Doctor Who: The Paradox Planet

This is the first half of a two-part story. I am reviewing both releases here.

This is the first of the Fourth Doctor/Second Romana audios that I've listened to and, at the time it came out, it must have been quite a pleasant surprise that we'd ever get such a thing. Certainly, there's no great spark between Baker and Ward here, but both characters are very much on form, taking one right back to their time on TV together. (Both actors had, of course, been reprising their roles for some years separately before this came out). And we get K9, too, who is an integral part of this particular plot.

The Doctor and Romana find themselves separated on a planet where soldiers from the future are striking at the past, taking its resources for themselves. The result is a story that's considerably more complex than the usual DW fare, with the two Time Lords popping back and forth between the past and the future and sometimes encountering the results of their actions before they've performed them. For some listeners, perhaps, this might be a bit of a stretch for a two-hour audio play (rather than, say, a novel), especially given the relatively large cast of guest characters; it's the sort of thing you need to pay attention to, rather than having on in the background.

That said, I felt it worked. I did see the mid-point revelation coming some way off, but, without the audio cues, I might well not have. The motivations of the two sides in the war make sense, and both are sympathetic, with the story having a moral message that's pro-conservationist as well as anti-war - but lets it speak for itself, rather than overtly hammering it home. In particular, it brings out Romana as an equal to the Doctor, playing to one of the strengths of that character, as well as bringing out some of Four's flippancy.

And both Romana and the Doctor skirting around the line “you can't rewrite history - not one line!”