Neverland

Doctor Who: NeverlandIn the time vortex, the Doctor’s TARDIS is surrounded by other Gallifreyan time vehicles – some of them armed for battle. The Doctor manages to escape them, but Charley – growing more aware of the borrowed time on which she’s been living since the Doctor took her away from the doomed R-101 – hits the TARDIS’ fast-return switch, leaving the Doctor and herself at the mercy of the Time Lords. On Gallifrey, the Doctor is briefed: his rescue of Charley has created a paradox which opened an opportune breach in the fabric of space-time, allowing anti-time to spill into the universe of real time. But creatures in the universe of anti-time now want to establish their own foothold in the real time realm, regardless of the disastrous consequences it could have for history across the universe. Romana, still the President of the Time Lords, asks for the Doctor’s help, but is unaware that much of what is happening is the direct result of another Time Lord. Along the way, the Doctor fights the Time Lords’ assertion that Charley must die in order for history to be saved, and an ancient TARDIS is found…one which belonged to Rassilon, but is now being used to lure the guardians of time to their doom.

Order this CDwritten by Alan Barnes
directed by Gary Russell
music by Nicholas Briggs

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley), Lalla Ward (President Romana), Don Warrington (Rassilon), Anthony Keetch (Coordinator Vansell), Peter Trapani (Kurst), Holly King (Levith), Lee Moone (Under-Cardinal), Mark McDonnell (Rorvan), Nicola Boyce (Taris), Dot Smith (Matrix voice), Jonathan Rigby (Matrix voice), Ian Hallard (Matrix voice)

Timeline: after The Time Of The Daleks and before Zagreus

LogBook entry and TheatEar review by Earl Green

Review: A complicated story, Neverland proved to be so expansive that it simply couldn’t fit onto two CDs as a four-part adventure, necessitating a last-minute re-edit into two 70+ minute episodes (or, as Big Finish bills them, two “special feature-length episodes”). Even then, it barrels along like a runaway train, doing its share of redefining the Time Lord mythos (though not as extensively as, say, Death Comes To Time), sharpening the focus on Charley’s compassionate nature, and finally delivering a nifty, if somewhat Trekkish, cliffhanger not to be resolved until November 2003 (!!). (And speaking of Star Trek…anti-time…?) Doctor Who: NeverlandIt’s interesting to hear Don Warrington as Rassilon – here at last we find out to whom the Doctor was retelling the events of Seasons Of Fear, though it’s not quite explained why Rassilon was heard reciting Shakespeare at the beginning of Time Of The Daleks. Warrington has an interesting voice, not entirely at odds with the Rassilon heard in The Five Doctors though without a specific accent. The idea that Rassilon’s spirit, for lack of a better term, has been watching with approval from within the Matrix as the Doctor has meddled in space and time on the side of the angels throughout his various lives is intriguing and affirming, but at the same time, for reasons I can’t really put my finger on, struck me as a bit cheesy. (Then again, it was in that very same previous appearance of the Doctor that the Giant Floating Head of Rassilon seemed to voice his approval as well, so there’s history to back it up.)

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