Dead Time [AUDIO/2021.3.10]

★★★★☆

  Featuring possibly one of my favourite TARDIS dematerialisation sequences in any medium... ever? Seriously, that entire zipping-through-time sequence is amazing; kudos to everyone involved. As I said before, Ken Bentley seems to have been bitten by the creativity bug for this series and has more than made up by now for the lacklustre and monotonous direction he sported in Ravenous. 

  So anyways, looking through the general consensus towards Dead Time, it seems not a lot of people are particularly fond of this one (but then again, this could just be that my Internet circle isn't too fond of it). Me? I bloody love it. From the synopsis, it looks to be a rather boring piece with the TARDIS crew flung to an almost post-apocalyptic Earth in the far future with no living inhabitant about... but as always, the synopsis and the bare-bones "plot" don't sway my opinion all that much, at least not on their own. No, with the aforementioned direction from Bentley, and a Matt Fitton script that prioritises examining the interactions of the characters and how they actually tick, I'd call Dead Time an incredibly riveting character piece. A characters piece, if you will; I don't think any one character is left out here, especially not Robin. The robot from the far future recognising his identity is a clever whisper of great and terrible things to come, and it makes his character immediately more interesting. The first three episodes of Stranded laid the groundwork for who he is, Divine Intervention let us truly understand his character, and this one gives him a personal tragedy (of sorts) to reckon with that takes him out of the picture... for now. He's one of the beating hearts of Stranded, and Joel James Davison does a pretty darn good job playing him. I guess the actor blood runs in the family. Can't believe this kid is David Tennant's brother-in-law now.

  Long, almost leisurely moments for two or more characters to have a heart(s)-to-heart with one another, another opportunity for Tania to shine (love how Stranded as a whole deals with her trans identity), and proof that Andy joining the Eighth Doctor team is fanwankery that works like magic... yeah, I think Stranded 2 gets off on the right foot with Dead Time. The atmosphere is incredibly for this one -- so desolate, so captivating.