The Lonely Clock

"You have killed someone tonight."

Writer: Matthew Sweet

Format: Audio

Released: March 2012

Series: Jago & Litefoot 4.03

Featuring: Jago, Litefoot, Leela

Synopsis 

The enemy is revealed and Jago and Litefoot are on a train to nowhere. Can Leela and Ellie save them, in a race against the clock?

Verdict 

The Lonely Clock was another excellent episode to continue my way through the fourth series of Jago & Litefoot! I thought this was brilliant right from the off and after the cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode with Hardwick and Kempston getting what they wanted with the main characters getting on the train, we started proceedings in mysterious style as Jago and Litefoot were plunged into still darkness. That was an eery start and I really enjoyed the atmosphere throughout. It set the tone for the hour ahead which fitted perfectly. The smell of perfume revealing there was a woman with them was intriguing, especially when that woman was undergoing rigor mortis! The realisation from the pair that they had lost an entire night in time was good and I loved that someone would be interfering temporally. That was even more fascinating when Ellie and Leela were frozen outside of the train carriage as far as our titular characters’ perspective was concerned. Winnie was a strong character and the first interaction between her and Leela was magnificent. This was Leela at her very best without comedy and she had been watching Winnie in the Red Tavern. She deduced that she had killed her husband that evening because she was clutching at her ring and from the way she was generally acting. That was marvellous. It was a fun twist for Winnie to be confident that she couldn’t be caught because her lawyers were a certain Kempston and Hardwick. I was a little surprised that Winnie agreed to help Leela and Ellie in going to her lawyers, but it was nice to have them involved more. The hours being returned to Jago and Litefoot as they saw the hands on their watches literally reverse was brilliant but there was no sign of their circular line tour coming to an end. That was rather fun. Leela’s continued suspicions of Winnie were fantastic and she knew there was something more to her. She had seen her dead husband at the window which was interesting and I loved the mystery of the clock. Winnie had a history with it and it was why she was around as it signified the beginning and the end all at once. Jago and Litefoot meeting Winnie alive was a fun encounter considering they’d already seen her dead when their hours were taken from them! That didn’t seem to surprise her though as it had the feeling that Winnie knew she was going to die. There was a sense of inevitability to the situation. I loved the revelation that the clock was actually a time cracker which sounded brilliant and I liked that it generated spatial temporal discontinuities whilst being limited to four intervals. It sounded impressive. Winnie doing all she was doing for Sandy was intriguing and it seemed she was going along with his plan to see if it was worth it or right to kill him! Jago pushing Litefoot out of the carriage was amusing but I liked the effort to decouple the carriage and increase their chances of escape. Hardwick revealing himself as the train driver was an unexpected twist and it was actually he who was Sandy, exploiting her love for him after having plucked her from time just moments before her death. Having two versions of Winnie together in the same time was odd but I loved that Hardwick and Kempston were trying to get the attention of anyone who was against temporal anomalies. That of course meant the Doctor! Winnie seeing her ghostly self with Sandy was intriguing and I liked how Dark was there too alongside her. The fact she died by falling off a platform and her bones being crushed on the track from a train. Talk about gruesome! Winnie pondering if they would all hear her own bones crack was graphic though. The Doctor finally emerging after Leela confirming he could be trusted was terrific but it was a somber ending as we found out that Winnie didn’t survive. There were pressing issues ahead as we move into the finale which is exciting as the Sandmen seem to be on their way! The mud creatures shaping themselves for their destruction is a fine way to send us into the final story. Overall, a brilliant episode!

Rating: 9/10