Ruler of the Universe: The City and the Clock

"Nothing matters, not really."

Writer: Guy Adams

Format: Audio

Released: September 2017

Series: New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield 4.01

Featuring: Unbound Doctor, Benny

Synopsis 

Bernice is on an archaeological dig for the mythical Apocalypse Clock. Can it really be the key to saving the universe? The ghosts of the planet have other ideas.

Verdict 

The City and the Clock was an excellent episode to kick off the Ruler of the Universe fourth series of the New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield! I’m delighted that we didn’t just get one series for Benny in the Unbound Universe because it’s a place full of potential, especially when it’s dying and on the brink of collapse! With that being the situation, it’s a little surprising that the Doctor had a number of judicial duties as President of the Universe but alas he was being consumed by them. That led to something of a fractured relationship between Benny and the Doctor which was fun to explore with anger held on both sides. She was bringing him in as a matter of life and death as her archaeological dig for the Apocalypse Clock neared its end. The concept behind that was intriguing and I liked that Benny was actively trying to work on saving the universe. That’s not exactly an easy task and on paper sounds incredibly daunting, but at least she was trying! It was sustained in legend in the city of Merin and the mythical status of this race of old was good to explore. I would have liked a little more to be honest and I hope we haven’t heard the last of them in this series. Could they have been so advanced at the time in which they existed? And if they were no longer around how could they have a device that could hold back death? That latter question would form much of the plot on the city as Benny had to tackle interacting with the Dead. They wanted to hold back death and their description of barely having flesh and essentially being skull and bones led me to believe this may be an Unbound version of the Vashta Nerada! Alas, that wasn’t to be the case but it was fun to play with the idea. I thought David Warner was brilliant as the Unbound Doctor and I enjoy how his take is almost like a version of the First Doctor in his very early days with some added oomph to being annoying and getting annoyed. The paperwork was driving him nuts and he was far from pleased by the idea of travelling on shuttles in linear time. He also wasn’t impressed by missing flights and he really didn’t seem to want to stick around despite him being the one that sent Benny on the dig. The reaction when she found out he hadn’t actually read her reports and he couldn’t even remember what she was digging for was incredible. Benny was a woman scorned! I thought the conclusion worked very well regarding turning the clock off and the Doctor backed down despite what it would do! Benny had no such qualms and she shut it off despite the Doctor’s protest. She understood what was at stake. The comment at the end where she doesn’t refer to him as the Doctor as he just is not what she considers that to represent, so instead she mockingly called him Mr President which she knew he hated. Overall, a superb opener!

Rating: 9/10