An unusual time and place, 9th Century Sudan, is where our next adventure takes us. The 5th Doctor and ‘human tracer’ Amy are on the trail of the missing segments of the Key to Time in this, the second instalment of Big Finish’s Key2Time trilogy. At the beginning of the story, they meet the Black Guardian who cannot locate the fifth segment and whose powers are waning. The Doctor suggests that rather than the systematic searching of the universe, they attempt something random and the Guardian flings the Doctor and Amy through time and space whereupon they end up separated but both in 9th century Sudan.

The Black Guardian is also there in the guise of Kassim Ali Baba and it soon transpires that the White Guardian is also present, posing as the Legate of the Caliph (the messenger of this part of the world’s current leader). The Black Guardian is withholding gold from the Legate (whom he does not know is the White Guardian) so it can be used as a power source for his spacecraft, hidden in the nearby desert.

Eventually the Doctor and Amy are reunited and manage to both locate the segment and escape in the TARDIS, leaving the Guardians trapped on Earth and limited to five dimensions.

And that is about the sum total of the plot. There is a lot of toing and froing from the desert to the palace but very little actually happens. The Doctor and Amy arrive; the Doctor meets various locals; Amy becomes a slave; the Black Guardian tries to destroy the White Guardian; they then bitch at each other; the Doctor and Amy locate the segment and whizz off in the TARDIS.

In a way the story betrays it’s ‘middle of a trilogy’ characteristics. It picks up directly from the end of The Judgement of Isskar, which hopped from time to place hardly landing in one place long enough to lick a stamp and also featured Zara, Amy’s ‘evil’ twin sister/tracer. It then leads into The Chaos Pool with some silly slug-like aliens, Lalla Ward and even more bitchy banter between the Guardians. But both those stories have more plot than is on display here.

This story is far more concerned with setting up the Guardians in their new roles as camp, bitchy ‘no-longer-all-powerful’ beings. It is a character shift from the TV series’ portrayal that put a lot of fans’ noses out of joint and I can see why. My problem with that negative view however, is that David Troughton and Jason Watkins are so funny in the roles, I don’t really care. I quite like the idea of taking these two omnipotent beings and cutting them down to size as I’ve always disliked omnipotent beings in stories anyway – they tend to be terribly boring or have to be given human vices to display their weaknesses so a human hero can defeat them. Here we have a logical extrapolation from the concept of the Key to Time decaying with them being trapped in five dimensions – essentially becoming human. Bearing in mind the campness of their television portrayals – all wicker chairs, cocktails, dead birds on their heads and shouty villainy – it fits that, in a time of crisis, they would bicker and banter and threaten to slap each other when all other avenues are lost to them.

An overriding theme of this story is slavery. I’ve mentioned before the references to slavery in other adventure usually amounting to ‘slavery is bad’. Here we have a more detailed look at a culture where slavery is ingrained. Nisrin is a slave who knows her place, but has learnt how her position can work to her advantage – moving around places as if she were invisible; remaining unquestioned by guards due to the assumption she must be doing the bidding of her master. Her relationship with Amy sheds a different light on her position. Amy – a being designed to mould themselves to whoever they are with – immediately accepts subservience and marvels at how easy Nisrin’s life seems to be, with all her decisions made for her. It’s a shame, though, that this examination of slavery undoes a lot of the character work built up for Amy in The Judgement of Isskar, as she becomes slightly generic and uninteresting – playing the obedient, and slightly naïve, slave role.

What’s very interesting, though, is the fact that Nisrin is Scandinavian in origin, and indeed a lot of slaves in this part of the world at this time were drawn from all around the world. The idea of ‘white’ slaves is an interesting one which would work even better in a visual medium. Nisrin’s origins also allow the Doctor to impart a little bit of knowledge about how the Scandinavian’s often described Africans and Middle Easterns as ‘blue’ which was their word for ‘black’. (He is of course partly wrong when a ‘real’ blue man appears in the form of the Djinni.)

Historically, although the ins and outs of the plot are complete fiction, the places and positions are based in fact. The Legate of the Caliph, the ‘tax collecting’, the nomads in the desert, sandstorms etc all lend an air of authenticity to the story. There is an amusing scene in episode one where the Black Guardian is choosing entertainment for a feast which includes jugglers, acrobats and ‘professional farters’!

The dialogue in particular is rich with Arabic terms including the eponymous Destroyer of Delights – a euphemism for death – one of many phrases used throughout the tale for this; as well as the Doctor and Amy both being called haraffers (sp?) an insult meaning ‘a teller of tall tales’.
The extras for this mention that consideration was given to the actors adopting Middle Eastern accents. In the end, however, they opted for precise English, with the rhythms and patterns familiar to ‘ancient civilisation speak’: a lot of flowery language coupled with a lack of contractions or slang.

Aside from the historical aspects there is also a strong sense of the Arabian Nights tales – particularly with the presence of the Djinni (or genie) and with the ‘cave’ (the Black Guardian’s ship part buried in the desert) and its voice activated entrance – ‘Open sim, sim’ recalling Open Sesame.

Ultimately, whilst enjoyable, this story feels too much like the middle part of a trilogy. Listened to out of context, as I have done here, it feels a little inconsequential. It is entertaining, and the Guardians do make me laugh, but the best thing about this is probably the unusual setting and the chance to play around with some tropes of the Arabian Nights.

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

Previous Story: The Judgement of Isskar

This story is a bit better than the last, mostly because it's a historical, but still not very good. I think this is mostly down to the new "companion" who honestly couldn't be more boring. The setting could be interesting but thanks to bland sound design doesn't really manage it. This story in general is quite muddled, a lot of things are happening and it feels all over the place.

The only thing I liked, and the only reason this gets a decent score was the Black and White Guardians. They're both performed excellently, and have a great dynamic with both each other and the Doctor. They're just fun to listen to, especially in such a unique situation for them that it almost makes this story worthwhile until you see the near 2 hour runtime.

Next Story: The Chaos Pool