Buying Time

"Only the gods should have mastery over time."

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: April 2021

Series: Dalek Universe 1.01

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Anya, Mark

Synopsis

The far future. Anya Kingdom of the Space Security Service is on a mission investigating an SSS ship crashing on a distant jungle planet. Unknown to her superiors, she's searching for something very specific... but what she finds is completely unexpected. Her old friend, the Doctor. With a completely different face and no idea what he's doing there.

The Time Lord soon finds himself drawn into a conspiracy involving voracious predators, time travel and a malevolent businessman.

History itself is breaking down. If he makes a mistake, it could mean the end of everything...

Verdict

Buying Time was an outstanding start to the first boxset of Dalek Universe adventures! For beginnings, this really was sublime and was an absolute joy to listen to. I was very excited about this release once it was announced and whilst it required catching up quite quickly on some Fourth Doctor Adventures, it was absolutely worth it if this opening adventure is anything to go by. I'm a big fan of the era of the SSS and having Anya Kingdom back in a prominent role is no bad thing as I think she's a fantastic character. There's just something about her that is likeable whilst at the same time you can hear distain in her voice which is reciprocated back at her. I liked the idea of an SSS mission and Anya actually being on a mission within a mission was a stark reminder of what she got up to during The Syndicate Master Plan. I was intrigued by the fact she heard echoes of the Tenth Doctor before he actually arrived, and that imminent arrival for our resident Time Lord was terrific. He didn't know where he was or why he had been brought to a planet where there a lot of corpses. That wasn't a good look to be a stranger and alone with a lot of bodies, but thankfully his knowledge of Anya and his bursting personality soon convinced her that this was the same Doctor. The little recap of the events of Series 8 of the Fourth Doctor Adventures was a nice reminder and it's a little sad to hear how disappointed the Doctor remains by losing Ann Kelso. He really liked her. Anya being on a mission to rescue Mark Seven was fun and I liked the irony of him actually being the one to save her and the rest of the group. The setting of Mira was wonderful and I love that we get a full adventure with the Visians after their appearance in The Daleks' Master Plan. The Daleks might not have featured despite the title of the range, but that's a great way to have Dalek continuity and establish the space and time setting. I was a big fan of that. The use of invisible monsters in an audio format might have proven challenging but it was actually presented wonderfully well here. Malkin made for a good commander of the SSS and I quite enjoyed her acceptance of Anya's role and superiority. Her rash actions after learning of the Visians was amusing because she figured that by taking out the lights, the advantage of the Visians was lost. Except, they were blind and that just took away their own advantage. The Doctor's explanation of that was tremendous. Sheldrake was a fun character and I really like the idea of commercial time travel. Of course, he shouldn't have had the technology so finding out that what tech he did have was Gallifreyan was excellent. We are far from done so I look forward to finding out more there. The Pastor of the Seven Suns was an intriguing character and his knowledge of the Doctor was fascinating, especially with what happened at the end where we had quite an incredible cliffhanger! The Doctor, Anya and Mark were intent on investigating Sheldrake and his company, and that was still the mission, but the Doctor wouldn't be the Doctor we knew anymore. He was shot in each hart by the Pastor in ruthless efficiency and the regeneration ensued. I thought that in of itself was a fantastic cliffhanger even if it would be copying The Stolen Earth, but this one went further and completed the regeneration! The Tenth Doctor regenerated into a woman. Well, I didn't see that one coming! Overall, a tremendous audio to start the series. Tense, exciting and intriguing. I can't wait for more.

Rating: 10/10