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TARDIS Guide

Overview

Released

Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Written by

Justin Richards

Cover Art by

Clayton Hickman

Directed by

Nicholas Briggs

Runtime

121 minutes

Time Travel

Past, Future, Alternate Reality

Story Arc (Potential Spoilers!)

Dalek Empire, Web of Time

Location (Potential Spoilers!)

Earth, England, London

Synopsis

The Doctor has always admired the work of William Shakespeare. So he is a little surprised that Charley doesn't hold the galaxy's greatest playwright in the same esteem. In fact, she's never heard of him.

Which the Doctor thinks is quite improbable.

General Mariah Learman, ruling Britain after the Eurowars, is one of Shakespeare's greatest admirers, and is convinced her time machine will enable her to see the plays' original performances.

Which the Doctor believes is extremely unlikely.

The Daleks just want to help. They want Learman to get her time machine working. They want Charley to appreciate the first-ever performance of Julius Caesar. They believe that Shakespeare is the greatest playwright ever to have existed and venerate his memory.

Which the Doctor knows is utterly impossible.

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12 reviews

Its such a shame that Time of the Daleks features an incredibly interesting idea for exploration but completely wastes it. There's a fantastic commentary on the power and subjectivity of art with the notion of Shakespeare, forgotten by most the world, having his works decontextualised and their powerful language utilised as political rhetoric and propaganda by a totalitarian leader. Unfortunately, the story as a whole is unengaging and it wastes its potential on Dalek shenanigans. The Daleks feel completely unthreatening, despite the fun novelty of them quoting Shakespeare. This would have been so much better if it either ejected the Daleks, or made their role simpler, so as to focus much more on the themes of art and language and their abuse by those in power.

Unfortunately, despite game performances, I also failed to feel invested in any of the supporting characters or their motivations, and their decisions didn't always make sense.

Whilst by no means terrible this is still an unengaging story made worse by having so much potential. As it is it's difficult to tease out much that I enjoyed. I'll also add that whilst I'm aware that this is part of a wider Dalek arc, I don't feel knowledge of the other stories would have improved my feelings towards this one.


Leromica

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A slog to get through, which is a shame because there are some really intriguing and interesting ideas and concepts which draw you in in the first part, but becomes boring while being overstuffed towards the end.


joeymapes21

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This review contains spoilers!

god this is stupid. loving how learman thinks The Commoners arent good enough for shakespeare, and yet she isnt an anti-stratfordian. just not well thought through


megaminxwin

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This review contains spoilers!

The Time of the Daleks is one of the most boring Doctor Who stories I have ever experienced. It has some interesting ideas, Daleks quoting Shakespeare is an experience and this is Paul McGanns first audio adventure with them, but the story is unfortunately extreme uninteresting and not very good. Richards is normally a good writer but this is one of his few misses.


 


Shayleen

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Boy, this one is dull. A very, very messy plot, weird characters... Just not good, sadly. We get a little explanation for why there were Dalek noises in 'Seasons of Fear', and we get some more information on the Web of Time problem at the end of story, but this story is not essential.


mndy

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Quotes

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DOCTOR: Lay on, Macdalek!

— Eighth Doctor, The Time of the Daleks