Once and Future: The Artist at the End of Time

"The universe is dying."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: June 2023

Series: 60th Anniversary 02

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Jenny

Synopsis 

Suffering the effects of degeneration, the Doctor heads towards the end of the universe in search of answers. Instead, he finds his daughter – Jenny – and an Artist whose works appears to mark the end of every world they touch.

The Doctor stabilises into his Fifth form to join forces with Jenny and the Curator to solve the mystery of the Final Gallery and the art it has collected.

Verdict  

The Artist at the End of Time was a strong story to continue the Once and Future celebration from Big Finish as part of the sixtieth anniversary celebrations! The stories are coming thick and fast now as it doesn’t seem long at all since I listened to Past Lives which set up this story arc pretty well, and the continuation here was decent. I must admit that so far I am slightly underwhelmed by the whole degeneration angle that is consuming the series as it does seem a little messy at the moment. It almost feels a bit rushed which is a shame because the producers have made it clear that this arc has been a long time in the making with the mix of characters we have seen and will continue to hear together. The combination of the Fifth Doctor and Jenny alongside an unfamiliar Curator was hugely exciting and it was their dynamic which I really enjoyed. For obvious real world reasons, it’s very fun to have the Fifth Doctor and Jenny together because they’re father and daughter, just like the actors who play those roles! It’s a crazy world really that this is the case and the chemistry between the pair was understandably mesmerising. It was the highlight of the episode for me. It was so great and gave a bubbly side to the Fifth Doctor that we don’t always hear so that was wonderful. I was instantly intrigued by the inclusion of the Curator in this episode, specially with him being played by Colin Baker! I’m still very much in the infancy of the Eighth Doctor’s run with Big Finish so my reading of the preview of this episode in Doctor Who Magazine really enlightened my as it seems Big Finish have taken the character of the Curator and ran with it across the multiple incarnations! That’s really exciting and I’m looking forward to delving into that in the future, but for now this was a brilliant insight into this version of the character. Colin Baker is magnificent and he played the role with a strong sense of ambiguity and mystery which is exactly what you want. The artistic theme was strong here and the idea of the Curator going to worlds that were about to die and drawing their final moments was daunting but admirable. The later revelation that the Curator was actually responsible for the planets dying was a big shock. I liked it a lot though. The setting of the end of time was very good and I liked the idea of Jenny bouncing off the Time War to get there. The survival of the Braxiatel collection was also fun to see it last so long. I was a bit sceptical regarding the excuse of the Doctor’s degeneration stabilising because of Jenny’s presence with them sharing DNA. If I’m not mistaken when the Doctor regenerates his DNA is literally rewritten so surely her DNA would only be reminiscent of the Tenth Doctor? That felt a little off for me, but I didn’t mind letting it slide because the relationship between the Doctor and Jenny was just magnificent. Whilst it was nice to hear from the early incarnations of the Doctor, I can’t help but feel like it’s a bit of a token gesture at the moment which is a shame and I do hope we get more from them in a major role as the series roles on. The cliffhanger finish leading into the next episode with the Seventh Doctor taking the realms for an encounter with Davros and literally entering the Time War was very exciting! Overall, a great listen. 

Rating: 8/10