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STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE
BIG FINISH AUDIO AND THE PIRATES" AND THE FIRST TWO PARTS OF "PROJECT LAZARUS."
WRITTEN BY GARY RUSSELL
DIRECTED BY GARY RUSSELL
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE BIG FINISH SPECIAL #I (ISBN 1-903654-78-5) RELEASED IN DECEMBER 2002.
BLURB ON A PLANET KNOWN ONLY AS CHRONOS, TWO SCIENTIFIC SURVEY TEAMS HAVE VANISHED. INEXPLICABLY. WITHOUT WARNING. BUT WITH JUST ONE CLUE SUPPLIED - A SINGLE SCREAMED WORD: "CYBERMEN!"
THE UNIVERSITY THEY WORKED FOR HAS CALLED IN THE EARTH SECURITY FORECES WHO DESPATCH A THIRD TEAM, A MIX OF MILITARY AND SCIENTIFIC MIGHT, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF A UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATOR. IF THAT KIND OF VOLATILE GROUPING ISN'T BAD ENOUGH, THREE STRANGERS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO THE MIX - A YOUNG HUMAN EXPERT IN CYBERMEN AND A MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER IN SPACE AND TIME, THE DOCTOR, ALONG WITH HIS COMPANION, DR. EVELYN SMYTHE.
BUT CAN THEY SOLVE THE RIDDLE OF THE VANISHED SURVEY TEAMS BEFORE THE CYBERMEN HARNESS CHRONOS' UNIQUE TEMPORAL GIFTS AND REWRITE THE HISTORY OF THE GALAXY? |
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Real Time 2ND AUGUST 2002 - 6TH SEPTEMBER 2002 (6 15-MINUTE EPISODES)
Gary Russell had his work cut out for him with this brief. To take a typically twenty-five minute show and make it half that length, suitable for webcast, and suitable for audio and yet still to craft a story as enjoyable as “Real Time” is is one hell of an achievement. On top of all that to re-establish the Cybermen as some of the most frightening monstrosities in science fiction is little short of miraculous.
The Cybermen are absolutely awesome in this story – the Cyber Controller is a cold and calculated leader, someone to be feared rather than easily thwarted, and Nicholas Briggs really gives his all to present the terrifying voice of the Cyber Race. Best of all though, the conversion process is shown in all its grisly horror. Listening to the audio-only version is perhaps even more unsettling than viewing the webcast with its grotesque graphic illustrations by Lee Sullivan, as your imagination really can go to town…
Russell's script is quite intricate but still manages to make sense. Colin Baker and Maggie Stables have really got their parts nailed now, and I particularly liked how Russell uses Evelyn in this story – though I have no idea how on Earth he is going to get her out of the superb cliffhanger ending…
The supporting characters are all compelling and are all brilliantly cast – Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee from the TV Movie) is the standout as Doctor Reese Goddard, a scientist with the most unexpected of secrets - yet another brilliant plot twist from Russell.
“Real Time” is quite a triumph, and hopefully not the last BBCi / Big Finish collaboration. It leaves some harrowing images in your mind afterwards – the partially-converted female Cyberman, Goddard killing Cybermen and then honouring the people who they used to be by exposing their face, the disaster on ‘Earth, Evelyn’s potential destiny…
It is also interesting to note that, at long last, the sixth Doctor has shed his patchwork coat of many colours. In the audio version of the first episode we see (hear, that is) the Doctor don a new blue coat (which it seems he acquired on Necros) for the first time - the final stage in the evolution of the sixth Doctor. Who would have ever thought that Baker would end up playing the Doctor for the BBC again, respectable outfit and all, after the whole faux-regeneration / Sylvester McCoy in a blonde wig fiasco, eh?
There were a few things that I did not enjoy about “Real Time” though, although to be fair most of them were technical rather than anything to do with the cast or crew involved. Even with a fast broadband connection, I would have to get up every three or four minutes to load the next scene which really disrupted my enjoyment of the webcast. I would much rather have a long period of loading / buffering at the start and be able to watch the whole episode without interruption. An MP3-CD release (like "Death Comes To Time") with the animations or even a DVD release would also have helped, but as things stand I would recommend the double CD release above all else, not only for its extended scenes but for its uninterrupted story.
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Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2006
E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. |
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No guidance is offered as to this story’s placement. However, as this story sees the Doctor first don his blue “mourning jacket”, we have placed it between the Big Finish audio dramas Doctor Who and the Pirates (when last we saw his multi-coloured jacket) and the sixth Doctor’s half of Project: Lazarus (in which he is wearing blue). Of course, Old Sixy would later revert to his old multi-coloured garb, so this placement is hardly water-tight. Nevertheless, as the dialogue (in the CD version) makes it explicit that Eveleyn hasn’t seen the Doctor’s blue jacket before, then this story can’t take place any earlier than we have placed it.
The story of Real Time has yet to be resolved, however, although the later novel Spiral Scratch would suggest that the half-cybernetic Evelyn’s fate belongs to another quantum reality.
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