The Time Machine

"I've built a time machine!"

Writer: Matt Fitton
Format: Audio
Released: November 2013
Series: Destiny of the Doctor 13

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor

Synopsis

23 November 2013. In an Oxford laboratory, graduate Alice Watson helps Professor Chivers assemble the final pieces of an impossible machine. A time machine.

The scientist and his assistant believe they are making history, little suspecting that the project's completion will threaten the existence of the entire universe. But someone has sensed danger, and when the mysterious Doctor arrives, Alice is taken on a desperate race from libraries and dreaming spires all the way to the nightmare world of Earth's future.

The monstrous Creevix are coming. They seek control of time itself and are certain that the Doctor is already too late to stop them. But can the key to saving the future lie in the Time Lord's past lives?

Verdict

The Time Machine was a fantastic audio and a fitting end to the Destiny of the Doctor series! After a little bit of a shaky patch, I'm glad that things finished on a high with this story. It's been a very good range of stories and whilst I would have preferred to stick to my initial plan of doing each story separate of the next, I have very much enjoyed the adventure. This one was intriguing though as we had Jenna Coleman narrating, quite brilliantly I may add, but no appearance of Clara. That was certainly something I didn't expect but it wasn't at all a problem. She delivered the story wonderfully well and really did make the audio an absolute breeze to listen to. She was definitely one of the very best narrators for the entire series and that really does make a difference to an adventure. Her impression of Matt Smith was perhaps lacking but the writing of the Eleventh Doctor was so good that it didn't really matter. Fitton did a stellar job in capturing the traits and mannerisms in the dialogue of this Doctor which was a real positive. I loved that the setting was 23 November and I was rather intrigued that the year was 2013 for a time machine to be invented by the human race. Obviously, it's now 2018 and there are no time travellers so things didn't seem to quite add up there but it was explained terrifically. The idea of Chivers being told by his future self how to build the time machine was an almighty paradox and how that led to the Creevix coming was very good. I thought they were great enemies and I liked how they always knew what the Doctor, or anyone else for that matter, was going to say. They knew everything so defeating them did seem rather tricky. I loved though that for the ten previous stories, we had been listening the whole time to the Eleventh Doctor's plan and how he used his past selves to save the future. There's some good irony there. Alice was a lovely character and her relationship with both Chivers and the Doctor was brilliant here. The moment the Doctor explained his involvement in the past stories of the series was sublime and I really liked hearing how certain characters contributed to thwarting the Creevix. The connection with Hunters of Earth and Chivers was really good and I also loved the Doctor's mention of Back to the Future. That's my favourite franchise ever so that was a treat. Overall, a really brilliant story to finish the series!

Rating: 9/10