The Hollows of Time [AUDIO/2010.2.18]

★★★☆☆

  What was Chris Bidmead on, I wonder? This is as far removed as Frontios as is possible; one's a hard sci-fi military thriller, and the other's an impenetrable fever dream that feels like it was concocted rather than written. Large portions of The Hollows of Time simply defy explanations simply because of how drastically it shifts from utter boredom to mind-bending innovation. I really must praise the bravery of Big Finish for actually making this labyrinthine (Colin Baker's word, not mine) script a reality; for what it's worth, they've done a very fine job indeed in making this the best version it ever could. I really wish something like this was adapted as a comic, though. Imagine the speeding car/TARDIS merging sequence properly penciled and inked!

  Needless to say, it's very hard to define The Hollows of Time; it's Bidmead marrying his hard sci-fi inclinations with something a lot more visually and conceptually ambiguous, and therefore more ambitious. I've seen many reviews tank this, pointing out how hard it is to follow the plot, and I agree to an extent. It's not that I miraculously get every single little detail of the narrative and nobody else does... it's that I admire, and enjoy, the palpable atmosphere of the story. A sleepy village full of unsettling people, hiding dark secrets and horrific experiments -- stuff like this is right up my alley, and if this means I have to take it with intercut exposition segments under the guise of the Doctor and Peri (who are having memory troubles) recounting parts of their adventure after the fact, I'll grin and bear it. For its sheer ambition and the level of success it achieves in execution, I really can't come to dislike this audio drama at all.