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TARDIS Guide

Review of Doing Time by thedefinitearticle63

8 July 2024

This review contains spoilers!

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: The Entropy Composition


Great story with a simple concept that it executes flawlessly. The Doctor's usage of the most common alias in the universe finally comes back to bite him when it turns out that "Dr. John Smith" is a notorious criminal on the colony that he's arrived in. There is no real John Smith, it's the name attributed to crimes by an unknown perpetrator on this planet.

The Doctor in prison is quite fun, In just a short while the Doctor manages to rehabilitate the entire prison, much like Paddington in Paddington 2. There's also an interesting paradox at play here. The Doctor arrives at the prison to warn them of an explosion that's due to happen, by telling the prison warden about the details of this explosion the Doctor himself inspires the prison warden to cause it.

The time-field is a cool concept though the Doctor felt a bit too casual about spending a year of his life to run a few metres. Overall this is a very tightly written 30-minute story that plays with some interesting ideas performed by a solid cast, I really can't find anything to complain about.


Next Story: Special Features