Time Lord Immemorial

Once and Future #6

Released: 5 October 2023

Listened: 10/8/23

We swap from David Tennant to Christopher Eccleston, which still doesn’t make a ton of sense, but this is the only anniversary special he’s likely to participate in, so we’ll let that go. Eccleston has said he doesn’t want to participate in multi-Doctor stories, which is why there are no other de-generations in this story. However, apparently David Warner doesn’t count, as he’s playing an alternate-universe Doctor, and hey, he’s David Warner. Unfortunately, his Doctor doesn’t get a whole lot to do, and his voice sounds weaker than usual. It’s hard not to remember that this is the last thing Warner recorded before his death. Because we have to throw in more timey-wimey elements, the Lumiat is here, although nobody recognizes her, and she has a hard time proving her bona fides. (Because Gina McKee and Christopher Eccleston starred in Our Friends in the North together.) In fact, she seems to be borrowing Missy's "crazy ex-girlfriend" act, but without the malice. Also, there’s Liv Chenka, pulled from a time after she’s met Helen, but before Stranded. Of course, Liv is always delightfully cranky, so it doesn’t really matter when you’ve pulled her from; she’s the same. The story, well…I’m sure there is one, but it’s a little hard to tell. It’s mostly a runaround, taking place at one of those outside-time, cross-dimensional places, called the “Time Lord Immemorial,” which is somehow a location and a person, neither of which seem like memorials. There’s another one of those absurd Time Lord prophecies, but nobody really seems to need to do anything; it all just happens. This is one of the weaker installments of the story, sorry to everyone involved.