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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Written by

Nev Fountain

Runtime

60 minutes

Time Travel

Future

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Terminus Prime

Synopsis

On Terminus Prime, clients choose their own means of demise. Something exciting, meaningful, or heroic to end it all.

But when River discovers that there are repeat customers, she knows something more is going on.
She begins to uncover a cult with worrying abilities. Its members can apparently cheat death, and that’s not all they have in common with River...

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This review contains spoilers!

This story continues the arc of New Who's Series 6, which is already my least favourite series of the revived era, and unfortunately it's just as convoluted and boring as the show itself.

I find it amusing that the Doctor shows up in her life so often, she doesn't even care what incarnation they're in - but the way it's handled, it's just like she's only using him for transport, and I find it really weird that the Doctor invites a stranger on board the TARDIS twenty seconds after meeting her. Alex Kingston is brilliant in this story, even if the writing is a bit poor, her performance really allows you to empathise with her character, and really explores the effect of Demon's Run on her; she's never had a normal life and she strives to find her family at all costs. It's a really interesting dynamic that's possibly the strongest idea from this range that I've heard, and the way Kingston encapsulate the emotions of this is so powerful, but I felt like the pacing of this idea was too slow and it was all down to the writing.

I don't really understand how these other "brothers" and "sisters" exist. River had Time Lord capabilities because Amy had travelled in the vortex, but what about the others? Despite that plot hole, the idea of Time Lords experimenting with mortality is a good one, but again, the execution was very dull and I never felt like Leighton Pugh was ever really engaged in the role. I liked the concept of Lake killing his future incarnation, not knowing that she was his future, and the ending would've been heartbreaking if the rest of the story actually made us care about these other characters.

Terminus Prime in itself is a fantastic setting, and the idea of "the ideal euthanasia" is probably worth a story of its own, rather than being saddled with the plot thread of other Time Lords. It was heavily underused which is a great shame.

Again, none of the other Time Lords were particularly appealing to me, I liked the idea but they never fully delve into the concept of Time Lord mortality and they just skate around it, which is so disappointing.

The soundtrack is nice, I like the unique sound design for the Diary of River Song, it feels so different to the main show, which makes a refreshing change, but there's nothing standout about it.

Favourite Line: "I loved her, then I hated her, then I killed her! Now I want to make sure she gets a decent burial, and I never want to see her again and I'd do anything to get her back."

The ideas this story present are so brilliant, but the way they're handled is awful. It's so overcomplicated and confusing and there's a bunch of glaring plotholes which are never resolved. I'm hoping the rest of the boxset revisits this, but the story seems fairly self-contained so I don't know if it will. The cliffhanger was pretty good though. Who is Brooke??


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