80. Time Works

It's funny that 8 & company would follow a leisurely visit to Victorian London's Grand Exhibition with a near dystopian world centered around nonstop efficiency and working around the clock. There are heavy notes of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" at hand as The Doctor, Charley, and C'rizz try to piece together a vividly creepy world of clockwork men and people who pass in and out of the flow of time. It's good to hear that 8's main range outings are still taking an experimental lean and this story is certainly high concept.

This story is extremely dense in terms of ideas. The world of Industry is a very unusual world that's hard to wrap your head around, and proceeds to unfold a plot that complicates the situation further. Part of the problem is that the main guest characters, who have to tell the Doctor (and us) about their world, don't really understand how their world works. The truth is all mixed up with a combination of superstition and brainwashing.

And that's just on the plot side. The themes are just a dense. As I write this, today is Labor Day in the U.S., a national holiday dedicated to working people, and it's hard to miss the strong pro-worker themes in this story. In this world, workers who are deemed to be insufficiently productive are destroyed by the so-called Clockwork Men. They have to keep working in order to survive, because their lives have no independent value. And the solution to this state of affairs is basically a strike. After centuries of "cutting back" inefficient workers, Industry eventually reaches the point where it can't afford to lose any more workers, which gives the workers power.

The story is not so dense that it doesn't have room for strong characterization. There's even some fascinating stuff about the eighth Doctor's perspective on the seventh Doctor's life. Still, I feel like there's something missing that I can't quite put my finger on. I think it might be too dense for its own good. It's so full of ideas that I end up admiring the story much more than enjoying it. It's a good story, but it's not one that I'm particularly eager to revisit.

Time Works is an ingenuous tale as the Doctor, Charley, and C'Rizz arrive in a world where everyone seems to be frozen, then they're separated and the Doctor finds himself among workers who fear wasting time lest they be "cut back" by the Clockwork Men who remove people "between the Tick and the Tock."

The concept of the story is incredibly engaging and creepy with plenty of mystery surrounding where our characters are and what exactly is going on. The danger of a focus on efficiency leading to a loss of humanity is powerfully illustrated.

The story's emotional core comes alive powerfully in the last act, led by a strong performance by Beth Vyse as Vannet. The regulars are solid here. The Doctor (as he did in Terra Firma) reflected with regret on his Seventh life and how he'd focused on precision and planning and forgotten what really mattered. C'Rizz has a great moment when he changes from telling someone what the Doctor would say to expressing his own opinion. Overall, this is a very strong outing for the Eighth Doctor.

OK from the off, I had references of Metropolis (Herr Lang's version). With a good dollop of a previous BF Doctor Who's. The threesome of McGann, Fisher, Westmaas is certainly picking up pace since the passing of the Divergent universe (thank the lord). We have a good solid dramatic base to work with here. McGann breezes through this dystopian world, where we come to discover that every minute of each day is accounted for, and controlled, by what everyone thinks are their masters, when they themselves are actually under the influence of a greater power. I enjoyed the interplay with supporting cast and McGann, he seems to have a control over the others in each scene which actually amplifies and copies his the characteristics of the fictional part he plays. He truly embodies the truth that is the Doctor, this for me is a turning point in the 8th Doctor series. Not a complicated story, but sometimes simplicity plays out better than more complex ones.

Great 8th Doctor adventure here. Worth the listen.