The Trial of a Time Machine

The Seventh Doctor: The New Adventures #1.1

Released: 15 November 2018

Listened: 8/19/22

After casting Roz and Chris in the novel adaptations, Big Finish decided in 2018 to create some new stories set in the novel continuity. I suspect this boxed set may not have sold all that well, because there haven’t been any more. Anyway, Andy Lane has presented an awfully high concept here. The TARDIS lands on an advanced planet, colliding with another time machine as it does so and destroying it. This particular world has a rather advanced system of justice as well as semi-sentient time machines of their own, so the TARDIS herself is charged with the crime. Chris and Roz, as space police, get sent off to examine the crime scene, while the Doctor attempts to get to the bottom of a system of justice where all verdicts are decided by an omnipresent computer that can see into the future and determine whether the crime harmed or benefited society. The plot itself doesn’t really go much beyond unraveling the concept, and although there are other characters (one played by Mina Anwar), they don’t make much of an impression. Still, as high concepts go, this one is impressive.