Tick-Tock World

"If you don't get away, this is where you all die."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio 

Released: January 2019

Series: First Doctor Adventures 3.02

Featuring: First Doctor, Susan, Ian, Barbara 

Synopsis

When disaster befalls the TARDIS, its occupants find themselves in a bizarre location, somewhere between space and time.

Desperate survivors hide among ruins, greedy scavenging creatures hunt new prey, and ghosts scream out warnings across time. 

All the while, a mysterious woman watches the TARDIS crew, knowing, as sure as tock follows tick, that a terrible fate awaits them...

Verdict

Tick-Tock World was a great story to conclude the third series of First Doctor Adventures! I thought this was a strong finale and I liked how there was an immediate follow on from where The Phoenicians left off with the TARDIS malfunctioning. They soon landed but the companions were without the Doctor which really pained them. The idea of the ship dying was a considerable shock and they had arrived in a pretty desolate and damaged location. There was dust everywhere which meant the travellers hadn't been on the planet long which was essentially a junkyard. The concept of the shadows being echoes of those jumping time tracks was great and I really liked how Susan came into her own with the absence of her grandfather to explain everything and show off her intelligence. The mysterious woman gesturing to them was intriguing and Susan trying to convince Ian and Barbara that it was just a coincidence despite the figure's familiarity was terrific. The Doctor's emergence was slightly underwhelming but that was soon trumped by his surprising statement that the TARDIS had been destroyed! His anger at that was fantastic and I liked how that led to some fighting amongst the TARDIS team, but Ian was quick to stop that. The planet of ruins was hardly the place they needed to fall out. The woman talking to Susan was good and the threat of the mythical creature Xesto was fascinating. The appearance of a ghost of Ian was excellent too and I thought the warning of getting out or dying served as a fine cliffhanger to part one! It wasn't long before we were introduced to some fellow people on the planet in the form of Harl and Katta who couldn't remember how long they had been stuck on it. The similarities between their arrival and ship destruction was startling, but not as much as Ian's reaction to Harl and Katta being together! That was a stark reminder of the time and place he was from. Marvellously done. Nocta was a good little character with her selfishness and madness and it was not a surprise that Katta wasn't a fan of hers. I liked the eeriness of night on the planet lasting for mere moments as that must mess with your head! Susan utilising her telepathic abilities we saw on show in The Sensorites was excellent and I liked how she explained how the planet was screaming. The zero cabinet had a pivotal role in the story which I really liked and referring to it as a magic box was fun. The cliffhanger with Katta being consumed by the Devourer and the Doctor being swallowed whole to follow suit was brilliant and the impact it had on Susan was palpable. The mystery and scale of the purges was frightening with the amount of Devourers that would consume the planet, and Susan knowing them as the Xesto and how they fed on temporal energy was excellent. Her namedropping of the Reavers and Chronovores was very nice too. The Doctor talking to the different versions of himself was terrific and I thought that David Bradley was in fine form with his take on the First Doctor. His potential impact on the temporal damage was good and his interaction with the woman was excellent, especially so with her being there for centuries. The Doctor actually being dead is never something I can take seriously, but the idea of him getting time to appreciate his death was quite something. The woman being revealed as Susan was always coming and it was fun for her to challenge the Doctor on her identity. Her showing how to communicate across the dimensions was good and I liked that she was urging her younger self, Ian and Barbara to find the TARDIS remains. Katta being seen as a temporal echo was a very powerful moment with the devastation that caused to Harl. It was a very emotional moment. Ian standing up to Nocta to defend his friends was a wonderful moment and it was fun that her gun didn't actually work but she wasn't shy on threats. Susan finding the TARDIS console was a fantastic moment and I liked how there was still power, and the idea of trying to pull the Doctor or the TARDIS ghost from the past was superb. Ian coming full circle and delivering the warning message that we heard at the first cliffhanger was really well done and I liked the continual references to the tick tock noise. The elder Susan wanting to sacrifice herself to save the others was admirable and her stepping back on the time tracks was excellent as we went back to the final moments of the previous adventure, and the younger Susan offering a suggestion for the TARDIS troubles and the older version coming into contact with the Doctor for his last chance to not dismiss Susan was wonderful. Overall, a really strong and intriguing adventure! 

Rating: 8/10