Patience

"Why can't we remember coming here?"

Writer: Tim Foley

Format: Audio

Released: December 2021

Series: Eighth Doctor Adventures: Stranded 3.01

Featuring: Eighth Doctor, Liv, Helen, Tania, Andy

Synopsis

The Doctor decides to investigate the limits of the paradoxical timeline in which he and his friends are stranded.

But they find themselves hunted by a force of mercenary Judoon. It seems that Earth's altered history has changed the whole universe...

Verdict

Patience was an excellent start to the third Stranded series of Eighth Doctor Adventures! Things have got quite convoluted for a series that claims to have the Doctor and his companions stranded and I mean that in the best way possible. I really enjoyed how contained the first boxset was in London of 2020, but now we've got the Doctor stranded in a timeline that is rife with paradox and that works excellently! I really liked the role of the Doctor in the episode in being a part-time narrator and the story of Patience was delightful to hear. She's a name that is linked intrinsically into the novels of the Wilderness Years and my experience of her is contained to The Infinity Doctors so I'm keen to learn more about her. It's always fun to dive into the history of the Doctor and Gallifrey and she seems to play an important part. The Paradoxica itself was a fascinating element for a story device and it's good to know that Patience is where he got it from. I think patience was also required to fully appreciate this episode as things were pretty calm and I enjoyed that as we relatively slowly learned what was happening. Having different pairings was fun and Liv and Andy made for a terrific combination. You'd expect that Liv would be paired with Tania given their relationship but this was definitely the right choice for me. I really enjoy their dynamic. Them being dealt the cards that look into the past was intriguing and Andy playing solitaire with cards that were far more than an ordinary playing deck was wonderful. Throw in the Judoon and some of their party de-ageing and we had quite an extensive use of the past here. I thought the Judoon just encountering the Eighth Doctor in general was great and I like that the New Who era monsters can just show up in the Classic era. Considering they're space police it makes sense that the Doctor has encountered them numerous times before. I thought the continuity with Must-See TV was very good in having Mr Bird as the Judoon's employer. The Doctor stopped the rhino-looking law enforcement in their tracks when he named those who had employed them! That was a strong moment for sure and really seemed to take the Doctor out of the background of the episode in the best way. I enjoyed the pairing of Helen and Tania because they both loved Liv, but in very different ways. It's so nice to hear how she is appreciated and I hope she knows that. Her recollection of her year on Kaldor between Ravenous boxsets was good and I can't wait to dive into the world of the Robots in due course. I've got the first two boxsets ready to go, but I think I'll see out this series first. Tania realising she was seeing echoes of the future was magnificent and it was good that those events weren't yet fully shaped. Thing had not yet been finalised and that put her in a strong position to mould what could be, especially in a paradoxical timeline! The Doctor and Kon Po being dealt the cards of the Everlasting Present was fascinating and I really liked how they had repeated events over and over. The Doctor being a Time Lord was time sensitive and realised that, but the Judoon were less perceptive. Andy's reaction to the Judoon was good stuff too and it was rather cute to hear a baby version of them out of uniform! It's the beauty of the audio format there as well to make this a reality. I thought the way things concluded was pretty simple and was just a fine result of having patience for what was happening. Kon Po was taken back to Judoonia and that was great because it put the focus on the Judoon for arguably the first time. They're always just around or looking for a bigger target, whereas having a sense of home really added a new edge to them. I think it's great that the events and use of the Paradoxica allowed the Doctor to measure the new timeline and I'm keen to explore things further moving forward! Overall, a very strong start to the series! 

Rating: 9/10