2 episodes. Approx. 62 minutes. Written by: "David Lock." Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Anneke Wills, Frazer Hines.
THE PLOT
When the TARDIS encounters a barrier within the Time Vortex, the Doctor becomes determined to investigate. "People shouldn't build walls in the Time Vortex," he declares, while admitting that he hadn't previously thought it possible to do so. He, Ben, Polly, and Jamie step out of the TARDIS into 1970's London...
...And they find themselves in a shadow world. The physical landscape of London is intact, but it all has a sort of a gray, dead feeling. The Doctor announces that they have travelled sideways in time. The four head back to the TARDIS. But they are too late. The Vist - a species of alien Time Walkers - block their retreat. Separated from Jamie and Ben, the Doctor and Polly flee the Vist across this surreal, crumbling landscape!
CHARACTERS
The Doctor: The defining moment of the 2nd Doctor's run is almost certainly his declaration that evil does exist and must be fought. That said, there's an arresting visual moment at the end of this audio story, one that also sums him up well. He is facing the Vist, trying to summon up some fragments of authority. The monster laughs at the 2nd Doctor's disgust at its immorality, at his pretensions of authority. The Doctor talks at a rapid clip, and seems to talk himself into an even worse position than he was in already. Until we see that he has actually woven a web with his words, trapping the Vist by leading all of the aliens to do the one thing that can lead to their defeat. The small, foolish, disheveled little man, who is also the smartest and strongest presence in the room. If that's not the Troughton Doctor, what is?
Polly: Is clearly distraught when it appears Ben has been killed by the Vist, and she even refers to Ben as "my Ben" a few times during the story. With her highly empathic nature, it's not surprising that she's the first to notice the wrongness of this gray London, devoid of life. Despite this being a Companion Chronicle narrated by Polly, though, this story doesn't really do that much with her. She largely exists within the Doctor's shadow in this story, simply observing as he drives the action.
Jamie: Listening to this not long after watching/listening to several stories from Season Four, it is clear how much Frazer Hines' voice has changed in the intervening decades. That said, he has little difficulty in summoning up Jamie's basic character - no surprise, given how many times he's played the role for Big Finish over the past few years. Jamie is genuinely frightened of the Vist, but he still confides in a message to his friends that for all the dangers they've faced, he "wouldn't have missed (their adventures) for the world."
Ben: A secret car enthusiast. Ben confesses that every time the TARDIS has brought them back to London, in any time period, he checks out car magazines, and he can fairly accurately judge Earth time periods by this point by what cars are on the road (he and my father would certainly get on, though they'd probably drive any non-car enthusiast in earshot crazy). When the Vist block the TARDIS and move in on the Doctor and Polly, Ben doesn't hesitate to leap into the fray, putting himself at risk to distract the aliens' attention.
THOUGHTS
Written by the pseudonymous David Lock (identified by Wikipedia as Andy Lane), The Forbidden Time is a perfectly fine story. It's atmospheric, with Big Finish's sound designers doing their usual sterling job of creating an audioscape. It's highly visual, with the image of a parallel Earth, devoid of people and gray with decay, as its backdrop. It evokes the sense of the characters runnng through a Salvador Dali painting - with Dali even getting a namecheck by the script at one point!
For a story set during the black & white era of the television program, it's almost surprising how much use David Lock's script makes of color. The grayness of this world tips Polly off instantly that it's "wrong," and when the real world reasserts itself it's noted that the characters are moving "between black and white and color." The Vist's fortress is also detailed in a way that makes use of vivid colors. All of this brings the story to life. But while I normally visualize 1960's-set audios in black & white, this time the story was definitely in color.
This isn't the first Companion Chronicle to be read by two companions, but it may be the most ingenious use of the "second Companion." Jamie isn't simply a random second voice, dropped in whenever he has a line, nor is he an equal to Polly in telling the story. Instead, he is a supporting narrator, telling us Jamie's side of the story. This has the effect of letting us "cut away" from the Doctor and Polly to Jamie's scenes, in such a way that it doesn't compromise Polly as the principle narrator. It's clever.
Unfortunately, The Forbidden Time never quite gets beyond simply being clever. For the first episode, and the first bit of the second, I had hopes that this would be one of the range's most memorable outings. But once you get past the setting, the clever narrative devices, and the atmosphere, there just isn't much to the actual story. The Vist are a potentially strong adversary, and Anneke Wills does an effective job (with a boost from the sound designers) of making their voices genuinely eerie, if occasionally difficult to understand. But their agenda, when we discover it, is so... small, and frankly downright uninteresting. And the ending sees them far too easily defeated by the Doctor's fairly transparent ruse.
Ultimately, I enjoyed The Forbidden Time. The narrative devices are genuinely creative. The characters feel right. The production's general atmosphere and the typically strong reading by Anneke Wills make it an easy story to visualize. It just feels like this story should have been more than it is. I enjoyed the ride; I just wish I didn't feel vaguely dissatisfied at the end.
Rating: 5/10.
Previous Television Story: The Macra Terror
Next Television Story: The Faceless Ones
Preceded by: Resistance
Followed by: The Selachian Gambit
2nd Doctor Audio Review Index
2nd Doctor Television Review Index
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