Review of The Thief Who Stole Time by thedefinitearticle63
14 June 2024
This review contains spoilers
This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.
Previous Story: The Skin of the Sleek
This story has so much going on that I don't know where to start. This is a solid story all-round, from the plot, the setting, the characters and the performances.
The planet of Funderell is a strange one, a gelatinous planet the whole way down, embroiled with ancient Time Lord antics. The way the mystery slowly unravels is one of my favourite parts about this two-parter.
The villain, Sartia, is brilliantly acted by Joannah Tincey. She's an insane, manipulative character and you can really tell that there is a history between her and Romana.
Speaking of Romana, this is a story that focuses heavily on her, her attitude towards travelling with the Doctor, her history in the Academy. It's all very interesting insight into a companion who has loads of potential for exploration.
The plot itself, while at times hard to follow, is well-crafted and doesn't lose your attention at all. The stakes are high especially towards the end and I like that the Doctor takes a bit of a backseat to let Romana shine.
Overall, its a thrilling conclusion to Series 6 that captures the surreality and uniqueness of it's respective era.
Next Story: Meglos
4DA Series 6 Review: 8/10
Every single story in this series was great. I loved the unique feel in each story and even the worst bits were entertaining. What I think this series excels in is the atmosphere of every story, you can easily imagine the setting and characters leaving the individual parts of this series quite memorable.
I think it could do with being a bit more experimental, most of these stories are fairly basic in terms of plot. I also feel like it could have done with more K9, he didn't appear in enough stories in my opinion.
It's a great series with rich worldbuilding, the plots are mostly easy to follow so it's a very good one to pick up for a bit of simple fun.