin. Setting out from London Gatwick to Mexico, she lands back at Gatwick with the same crew and passengers.

Jo Jones is travelling once again. Setting out from London Gatwick to Mexico, she lands back at Gatwick with precisely the same crew and passengers, again.

Jo Jones is travelling once again...

Verdict

The Infinite Today was a very good little adventure to kick off the tenth series of Short Trips audios! It's not that often outside of the televised episodes and DWM comic strips that I blog things close to their release date, but the prospect of reuniting the Eleventh Doctor and Jo was just too good to wait for! They met before in Death of the Doctor so it was terrific to have them together again. Jo recognising the Doctor as a familiar face was really nice, but how she got there was a very eventful story! I think it's really good that we know so much about Jo's life after the TARDIS and how much of an activist she was in favour of the planet and environment. She was flying to Mexico here for those very reasons but she couldn't quite get there. It was a very interesting concept and I particularly enjoyed Jo's reaction after her flight had landed back at Gatwick for the first time. So she tried again, but once again ended up where she started. It had a danger of possibly getting repetitive, but thankfully didn't go down that route. As well as continuously heading back to Gatwick whist intending to go to Mexico City, Jo's annoyance and confusion at being catered for by the same flight crew was an intriguing little element in the story. I was quite fascinated by just how scared Jo was and that was something we hadn't really seen a lot of, if ever, before. The image of the Eleventh Doctor holding a sign for her at the airport was just magnificent though and I was loving the moment the pair were reunited. The reference to The Claws of Axos and how Jo's situation now was similar to what the Doctor trapped them in was good and I liked that it turned out to be a little clue for Jo about what was really happening. Things became even more intriguing when it was told that Jo hadn't planned to make this trip and all the arrangements had been carried out for her. Well, that just confirmed that it was all a trap. Her trance-like scenes were fascinating and the idea of her being a consciousness was very good. Jo seeing herself as part of an experiment was very good, but time kept folding which meant that knowledge had to be pulled from her memories. The mention of those who controlled time meddling in what they wanted to be carried out in the first place was very interesting and it was nice of Jo to naturally assume the meaning to be the Time Lords. That was so well fitting in with the era she came from. I was very surprised to find that the meddler turned out to be the Doctor! I'll admit, I didn't fully understand his intentions, but I did adore the billiards metaphor in attempting to explain that the aliens were attempting to straighten out time. Jo was being used so she could be saved. It got a little bit paradoxical. Whilst Katy Manning is magnificent, I didn't think her impression of Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor was overly impressive and I think as time went on she leaned back to sounding more like the Third Doctor! Who could blame her though? One element of the audio I really enjoyed was the idea of different organisations and agencies taking advantage of Gallifrey's loss from the universe and taking it upon themselves to monitor time. I think there could be a lot of potential there. The Doctor saving Jo from her earlier-than-should-be death was wonderful and it was terrific to get an example of the Doctor looking back on his old friends. I love that. Finding out that the experimenters were Sintheesh was decent and I liked that they functioned as a collective. The Doctor putting a warning on Jo was a lovely touch to end things. Overall, a very enjoyable audio!

Rating: 8/10