Doctor Who: Time War Uncharted 1: Reflections is a recent Doctor Who audio boxset from Big Finish Productions and takes the Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann, into some intriguing depths of the Time War in four episodes. Emma Campbell-Jones and Sonny McGann reprise their roles of Cass Fermazzi and Alex Campbell, respectively. Alex is the Doctor’s great-grandson who was resurrected by the peculiarities of the Time War that has thrown the universe into an upheaval. Cass has been lost between dimensions and struggles to find her way back to her friends, who may nor remember her.
Some familiar faces or voices are part of the guest cast. Familiar to Big Finish listeners anyway. The guest cast is comprised of Dempsey Bovell, Helen Goodwyn, Holly Jackson Walters, Amara Karan, Nicholas Khan, Hattie Morahan, Jon-Paul Rowden, Dan Starkey, and Conrad Westmaas.
The first of the four episodes contained in this collection is Nowhere, Never by Katharine Armitage. Cass finds herself living as a housewife in a place where air raids are being conducted on her community. The Doctor and Alex are trapped in a peculiar hospital ruled by an even more peculiar Matron. No one seems to remember much about their pasts, but the Doctor will soon start to understand how fractured the universe has become.
This is a bit of a confusing mess to be done on audio, but the performances more than make up for it. It’s also setting the stage for the Doctor’s participation in the Time War. The character of Cass is starting to grow on me, and the banter that has developed between her and Alex is quite well written. Paul McGann’s performance continues to flourish as well.
Although I called this particular story a confusing mess, I still enjoyed it. The nature of the underlying story concerning a Time War is just going to cause all kinds of mental gymnastics in understanding the sequence of events.
Tim Foley follows up with The Road Untravelled in which the Doctor, Alex, and Cass find themselves aboard a strange spaceship. The Captain of the vessel is an old, unreliable adversary, who is played by Conrad Westmaas. They are trapped in the Void, however another presence has followed them, and the Time War rages even there.
The second story by Foley is pretty good as well. It’s one of those awkward episodes which continues the set-up to the big reveal that is going to occur in a future episode. Westmaas was better known in the franchise as C’rizz, a companion of McGann’s Doctor many years before. He does get to stretch a bit more in this role as Hiernonyma Friend.
Foley is a reliable writer and will hopefully be commissioned many more times. He also gets to wrap up this set, but I will get to that in a couple of paragraphs.
James Moran delivers what I think is the most compelling episode in the set entitled Cass-Cade. Cass is trapped in a space station is falling into a sun, and she keeps encountering the Doctor and Alex in different moments of the adventure out of sequence. Unfortunately, they don’t remember her beyond some vague sense of familiarity. Anyway, this sounds more confusing and muddled than the first episode, but it actually holds up and makes a little more sense. Campbell-Jones gets a plethora of one-liners throughout, and she delivers them sublimely.
Anyway, I enjoyed that one the most, but the set is pretty good overall.’
Finally, Tim Foley gets to return with Borrow or Rob which has the Doctor and his companions losing their grip on reality, leading to a shocking betrayal.
I like this particular TARDIS team. The Eighth Doctor’s struggles within the Time War are to continue, and I am ready to continue that ride as well.
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