Echoes of Extinction

"It crawled into their minds and fried them in an instant."

Writer: Alfie Shaw

Format: Audio

Released: April 2021

Series: Time Lord Victorious

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

Trapped, a haunted monster waits to consume new victims. It needs help. It needs a doctor. Unfortunately, it also needs to kill whoever it meets. Thrust into immediate danger, and on the back-foot, it will take all of the Doctor's ingenuity to triumph.

Two interlinked adventures. Two Doctors. One foe.

Verdict

Echoes of Extinction was a great and very unique adventure to conclude the Time Lord Victorious crossover event series! In all honesty, this didn't have a huge bearing on the overall story arc of that but it was a very good addition to add to the series. The idea of the Eighth and Tenth Doctors together in an audio drama is magnificent and even though they never actually meet, this definitely works despite being admittedly a little weird. This was a brand new experience for me listening to my first vinyl after managing to get ahold of the LP on Amazon in quick fashion and thankfully my girlfriend Gemma has a record player so I was able to listen to this and not have to just buy the download. It was interesting not wearing headphones and just the whole experience and process of the physical record playing was intriguing to me. I thought this adventure could have benefited from being a little longer, but each part for the respective Doctors coming in at around forty minutes meant we had a fast pace in a dark atmosphere which was a pretty neat dynamic. I started with the Eighth Doctor's tale and after listening I was glad of this given that the Tenth Doctor was vaguely remembering his presence on the ship despite a big knock to the head on Karn in a tremendous reference to The Night of the Doctor. I thought Paul McGann was excellent as the Eighth Doctor and the guest cast in his section were very strong. I liked Jasmine a lot as the villain and the one hiring killers rather than doing the killing herself. She was in charge of the beastly killer at hand here which worked well. I thought Edwards was a very fun character and I also really liked the concept of the Network as a psychic killer. I thoroughly enjoyed the description of its killing that I took for my opening quote and the sheer scale of that with millions falling victim was pretty spectacular. The Eighth Doctor having a plan of just convincing the killer to leave was amusing and I was a little taken aback by the lack of proactive action by each Doctor in this adventure. The idea of an enemy being inside the head of the population was terrific and the Network's return after literally just being disposed of was a great moment. The Doctor was escaping with Jasmine and left things be. I liked how that led into the Tenth Doctor's part in the story and hearing him alongside Arthur Darvill let my imagination run wild at the prospect of him and Rory meeting, but alas that wasn't to be as Darvill's character Cooke was far removed from our beloved companion. The resemblances between Cooke and Edwards worked well to correspond over the story. The prospect of Cooke and Joshi not getting their share of the seven billion credits was also a delightful moment. I thought it was a little harrowing to hear the Tenth Doctor's thoughts on his eighth incarnation and everything he has ahead of him with the Dark Times and the Time War. This Doctor was solemn in memory and remembering being lonely which was a little sad but an important reflection. I thought the ending was a little simplistic for the style of story but the Doctor's likening of events on Orriv to the Kotturuh was good. His reference to All Flesh is Grass and them being wiped out was a nice comment to bring something of finality to the overall series of releases. Overall, a great little story to finish and a new experience for myself, this could have been improved with a bit more time but still very good!

Rating: 8/10