Review of Death Comes to Time by 15thDoctor
26 April 2024
This review contains spoilers
Alternative universe Doctor Who? An interesting concept, although in 2002 Dan Freeman may attempting to end the series with The Doctor's death, continuing with his own Ministry of Chance series, which did eventually come to fruition (and based on this I would like to check out).
The main thing you'll have to overcome with Death Comes to Time is the unconventionally cheap and limited "animation" which is not really animation in the true sense, though is oddly narratively relied on at some points so has to be considered as slightly more than just still artwork. It looks dreadful but any fan who has sat through all the telesnap reconstructions will probably still get a kick out of it. I'd liken the story to being more like a Big Finish full cast audio drama, but with dash of poorly realised visuals.
The story is massive, giving us both intimate moments between characters (Stephen Fry's Minister of Chance is a particular delight) and huge space battles. It expands and changes the role of the Time Lords in a pleasing way and feels a lot more modern in terms of story telling than the classic series. It changes the show in a positive, propulsive way.
If I was going to kill The Doctor though, ending on Sylvester rather than the incumbent Doctor seems like a rogue move... I'd also have given Sylvester more to do in his "final story". Seen as alt-universe Doctor Who though I probably feel less precious and more excited by the whole thing.
Watching all these wilderness years productions its hilarious how many variations of Ace's post-season 26 character arc there are. I much prefer this to the mercenary storyline we've previously been presented with!