How to Make a Killing in Time Travel [AUDIO/2018.4.10]

★★★★☆

  Picture this: a murder mystery, except the audience is told who the killer is at the very beginning and the focus becomes watching the Doctor and Liv try to discover the truth among layers upon layers of lies. A story involving time travel, except the only way time travel is ever even used is for the killer to hide the body. A comedy, except half of the runtime is dedicated to pure setup. If you think all this is a bit much, or beneath you, you're free to leave. If all this intrigues you, though... welcome aboard.

  How to Make a Killing in Time Travel is considered by many to be the standout installment of Ravenous 1, and I agree with popular opinion this time around. It's a hilarious piece of comedy mystery, with John Dorney pulling all the murder mystery tropes on their heads and using them to create the funniest scenarios. The killer's motive was that her boss was being an overbearing prick and deserved to die! The conspirators vying for control of the time travel portal machine are shaped up to be the big bads of the audio drama, only to get wiped out by the killer's planted bomb! The scorpion prince who hired the two spies is an idiot who blows his own cover at the slightest bit of pressure! I have to admire just how layered the script is, and how much fun Dorney seems to be having by giving listeners all the secrets from the very beginning and putting the focus on how the characters (even the Doctor and co.) fumble the truth so bad that by the end, the space station they're in is spiraling out of control with a large chunk of it blown to bits. Just sometimes, the Doctor not being such a smartass that he can deduce everything from the word go is a good thing; How to Make a Killing in Time Travel really surprised me when I first listened to it, and this revisit has solidified it for me as something of a minor masterpiece. Judith Roddy's performance as Stralla Cushing is a top 10 performance for the post-Dark Eyes Eighth Doctor range.