Time Lord Immemorial [AUDIO/2023.10.5]

★★☆☆☆

  I know there's no accounting for taste for these actors sometimes, but I actually couldn't listen to the behind-the-scenes snippet for Time Lord Immemorial without feeling a tiny bit incredulous. I sat there like, have I been listening to the wrong audio drama or what? Where's the fantastic script you lot are talking about? I suppose that's why they're actors -- they have to display some amazing acting talent during these PR moves pretending that they love their work. 

  Listen, I know I can be harsh, and I know that for some people out there, this installment of Once and Future is genuinely enjoyable... amazing, even. Maybe there really is something worthwhile about this obviously rushed piece, but whatever that is, it eludes me. I suspect it will constantly elude me. I don't find it fun to listen to an audio drama that's so reliant on the overarching thread that it falls over whenever it tries to do something on its own -- hence the "so reliant". It's as if Lisa McMullin was given a prompt and a day to turn that prompt into a functioning script; she's usually much more talented than this. The Time Lord Immemorial stuff sounds fun, but it's a crying shame we don't get any more about this ancient legend of the Time Lords' and about the obviously trippy worldspace our four main characters are in. It's a crying shame that every wonderful actor here is given the bare minimum to do, absolute bare bones to work on. The script feels like McMullin was rushed to advance the "plot" and had to give every character stiff, operatical lines to make up for the hour duration. Were you looking for some meaningful interactions between the Ninth Doctor and Liv? Don't come here for it, check out the immensely more enjoyable Flatpack. Do you want a heroic performance from the late great David Warner as the Unbound Doctor? Check out literally anything else that has him in it. Perhaps some Lumiat to brighten your day? She has a few good moments here and there, so I suppose you could be listening to worse. Still, it's an audio drama so devoid of anything I find truly enjoyable that I was bored to bits by the time the third act came around. If I was the sort of person to be obsessed about "plot advancements", I would've been even more scathing towards it because it lacks any.

  Contributions to the overall Once and Future arc? Don't make me laugh. I'm getting rather sick of this 60th anniversary series and its lack of imagination. The Union better be something special, because this series has been playing things safe for far too long for it to be memorable. Things to enjoy in Time Lord Immemorial -- not many, I'm afraid! This is such a nothing of an audio drama, so lifeless and so obviously a cog in a machine.