Doctor Who review: Time Apart features four separate historical stories
By James Aggas
Featuring the Fifth Doctor on his own, the Doctor Who anthology Time Apart gives us four distinct stories across Earth’s history.
The very end of last month saw the release of Doctor Who anthology Time Apart. Featuring the Fifth Doctor, the audio sees him traveling alone – at least for a while – while he visits different periods in Earth’s history. While in some ways, it continues from where last year’s release Warzone / Conversion left off, it’s actually an extremely accessible release for newcomers to Big Finish.
The first episode, Ghost Station, is definitely my favorite. Written by Steve Lyons, the story focuses on the Doctor and Peter, a seemingly ordinary soldier in East Berlin during the Cold War. As you can imagine, it’s a bit of a ghost story, and it’s very atmospheric as a result.
But it’s also a character-focused drama too, as the entire episode is a fantastic two-hander. Mixing in a strong sense of history with its sense of atmosphere, and you’ve got a fantastic episode to kick off this anthology.
The Bridge Master
Despite the title, The Bridge Master by Jacqueline Rayner doesn’t feature the return of a certain old enemy. Instead, it focuses on an actual medieval superstition, as the Doctor finds himself turned into a sacrifice. There’s an intriguing mystery as the Doctor slowly finds his life being drained away, but it’s Rayner’s focus on a mother’s desperation that really makes this story.
When a local villager takes desperate action to save her son, the story explores how some actions are easily forgivable, and how others definitely are not, particularly towards the end. Overall, The Bridge Master is a decent story.
What Lurks Down Under
What Lurks Down Under by Tommy Donbavand features the Doctor meeting the little-known real-life historical figure Mary Wade. In some ways, she comes across as a temporary companion to the Doctor, as she tries to help him solve a strange mystery in the middle of the Indian Ocean.
Again, like with The Bridge Master, while the sci-fi element is intriguing, it’s really the human aspect that drives this story, as we’re given a good idea of what Mary Wade was like. It’s a strong pseudo-historical with a fleshed-out historical figure driving the story. Knowing that this was the only story Tommy Donbavand had written shortly before his death makes it a rather melancholy story to listen to.
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The Dancing Plague
The final episode is The Dancing Plague by Kate Thorman. This focuses on the surprisingly real phenomenon of people suddenly dancing, without explanation, in Strasbourg in 1518. Thorman takes some twists and turns with her story, but overall, they work. While it occasionally feels like a bit of a runaround at times, it’s still an interesting listen. What particularly works well is the ending. Without giving too much away, the resolution is a surprising one, especially for Doctor Who.
Time Apart is an enjoyable anthology release. Ghost Station definitely stands out as the best episode, but all of them are enjoyable dips into history, and each of them puts a distinctly Doctor Who spin on the story in different ways. It’s an enjoyable anthology, and if you’re a Fifth Doctor fan, it’s not a bad one to jump on board with.
The incredible ambition of the First Doctor’s era. dark. Next
Do you enjoy anthologies? What do you think are the best Doctor Who anthologies? Let us know in the comments below.