Meanwhile, Elsewhere

The Time War #5.1

Released: 18 January 2023

Listened: 2/2/23

In Production time, there was a sense that the Time War series might have run its course. The pandemic threw all the schedules off, and then it was a couple of years real time between sets. In that time, Rakhee Thakrar got more famous, and became unavailable to play Bliss, so the series had to pivot, which apparently they’d been thinking about doing anyway. Which leads to this boxed set, entitled “Cass.” Yes, that Cass, from “The Night of the Doctor,” played by Emma Campbell-Jones. Except she and the Doctor had never met before that final episode, which is the mystery that runs behind the whole set. If that weren’t enough, Alex Campbell is back, played by Sonny McGann (who no longer goes by Jake). He was mentioned at the end of the previous story, but in this one, he’s clearly been traveling with the Doctor for a while, long enough to be very comfortable, even cocky. He doesn’t seem to be the same character as the one who died fighting the Daleks, or at least, he’s had a lot more fun in his life. Susan and Lucie aren’t mentioned, and there’s probably a reason. There’s also a story here, from Tim Foley. Cass is an engineer on an “errand-class” ship, not terribly exciting, but she still wants to explore. Problem is, the ship is manifesting gateways to other times and places. And other people on the ship start dying. The Doctor and Alex turn up, being particularly enigmatic, especially Alex, in part because of some timey-wimey on their end, so they have a much better idea of what’s going on. Also aboard is the wonderfully named Hieronyma Friend, who’s a “temporal diplomat” who knows an awful lot about the Doctor and the Time War that he’s avoiding. It’s all twisty enough that it needs a big exposition-dump at the end to straighten it all out, but that’s not too awkward. The main point of the story is reintroducing Alex and Cass, and setting up the bigger story arc.