Randomiser : Out of Time 1

This blog was set up to review stories in a random order, so here's my thoughts about one of Big Finish's most celebrated stories 

Somewhere in an alternate universe, the August Bank Holiday weekend of 2009 saw an extra special with David Tennant, leading into the Waters of Mars. The audience would have whooped with joy at the familiar sight of certain scarf and tall figure, waxing lyrical about Michaelangelo pilfering his ideas as he paints his fresco, talking to a character played by Katherine Drysdale, who played Bliss in Love & Monsters. It also had the Daleks back in their gun metal grey livery as seen in the 1970s along with the red and gold Dalek (Chicken!) Supreme... 

OK, in reality, Out of Time is possibly the only benefit I can think of, that was a result of the 2020 pandemic lockdown (apart from an extended period of paternity leave after the birth of our third son!) 

Suddenly available thanks to tv and film productions grinding to a halt, David Tennant quickly signed on to do remote audio dramas, of which this is the first. This story is one of a few we've had to listen to over and over again with our children on long car journeys. But I have to admit hearing it the first time on Christmas Day 2020, driving from Wiltshire to Bristol, I spent most of the journey with a big smile on my face. 

Teaming up the 4th and 10th Doctors - arguably the two most popular Incarnations - in a story versus the Daleks is a no-brainer and fortunately for us, it is a delight from start to finish. Unlike some TV multi-Doctor adventures, the Doctors are brought together into the action reasonably quickly. 

The tenth Doctor arrives at the Cathedral of Contemplation, controlled by the Abess of the Monanti-Psyivon (played by Claire Rushbrook of the Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit) Big Finish take great pains to fit in their audio adventures into the series narrative, and here Out of Time fits perfectly between Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars. Tennant plays the Doctor as evasive and out of sorts, clearly keen to avoid his destiny after being told someone "will knock four times"

With the fourth Doctor, it's slightly less certain. He mentions just having left Gallifrey and recently saying goodbye to Sarah Jane, so that puts him narratively after The Deadly Assassin. However, Tom Baker's performance feels a bit light in comparison to the more serious persona we saw in Season 14, and more in keeping with the following year where he's a bit more jaunty. But hearing him alongside his future self is such a delight, let's not worry about it too much.

Like a lot of Big Finish that I've experienced , the plot stuffs in continuity references like sage and onion, including the 26th century space war, Daleks, Ogrons and Draconians. We also get a hark back to the End of the World, when the 10th Doctor fixes the Daleks' Time Corridor to the year 5 billion slash apple etc. This feels like a nice piece of symmetrical continuity, arcing from the (almost) beginning of the RTD era, to (nearly) the end.

The guest cast are uniformly strong, both Claire Rushbrook and Nicholas Ausbury do well playing dual roles. Ausbury in particular managing to get the nervous Kivall the novice to sound completely different from the brash Captain Zenna. Katherine Drysdale is lovely as Jura and provides a proto companion for both Doctors. 

Matt Fitton's script is delightful, with some playful dialogue between the two Doctors. We get a delightful line where Tennant declares about his predecessor "no one walks through a door like him" which is a cheeky reference to an anecdote about a director telling Tom Baker he couldn't walk through a door convincingly. 

I do like the fact Tom asked to tone down a few of his lines because he felt he was being unduly harsh to his future self. We're used to bickering Doctors in these sorts of stories, it's nice to get this counter balance where the two Doctors are supportive of each other, and Tom's Doctor trusting David's Doctor when they're prisoners is a nice touch as is his declaration that he shouldn't need stopping. It's a good contrast between the ethos of the classic Doctor and the more modern Incarnations. 

The coda scene where the 4th offers the 10th some advice and asking Ten if he wanted to come along too is charming. The two encouraging each other to keep going feels natural and for me, their relationship and interplay is what makes this so special.