Dead Time

"Earth must be made ready for the new Human Empire."

Writer: Matt Fitton

Format: Audio

Released: March 2021

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded 2.01

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen, Tania

Synopsis

The Doctor wants to take the TARDIS on a test flight. But he has rather more passengers than he'd like. Soon, the crew are stranded once again in an uncertain future. One where planet Earth appears to be dead. And very soon, so will any visitors...

Verdict

Dead Time was a strong start to the second Stranded series of Eighth Doctor Adventures! I was very intrigued to hear where things would move from here and I am interested to see if the whole stranded concept might become tiresome or feel overdone. There's still a long way to go yet but with the TARDIS on a long road to recovery, it seems we're going to take the concept to different times! That's exciting and I like the idea a lot of the TARDIS being unable to move in space. Considering everything that had happened to the trusty time and space machine from the end of Day of the Master, the Doctor deciding to take a large party for the test flight was something I found a little odd. It was a crowded TARDIS and that's exactly what the Doctor didn't want. On top of the regular companions of Liv and Helen, we were also joined by Tania, Andy and Robin for an excursion six million years into the future! The Camden of this future was obviously very different and Andy in particular didn't deal well with seeing a vastly different world. I thought his interaction with Liv was good and it was nice that given her relationship building with Tania, she came to Andy for information on what they were hiding. She didn't get details that they were part of Torchwood, but Andy basically gave her the full story of Tooth and Claw with a future version of the Doctor setting up their organisation. He was on hand to ensure nothing went awry time wise, although I think jumping aboard a see-through TARDIS that wasn't fully repaired was jumping the gun! Robin is something of an annoying character for me and I kind of hope that he does move away to Scotland as his dad was pushing for at the end of the episode. There's just something that doesn't work for me and I didn't enjoy his attitude to being told no by the Doctor at making the journey and then mucking about with the console controls when he was left inside the TARDIS with Helen. He just didn't sit right with me and he felt a bit spoiled. Maybe that's the point but I'll be happy to see the back of his character. Unfortunately, given his prominence in being recognised by the Deus Ex I fear that we may get a bigger and older version of his character as the big bad for this boxset. He's obviously done something to be recognised six million yeas later and filed as such! I think the Doctor dealing with the potential of being stranded again in this bleak future was good and he's so desperate for an adventure once again. His efforts to get the TARDIS going again were fun to explore and I loved that he found a psychic paper in his jacket pocket. There wasn't enough power for a new sonic screwdriver to be created by the TARDIS though so he was going very Fifth Doctor and hands free. I thought the remote atmosphere of the story was impressive and being on an Earth with no human race really was quite something! It felt dark and pretty ominous which was certainly a bonus for the story. Tania being something of a comfort point for the Doctor was really nice and it was good for him to see why Liv liked her. She's growing on me now too and having her ask the Doctor about regeneration in particular and how that feels for him was fascinating. I liked how he took that question without any qualms and conversed how he just gets on with each day getting used to the new him. It was a great little insight. I thought the resolution with the TARDIS was logical in that it soaked up the radiation that had wiped out the human race and converted it into its own energy source to return to 2020. Having the TARDIS able to move in time is a good way to set things up moving forward, although if the journey to get to the past or future is reminiscent of the one endured here I'm not they'll be making too many trips! Overall, a great episode to kick off the second boxset! 

Rating: 8/10