All of Time and Space

The Eleventh Doctor Chronicles #4.1 - "All of Time and Space" by Ellery Quest (Tim Foley)

Geronimo! was simply incredible; a perfect emulation of an iconic era that was blended wonderfully with the experimental complexities of Big Finish, and only the first fifth of a series to boot. Needless to say, I picked up the next boxset - All of Time and Space - almost immediately, but it took me a while to actually listen to it. However, when I decided to simply complete the range, buying to the two other boxsets and Broken Hearts, I went ahead and binged the whole of Series 7V. And upon coming back to the range, I was greeted with a fun run around that compares surprisingly well to a story by my favourite writer of all time.

Ellery Quest has just had an incredible idea for a stage play: The Doctor, an alien with two hearts and endless life, travels around the universe fighting evil and righting wrongs, with his human companion, Valerie, all inside the little blue box that can transcend time and space. But when he begins to hear the voices of his characters in his head, he discovers just how dangerous "Doctor Who" really is.

(CONTAINS SPOILERS)

The story I was referring to in the opening was Deadline, by Robert Shearman, which was an incredibly meta text following a fictional creator of Doctor Who, years after the show failed to get picked up. Now, All of Time and Space doesn't come close to Deadline's brilliance, and it admittedly takes a rather different approach, but you can certainly see some overlap, so if you like Deadline you'd probably have fun with this. The story mostly follows Ellery Quest, an awkward and struggling writer, as he runs from the clones of a theatre manager he failed to pitch a script to, all of his pursuers played absolutely flawlessly by Richard Hope. Ellery's really fun as a character and his interactions with the Doctor and Valarie, who appear in different mediums of story throughout the audio (a comic strip, a radio broadcast, Punch and Judy dolls, etc.), are a joy to experience. The twist, that Ellery's a fictional character run amok, is a pretty great subversion, as I thought I could tell where the story would go up until this point and it creates some nice visual (well, visual in a sense) peculiarities as the fictional world crumbles.

However, the story certainly felt rushed in places, especially the ending, which sort of just saw the story cut off when it needed to, going a hundred miles an hour one second and then slowing down to a stop the next. Atop of that, Foley's dialogue throughout the story can be really clunky at times and feel way too on the nose, to the point of being cringe-worthy. Though the reveal of Ellery's true nature is a pretty good twist in the moment, the execution following it leaves a lot to be desired as I still wasn't entirely sure on the finer details of the concept or how a lot of what was going on in the story was happening, the mechanics of this "writing machine" that caused the weird, fictional world to exist felt underdeveloped and simply confusing; I actually think it would've been pretty cool if the story tied into the Land of Fiction or something, as that just seems a given idea. Also, I think Leroy Bonsu's performance as Ellery was a little shaky, and there were moments where it simply wasn't as strong as his costars.

All of Time and Space, though confusingly named the same as its boxset, is a fun and experimental start to what I hope to be another fantastic outing for Valerie and the Doctor, with a great and energetic pace to it paired with a pretty nice comment on writing and the nature of stories. Definitely not a highlight story but still a fun, harmless little meta experiment.

7/10

Pros:
+ Great, meta and experimental concept that works really well on audio
+ Has fun with itself, being fast and hilarious in the same half-breath
+ Ellery is a really relatable and enjoyable character to follow
+ Richard Hope nails his performance as the Mr. Darlings, an endlessly creepy antagonist
+ The final twist is pretty nicely conceived
+ That last scene with the Doctor and Valerie was wonderful and a great continuation of the pair's relationship

Cons:
- Felt rushed in certain places; the story never stops moving and rarely gives itself time to breath
- The ending was way to fast and came to a weirdly abrupt stop
- The dialogue often felt clunky and unrealistic
- The twist, though nice in concept, doesn't follow through on execution
- Leroy Bonsu's performance didn't match the output of his costars

Series 7V | Ranked:
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4. The House of Masks by Georgia Cook - 6/10
3. All of Time and Space by Ellery Quest (Tim Foley) - 7/10
2. The Inheritance by Alfie Shaw - 8/10
1. The End by Rochana Patel - 10/10

Overall - 7.8/10

All of Time and Space: 9.5/10 - This story was a mix of so many ideas and concepts but they all came together in a beautiful culmination with some great themes and moments. First off, the idea of the story is one that can either be done really good, or really bad. Luckily, the way this story is presented is very clear and the premise flows nicely. The metaness of this story is another thing that I really love. The opening itself is great with some great writing in the dialogue between Ellery and Darling. The Doctor and Valerie are amazing in this story straight from the beginning with Valerie being the standout by far. Ellery is a great protagonist and when he learns the truth about his world, you can truly feel his pain as he comes to realize his existence is purely fictional. The relationship built between Ellery and Valerie is great and Safiyya Ingar is able to use her acting talents to amazing effect. The scene between the two that showcased the true poignancy of the story was definitely their last scene before Ellery comes out of the Negative Perception. It is fantastically written. 

An imaginative and well told first story in the second Eleven & Valarie box set. The plot is a different take on a Doctor Who story. While other stories like this have been told, they usually end up a garbled mess, that ends up not making much sense. This one does. The world and ultimate explanation is satisfying, with an emotionally satisfying ending. The cast does an excellent job, with the usual chemistry between Jacob Dudman and Safiyya Ingar, and great performances from the guest cast. The audio design work is exceptional as always. I can see a recurring theme in my reviews being that I wish this overall series was in live action. This story is one I definitely want to see.

It wants to be Heaven Sent, soo bad.
So All of Time and Space is an allegory for the show… and that's about it, it doesn't even keep that a secret for more than 5 seconds starting with a man narrating a story featuring The Eleventh Doctor and Valarie, but who is the man narrating the story? It's Waris Hussein, it's just Waris Hussein, he's Indian, he's gay and he dreams of Doctor Who, it's just Waris Hussein, no metaphor, no allegory, just literally one of the creators of the show with a different name.
Now, I don't feel like I am that grumpy of a person, but when a story is this on-the-nose about what it's about but pretends like it's really opaque, it just erks me, and the more I have thought about this story the worse it has gotten for me.
If you get something out of this, great, have fun, let me sit over here being Miss Grumpy-Face.
3/10