Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Alex Kingston, Tom Baker, Nigel Anthony, Nicholas Asbury, George Asbury, Ewan Bailey, Timothy Bentinck, Josh Bolt, Nathalie Buscombe, Adele Lynch, Shvorne Marks, Christopher Naylor, Alex Tregear, Fenella Woolgar.

Time may be a plenty, but do you ever wonder where certain memories go, why you are sure that something happened once, only to find that it didn’t happen at all, that empty space seems to have opened up around you and it seems that all Hell has broken loose because of the disappearance of Time itself, then perhaps, just maybe, you need a Doctor more than ever.

Without doubt, there was, and remains, nobody who could have played the fourth incarnation of The Doctor with more style, panache, and effervescent joy than Tom Baker, and to think of Doctor Who, across all its forms and appearances, without the scarf wearing, grinning personality of Tom Baker is to feel the shiver of a million fans heart’s breaking. Thankfully such images are not going to become real, they are just phantasms of a deeper darkness, however as any enthusiast or devotee of the series must understand, there will be a time, long into the future, where this particular Doctor’s voice will be no more.

It is therefore important to seize the opportunity to take in the performance of the man at surely in one of his most sterling presentations in the role, and with Alex Kingston’s River Song by his side in the fourth series of adventures of the adventuress, sonic trowel wielding, former psychopath, wife of the Doctor, this could be seen as perhaps the most intimate of the escapades that Big Finish have produced. Not only is this possible because of the larger than life personalities of both the main stars in the audio, but because of the chemistry that they have with each other, perhaps more than any other version of the Doctor, Tom Baker fits in with the encapsulating daring that River Song is all about.

It is arguably in John Dorney’s hour contribution to the fourth series, the splendid Someone I Once Knew, that the whole piece comes to fruition, the sense of deepening regret, of love, of anguish, and more than a little fun, frame the relationship between the Doctor, River Song and the mistress of Time perfectly; it is one that makes you catch your breath, that explores a dimension of marriage that few would dare to try and write down in words.

We have all the Time in the world but as soon as it starts to vanish, then like water through criss-crossed fingers that don’t quite meet, it is gone.

Ian D. Hall