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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Friday, September 19, 2003

Written by

Gary Russell

Runtime

79 minutes

Time Travel

Alternate Reality

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

The Matrix

Synopsis

What if... the Valeyard had won?

The thing about meddling with time is that one moment something is real, the next, it's been erased. Probability becomes just a possibility. Established truth becomes a theoretical falsehood. Like dominoes, as one timeline falls, the others come cascading down around it. You can engineer new timelines, new possibilities but before long, the distinction between what is, what was, what might be and what never can be becomes blurred.

Out of this grow myths, lies and legends. The Doctor was one such legend, but no one knows whether he truly ever existed. Well, not now they don't. The Mighty One, ruling the multiverses from the eternal city of Chronopolis has made sure of that.

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1 review

This review contains spoilers!

I found this so moving and so fun.  What starts out as an intriguing alternate ending to the Trial of the Time Lord storyline, soon turns into an epic alt-universe adventure starring Mel as she confronts the Valeyard, whose attempts to meddle in the timeline ultimately lead to reality unravelling around him.  The Valeyard doesn't feel like the villain of this story, more like this being trapped in this horrible paradox he cannot escape from.  It's dark, surreal, and intimately interesting.  Compared to a lot of these other early Unbound stories, it and Deadline are a lot closer to what I expected.  I don't need slightly darker Doctor Who stories, but I definitely could use weird, reality-breaking, mind-bending, creative content like what I got out of He Jests at Scars.

The performers also enhance this one quite a bit.  The alternate Doctors and casting used in other Unbound stories is alright, but getting Bonnie Langford to basically carry the main plot forward was a huge asset to this audio.  She brings so much to the role and it really shows just how much the show originally squandered this companion's potential.  Maichael Jayston's return to the Valeyard role was also extremely memorable.  He's so good at the end playing this pitiable, broken figure.  He's a man tearing down everything around him just trying to survive and exist.  It's extremely compelling stuff, from my perspective.


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AVG. Rating64 members
3.40 / 5

GoodReads

AVG. Rating152 votes
3.74 / 5

The Time Scales

AVG. Rating95 votes
3.45 / 5

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