Time Works

I think it’s high time I spoke to the Clockwork Men. I want to find out what makes them tick.

The Eighth Doctor

Synopsis

“You want to know about the Time Keepers?”

“We work in their shadow, every tick and tock of our lives. We hear them in the workings of the Great Clock. We work hard, turn our hands – but we all wind down in time, and that is when they come for us: when our time is up.”

The TARDIS lands in between times, in a time where there is no time. A time in which nothing can possibly be. But something is.

The Doctor, Charley and C’rizz are rats in the wheelwork, a threat to the schedule in a world where timing is everything. And the seconds are counting down to a fateful future that has already happened. Unless they can beat the clock.

Tick tock.

Review

Time Works is a story that really intrigued me as I love when Doctor Who experiments with the type of stories that can be told when they base a story in time, and this story is one that not only does it, but does it really well.

Steve Lyons provides a story that feels as though it would not have been out of place in the Divergent Universe arc, given that this story centres on odd things happening about time. I really liked the first part, which I found really creepy, as the Doctor, Charley and C’rizz walk around Industry whilst time is frozen around them, culminating in the Doctor and his companions being separated. The story has a lot of interesting ideas and words and double meanings that make this story’s setting feel really lived in but also focuses on society’s need for efficiency above all others, along with overwork and underappreciation. The story and the direction of it really make you feel like that this is a populace living in fear of the Clockwork Men and running afoul of them. There are a lot of good ideas in Lyon’s script and I found it really effectively creepy and memorable. One of the most memorable parts of this story is the score, which helps to ratchet up tension., which I certainly felt throughout this story, along with the narration, where various characters give information and especially the narration that describes the Clockwork Men’s appearance and makes them feel really creepy.

Director Edward Salt gets really good performances from the guest cast, with all especially effective. Of particular note is Tracey Childs as the villainous AI, the Figurehead, who shines in a small role, but everyone feels as though they are on their A game, especially Beth Vyse and Philip Edgerley as couple Vannet and Collis. Again, these performances really help Industry to feel lived with and like a real world that the Doctor is seeking to save, and the workers all feel suitably downtrodden, whilst the rules feel superior and out of touch, especially Kestorian, who doesn’t know whether or not he can trust, including the traitorous Zanith.

This is a story that sees the Doctor and his companions separated for a lot of the run time, and it is nice to see what Steve Lyons has done with Charley and C’rizz for this story. Charley is definitely proactive and trying to help the Doctor out from the advanced time that she and C’rizz find themselves in, doing things like putting C’rizz’s jacket around the Doctor’s executioner’s face to delay his execution, trusting that the Doctor will be able to subsequently talk his way out of his death sentence. Charley seems to realise what the moments between time can be used to do and how this can be used to help the Doctor, and ultimately herself and C’rizz to escape from Industry. In the meantime, C’rizz is utilised differently, and Conrad Westmaas is particularly good in the scenes with the Figurehead as he is just purely focusing on the escape. This allows Charley and C’rizz to further deepen their relationship, which is much needed by this stage.

Paul McGann is good here without ever really shining. I do really like how this story is the Eighth Doctor without a firm idea of how he’s going to get out of it, and with the story doing something different with time, it feels like the Doctor is out of his depth. McGann is great when he’s talking about the possibility of the unknown outside of the TARDIS doors at the star of the story and his worry for his companions feels genuinely heartfelt. McGann has really continued to develop, and his Doctor has a more active role in proceedings than he did in Other Lives, where he felt a bit like the story could have taken place without him.

Verdict: Time Works has a good central premise and good performances which really help it to stand out amongst other relatively early Eighth Doctor Adventures. 8/10

Cast: Paul McGann (The Doctor), India Fisher (Charley Pollard), Conrad Westmaas (C’rizz), Ronald Pickup (Kestorian), Tracey Childs (The Figurehead), Beth Vyse (Vannet), Adrian Schiller (Zanith), Philip Edgerley (Collis) & Merryn Owen (Revnon)

Writer: Steve Lyons

Director: Edward Salt

Composer: Andy Hardwick

Parts: 4

Main Range Number: 80

Release Date: 15th March 2006

Behind the Scenes

• The working title of this story was Clockworks.
• Steve Lyons submitted the story to Big Finish without specifying a Doctor but two companions. Producer Gary Russell’s original intention was for it to take place in the Divergent Universe.

Cast Notes

• Ronald Pickup played a physician in The Reign of Terror. He also appeared in the Main Range story Spaceport Fear and the Fourth Doctor story The Wizard of Time.
• Tracey Childs played Metella in The Fires of Pompeii. In Big Finish, she also played Elizabeth Klein a companion of the Seventh Doctor, debuting in Colditz.
• Adrian Schiller played Uncle in The Doctor’s Wife. He also appeared in the Ninth Doctor Big Finish story Fright Motif.

Best Quote

Previous Eighth Doctor review: Other Lives

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