How to Make a Killing in Time Travel

"One can always be richer."

Writer: John Dorney

Format: Audio

Released: April 2018

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures: Ravenous 1.02

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv

Synopsis

A disturbance in the vortex causes the TARDIS to land on the Scapegrace space station, where Cornelius Morningstar experiments in time-travel for nefarious purposes. But the Doctor's plan to stop him winds dangerously out of control as the different agendas of criminals, murderers and alien dynasties conspire against him.

Verdict

How to Make a Killing in Time Travel was another really strong episode to continue my way through the Ravenous series of Eighth Doctor Adventures! I’m intrigued to hear just when the umbrella titular monster of the Ravenous will show up in this collection because I have encountered it before in Beyond as part of the Time War saga, but I’m very keen to explore its origins and hear how everything ties together here. I thought the continuity with Their Finest Hour was strong in Liv and the Doctor once again delaying their search for Helen after finding a hiccup in the time vortex. Initially I thought that was a little disappointing as I can’t quite understand the lack of eagerness to find Helen, but given what became the basis of the story it was completely understandable and made complete sense. It almost feels like delaying tactics in reaching Helen but I do understand the appeal of keeping the Eleven until the latter stages of the boxset. The Scapegrace setting was really good and the idea of attempting to buy time travel is excellent. Obviously from the episode’s title I figured that would be something along the lines of what would happen here and the twist of who became the true villain of the piece was magnificent. I thought Cornelius Morningstar was a decent enough villain in just wanting to monetise time travel but his attitude towards the scientist he’d paid to create it for him was less than pleasant. Stralla Cushing was a fascinating character and despite being brilliant scientifically, she was lacking a little common sense. Her desire to achieve time travel and the portal she’d opened up was good and she was adamant she wasn’t letting things go despite being fired. This was her life’s work! The accidental nature in which she shot Morningstar dead was unfortunate, but how she followed that up saw things just escalate. She couldn’t risk imprisonment for the death of Morningstar so she disposed of his corpse through the gateway into another dimension! Unfortunately he wouldn’t get to offer people the chance of a dinner plate at the Last Supper. A neat idea though! I thought her efforts at covering her actions up were quite lacking and she was hardly a calm presence! Something was clearly up and it didn’t take too long for it to be clear the Doctor was suspecting her. The way she was blackmailed by Gorl and Dron was good as they’d witnessed her actions and needed the time machine for their own employer to get rich, but I must say the latter’s malfunctioning translation circuits was just a bit annoying. Macy as the head of security was a very amusing character though and despite his position he wasn’t supposed to deal with actual crimes. Confiscating weapons? Sure. Disappearing people? Not for him. He was pretty comical and that was some nice light relief in the story. The threat of the Kati was decent especially with the Queen, but they were almost second to Stralla by the end of proceedings. Her effort right at the end to claim she had been unconscious for days and attacked by a shapeshifter was hilarious and so desperate. It was laughably good and I appreciated her attempt to get away with it. Macy would see that she would come to justice. The Doctor being able to quite easily fix the hiccup in the vortex was nice and simple and I wonder now if things will head towards finally finding Helen? I can’t wait to find out. Overall, another great episode!

Rating: 8/10