Doctor Who: Out Of Time Review by The Wandering Fox

Hello everyone, the Wandering Fox has returned. I would like to do a review of one Doctor Who story I think will certainly intrigue you, this story being Doctor Who: Out of Time.

Once you think of Doctor Who you think of several things like the Daleks, the TARDIS. Yet for what Doctor do you often think of? For the majority of fans its the Fourth Doctor and the Tenth Doctor you think of, with both Doctors the faces of their respective eras of the show, the Fourth is the most known Classic Doctor, the Tenth is the most known Modern Doctor, thanks to the iconic looks of Four’s scarf, curly hair, or Ten’s suits and long coat, yet what’s loved from them is the performances of Tom Baker and David Tennant, both actors displaying a various range of acting in their roles of the Doctor which have left quite the impact on us and sci-fi culture.

Despite this though the Fourth Doctor didn’t have multi-Doctor stories in his long travels through time and space. Not until Tom joined Big Finish, with the 50th anniversary story The Light at the End seeing his Doctor meet the Eighth Doctor.

Big Finish did quite the lifting for Doctor Who in the Wilderness Years, from giving us multi-Doctor stories, the Sixth Doctor having his story fleshed out and his character worked on with love, the Eighth Doctor’s life told through these audios. Today Big Finish is much more recognised, thanks in part to the redesign of the Eighth Doctor, the inclusion of David Tennant in the audios, and Christopher Eccleston reprising his role as the Doctor.

Yet with Tom Baker and David Tennant working for Big Finish, the idea of their Doctors meeting had to have come to the creative brains of Big Finish once Tennant joined. 

Then finally in 2020, they gave us a story which had these Doctors come to meet each other in what I feel is such a clever story for how it sounds so simple, yet gives us quite the deep dive into the characters of the Doctors, how they differ, how they fight the Daleks, how its resolved.

Hence here we go, I thought I’d review Out of Time.

Story

The story sounds simple. The Fourth and Tenth Doctors meet then team up to fight the Daleks. Yet once you end up hearing the story you realise this is way more than what you think.

The setting of the story is interesting for its set inside this Cathedral which is outside of time and space, hence fitting for the name of the story, the Cathedral working like a constantly shifting mechanical tower to open different doorways through time and space, the Cathedral fitting for the Daleks to come after for their own goals.

Matt Fitton chose to write the story with each Doctor at a different moment in their lives which makes for character dynamics Tom and David bring so well to the story.

For example, the Fourth Doctor is just chilling in the Cathedral, having fun with his paintings, happily befriending Jora (Kathryn Drysdale). The Tenth Doctor comes to the Cathedral because he’s deeply troubled, for this is him after The Waters of Mars, dreading his final fight to come.

This itself is just interesting in how the Doctors here are so different straight off, while representing the eras of Doctor Who so well, the Fourth Doctor representing the more everyday adventures the Doctor had in the classic series with no overarching storylines, including not haunted by events of the past years of his life, the Tenth Doctor representing the more weary post Time War post companion era of the Doctor, his journeys in the TARDIS leading to heartbreak with Rose and Donna’s departures and Martha deciding her life for herself following her family’s traumatic suffering at the Master’s hands, this loneliness and no one to hold him back leaving him in this dark, weary state of mind, showcasing well that though Tom is older than David, he acts younger than him here thanks to the Fourth is younger than the Tenth.

The story does give us info through dialogue of where we are in the timeline of the Doctors which makes sense for us, though the Daleks’ timeline is one in which Classic fans would be more familiar with, in which they are in the Second Dalek War from the Jon Pertwee era, though its harder for us to follow, hence just take it as the Daleks doing their universal conquest.

The story’s only weak moment comes with this twist which had no buildup or payoff, just done to have the Fourth Doctor trapped by the Daleks. I’ll talk this over in the character section. It doesn’t hurt the story overall yet its such a badly done twist.

The story feels like its from the RTD era, thanks to the 2008 theme brought in as the opening, the soundtrack often feels like its trying to sound like Murray Gold’s Music which helps you further imagine the story onscreen.

Once you come to the end of the story you do feel like you’ve experienced something special, you have this quiet ending with the two Doctors talking of their travels through the universe, this feeling of sombreness once you know the Tenth Doctor is meeting his end soon, yet the final scene with the Doctors is easy to just imagine in your head with their goodbyes.

