Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Paul McGann, Alex Kingston, Nicola Walker, Hattie Moran, John Banks, Robert Bathurst, Kirsty Besterman, Mark Bonnar, Hamish Clark, Paul Marc Davis, Andrew Dickens, Cory English, Derek Ezenagu, Vincent Franklin.

Time to regroup and allow the mind peace after what amounts to a battle of survival is one that is denied to the vast majority of the world, for we inhabit a world run by mad men who insist that constantly been overrun is good for the heart, that we must be kept busy otherwise we are run the risk of being labelled and judged as feckless, insolent, or even cowardly.

In the heat of battle, it is more than survival that keeps us fighting, it is knowing that at the end there is a point where we lay our heads is a place of rest, free from harm, devoid from war.

This is the case for all, but it takes a certain breed of person to see the adventure that calls beyond their own need and answer the call of help from another soul in trouble, and as the second box set of the Paul McGann era incarnation takes hold in Doom Coalition so the understanding of rest and regrouping suddenly makes itself aware in a way that arguably has not been utilised before as Gallifrey’s most talked of son seeks to comfort the companions who have been subjected to the brutality of the entity known as the Eleven.

Nicholas Briggs’ Beachhead, John Dorney’s Scenes From Her Life, Marc Platt’s The Gift, and Matt Fitton’s The Sonomancer, carries on the drama from the first box set, and fiercely defends the instrument of narrative and story telling that comes from strategic withdraw rather than retreat.

The four tales, especially the dynamic found within Beachhead, also find ways to highlight the way that the idea of taking context out of Time is to ensure its own creation, and as the splendid Hattie Morahan’s portrayal of new companion in the Tardis, Helen Sinclair, aptly comes to understand, once you have left your life behind, rarely does it work out that Time will be kind to you by being happy to seek redress and recontact with the family who bore the brunt of your disappearance.

The beauty of these particular boxsets is the persuasiveness of the content, of the benefit of having a singular thread surrounded by many strands push Time along, and as the estimable Paul McGann is joined by Alex Kingston, Nicola Walker, as well as the aforementioned Hattie Morahan, and Robert Bathurst, the seismic Mark Bonnar, and the outstanding Emma Cunniffe as the destructive Sonomancer, so Time’s fracturing, the sense of overwhelming, shattering experience, is to be understood, for Time not taken to rest is to allow its destructive force to regroup and destroy with a ferocity that blazes with the power of suns.

Doom Coalition 2 embraces the ethos of the doctor, rest can heal wounds, rest can give you the edge in the battle to come.

Ian D Hall