Review by Cavan Gilbey
The penultimate episode of Big Finish’s 60th anniversary celebrations bring us our first true multi-Doctor story of the bunch, just not with the Doctors you may have been expecting. I’m surprised it took the miniseries this long to finally get round to properly pairing up a pair of Doctors for an hour, but the choice of Nine and the Unbound Doctor does make a good bit of sense since we can celebrate Big Finish’s main bespoke incarnation alongside the man who helped revitalise the program; the reason we can really have a Diamond anniversary in the way we do. However, the excitement I felt going in to this story did feel quite misplaced as this is not the story it could have been.
Where the faults lie here is in the core narrative not being sure if its wants to tell this bizarre, Warriors Gate style episode where a pair of Doctors explore this mythical liminal space which is the realm of a fairytale monster. It keeps teasing with these fascinating landscapes with great visuals, especially in a section where the Unbound Doctor and Liv Chenka are watching all these universes die around them while trapped in the void. But these visuals are never explored with any narrative significance, characters just turn up in the cool sand-dial room but only because they have to and not because Lisa McMullin has anything interesting to do there. The opening scene on the beach especially feels disconnected and contrived, despite some good horror elements with the sand constructs.
Perhaps the story’s biggest crime is simply not giving us enough of Eccleston and Warner interacting and bantering, which is even odder considering how much enthusiasm Eccleston had when he said he recorded a story with Warner. An opening scene in the TARDIS with the two bickering shows the potential for a brilliant relationship where each Doctor is fighting for the right to be the definitive article. This pairing is a great choice and its clear the actors are revelling in the argumentative natures of both Doctors, with comic timing really helping to make their dialogue snappy and endlessly fun to listen to. Eccleston spends most of the story paired with The Lumiat, as played by fellow Our Friends in the North actor Gina McKee. I’m surprised by how I loved hearing these two together, and I think it’s a pretty good choice pairing Nine up with a reformed Master since it gets to challenge the Ninth Doctor’s tendency to take people at face value.
Speaking of characters, why is Liv Chenka in this story? I enjoy Nicola Walker a lot, both on and off of Big Finish. But the Doctor’s relationship with Liv doesn’t really play into any aspect of the story, she could very well be replaced with any companion. Notably this should have been Benny, a character with a connection to both universe’s Doctor. I get that Liv is an audio original companion but Benny just feels like the purpose fit character for this story and her absence is so strongly felt that it becomes impossible to tune out.
It’s far from the worst episode in this run, but it fails to meet up to the expectations set up by how strong the previous entry was. With a confused story that lacks any defined focus and a misuse of the central cast, Timelord Immemorial is sadly played of as disposable fluff. I still had a good time because I love this cast and the concept has enough staying power to keep you interested, just not enough to ever want to re-listen to it.
6/10
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