Doctor Who: The Time Machine

The final story in the series is read by Jenna Coleman, who played Clara, the current TV companion at the time it was released.

The Eleventh Doctor story is the one that ties all the others together, and, as such, is not standalone in the way that they are. Another oddity is that there is no companion in it - it's presumably set between Amy's “death” and Clara's arrival. As one might expect, given the nature of the plot arc that has wound its way through the first ten episodes, it is quite timey-wimey, something that is, to be fair, quite appropriate for Eleven, given the nature of some of his TV stories.

The story is mostly set in present day Oxford, with a young physicist taking on the companion role. It concerns the attempted construction of a time machine, which, as these things usually do, goes horribly wrong, and puts the universe in peril. The solution involves elements from all the previous stories, although I confess I didn't follow how absolutely all of it connected - Eleven is speaking at ten-to-the-dozen by that point, as he's often inclined to.

It also has to be said that Coleman isn't really effective at doing Smith's voice, which has been done better by some of the earlier narrators in the brief snippets where it has been required. But she's otherwise very good at the narration, and the script does bring out Eleven's personality. It's not a glorious pay-off to the series, due to the aforementioned issue with the explanation for how it fits together, but it does its job well enough, and is an enjoyable listen.

Not the best of the series, and not one that would work on its own, but it ought to be popular with fans of Eleven and the type of stories he often had during his run. A solid 4 stars.