Real Time

Cybermen. The mere mention of them sends the Doctor to the planet Chronos where a temporal wave has decimated an archaeological expedition. With Evelyn in tow he realizes that the Cybermen are indeed active on the planet, as well as a new breed of Cyberman made flesh by a nanovirus. The Cybermen have conquered the Earth in the past a result of a temporal anomoly, and unless the Doctor can figure out how to restore the timeline, both Human and Cybermen face extinction.

Real Time marked a real turning point for Doctor Who; originally it was not a Big Finish audio release but designed exclusively as a flash-animated webcast on the official BBC website. Until this point the series had covered all mediums except for the webcast, and here it was at last. There was something more to it though; this was the first BBC-commissioned Doctor Who production since the ill-fated eighth Doctor premiere movie shown on FOX television in 1996. The BBC were showing signs of taking Doctor Who seriously again, even if it was starting out small and relatively inexpensive, and the reaction from fans spurred two further webcasts before the series finally came back on the air in 2005.

As for the story itself, it's pretty simple, not very complicated, and could have been done without the Cybermen. It doesn't do much for their history, seeing as the Cybermen here are temporal anomolies. Their voice processing is kept on par with the last few television appearances they made, which is at odds with their sound in The Gathering and The Reaping. And this is the first time a Cyberman is made to sound distinctly male or female; their conversion process at this point is sloppy and only half-arsed, with only so many spare parts handy to turn humans into Cybermen. Evelyn comes close to breaking through Cyber conditioning and by asking the Cybermen questions, and then narrowly escapes being converted into one herself.

As the cover illustration shows, the Doctor undergoes a bit of a modification in appearance, with his wildly coloured coat being replaced by a blue one that would have been better suited to the blue outfits of Necros back in Revelation of the Daleks. The blue attire sticks around for a while after this point (insofar as clothing matters much in an audio) and it's probably more of a comment on Evelyn's presence with her being able to talk to him and even provide him with some guidance in their travels.

Now it's time for a break from the audios. This long stretch of Colin Baker audio material is cool but there's something to be said for the visual side of things in Doctor Who. There is still a lot of material to go before Colin Baker's sixth Doctor makes his exit, mind you, in audio and novel form, but here's a video to use as a halfway point. It's not Doctor Who per se, but it takes place within the Doctor's universe and although he is not in it, his presence is felt not only thematically, but in the presence of the other cast members - the companions he has left behind...

NEXT EPISODE : DOWNTIME