Characters

The cast is a small one here, with David Tennant and Tom Baker playing the Doctors, Kathryn Drysdale as Jora, Nicholas Briggs as the Daleks, yet Claire Rushbrook and Nicholas Ashbury have the job of voicing two different characters the Abbess, Marna, Kivall, and Captain Zenna.

David and Tom easily slip into the roles of the Doctor, interestingly so with the points they are in their lives, with the Fourth Doctor having his own journeys with The Deadly Assassin behind him, just having some enjoyment in his travels, the Tenth Doctor is travelling alone with his mind troubled by what he had done in The Waters of Mars though still trying to find light in his life.

The Tenth Doctor’s desire for simpler times are well done in his coy comments on the Fourth Doctor, fondly remembering how he could walk into a room with his scarf and coat on, though there’s this feeling of a grownup talking to his younger self once we come to this scene, the Fourth Doctor offers to go to the Cathedral’s control room to confront the Daleks, noting he can give the Tenth Doctor inside information, yet the Tenth Doctor is weary of this. Hence, we get this:

“You are here which means I am long gone. I’m okay with it though, because no matter what happens to me, I’ll keep on being me. Just not this me”.

This is quite the insight into the Doctor’s youth, for though he’s regenerated quite a bit by this point, he’s accepting regeneration is a part of him, feeling so long as he’s still the Doctor he is okay with his face transforming, while the Tenth Doctor’s fear of his own regeneration is making him less cooperative yet his fear of the Fourth Doctor screwing up the timeline comes from a place of concern thanks to his years of experience.

The Tenth Doctor’s actions near the end of their story does give the Fourth Doctor some understanding of just how much he’s going to go through in his older years, hence the most he can do is give the Tenth Doctor some comfort, making this an interesting double on the fact though the Fourth Doctor is younger, it's the elderly Tom Baker giving some much needed advice to the younger David Tennant. If we see ourselves in the future going through some difficulty, we have to try to do the wise thing and help them.

For characters like Jora, she serves as this interesting parallel to the Tenth Doctor, her trying to escape the Second Dalek War to live a quieter life similar to the Tenth Doctor trying to dodge his regeneration. Unlike the Tenth Doctor who didn’t have the chance to contemplate or find helpful words from those in the Cathedral, Jora found this with the Fourth Doctor, him serving as a mentor figure for her, helping her settle into finer things like painting or learning of the great history. Unlike the Tenth Doctor Jora has her happy ending despite the trauma of the things she’s learnt through this story.

Captain Zenna is Jora’s father, having found the Cathedral to look for his daughter, trying to have her join him once more in the fighting. He is scolded by both Doctors, who support Jora’s choice to live the quieter life, yet Zenna is too hard nosed to listen to them. Though Zenna does end up becoming the weakest character in the story once the twist with him comes. Here’s the spoiler:

Turns out Zenna is a duplicate the Daleks made. They killed the real Captain Zenna, sending the duplicate to find the Cathedral. The twist comes out of nowhere, there’s no buildup to it, the duplicate is killed once its exposed. Jora does have her grief yet the girl then stands up on her feet then just continues on.

The Abbess and Kival don’t have much going for them though the Abbess is interesting in how she herself is connected to the Cathedral, just gutting we don’t get more of it. Kival is cowardly yet he does do good in giving the Tenth Doctor his sonic screwdriver.

The Daleks are their selves, yet the Supreme Dalek has quite the character to him, for his ego is what sets him from the other Daleks to the point he is quite the brutal git towards them, even killing a dying Dalek while shouting “I WILL STOP THE PAIN!”. He doesn’t take insults well either once the Doctors insult him, with him torturing them out of frustration for their insults. The Supreme Dalek does leave you with this idea of how to help tell the differences between the Daleks.

Overall

Doctor Who Out of Time is so simple yet so thrilling, well brought to life with it the first Big Finish audio to be recorded under lockdown rules, Tom Baker and David Tennant are quite the delight to hear together, the Daleks have this feeling of dread to them you want from the Daleks. Quite the classic you can listen to again and again I recommend grabbing Out of Time.

I’m the Wandering Fox and I hope you liked this.