Legacy of Death

 

"The only way you can save them is by entrusting them to the future."

Writer: Jonathan Morris

Format: Audio

Released: April 2016

Series: FDA 5.04

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Romana II, K9

Synopsis

The Doctor, Romana and K9 have found themselves trapped in a temporal war. On Aoris, the past battles the future – and the future fights back! 

With both sides of the war now capable of time travel, the conflict is about to enter a deadly stage. As the pieces of history lock into place, there is little the Doctor can do. 

With more Time Tanks moving into combat, the endgame is approaching. The people of Aoris risk extinction at their own hand.

Can even the Doctor save the same planet twice in the same day?

Verdict

Legacy of Death was a very good audio to finish the story already started in The Paradox Planet! Whilst it didn't quite live up to its predecessor – which let's be honest was going to be incredibly difficult to do! – it was a fantastic listen and a fitting end to a story and concept I have very much enjoyed. I liked the switch with the Doctor and Romana altering which era in Aoris's history they were in as I expected but from there things got quite paradoxical which I am big fan of. I loved the Doctor faking to Embery that he didn't have any knowledge of time travel and comically claimed that it was Romana who had all of the knowhow when it came to temporal travel. Of course, he wasn't entirely convincing and when Fyrax was going to be subjected to torture he soon gave up his position. I was really intrigued to discover that Embery was celebrated in the future as the Originator who was the first to discover the principles of time travel as the impact that had on the timelines and the Doctor's ability to interfere was magnificent. He really relished that and knew then from Fyrax's foreknowledge that he had to give Embery the ability to travel in time! Of course, the ramifications on the future if he did so would be quite extent but there was no choice. The future was locked. The Doctor helping build and function a warp field interface was good and the way he dismantled Embery with words and blamed him for being the cause of the temporal war was nicely done. I was a little surprised when Drang killed Embery upon the arrival in the future as it was so sudden but that made it really impactful which was a powerful moment. He had committed crimes that made him responsible for the war and Drang got his own justice. The way it solved the mystery of Embery going missing shortly after time travel principles were discovered was a nice way to tie the knot. Drang's stealing from the past resulting in the future being endangered was fun to play around with and I just really enjoyed all of the paradoxical elements of the audio. I'm a sucker for them. Drang and heading to the past was good and I loved the efforts of Romana and the Doctor to send a negative temporal feedback and throw them back to the future. Medea's plan to blow up the future seemed slightly repetitive from the first story except this time there were a century of bombs set to go off and put an end to the conflict once and for all. Tyrus was a fun character again and her referring to the TARDIS as holy was lovely. I liked how she and Fyrax decided to stay in the past whilst Shola went with the Doctor and Romana into the future with the deactivation codes to prevent a cataclysmic catastrophe. Drang realising that all was lost was a good moment and his mentioning of how he did what he had for the animals was quite emotional. His sacrifice was unexpected but it was the only way out from blame for being at fault. The use of xenox to power the engine he had devised to restore the planet was nice though and the concept of the planet's inhabitants merely zipping forward in time with a Time Tank to a point after the planet was fully regenerated was quite something! It was cheating but I enjoyed it. It was courageous of Medea to stay in the past to secure the planet's fate in the future. One of the highlights in the story was K9 and the multiple versions conjured by the nature of the paradox. The way things finished with legend having K9 responsible for securing the planet's future was tremendous. Overall, a fine conclusion but to reach the levels of its predecessor it needed a bit more excitement and slight originality. Still, a magnificent story!

Rating: 8/10