REVIEW: Doom’s Day: Out of Time

Doom’s Day draws to a close with a short story sketching in solutions to the various mysteries with answers not really worth the journey

The sun has finally set on Doom’s Day. We previously left the universe’s greatest assassin with only minutes to live and taking one last gamble to find the Doctor. It’s a gamble that brings her full circle, back to the world of New Venice. And so we enter the final end game with James Goss short story Out of Time.

Opening short story Hour One had to balance humour with setting up the situation. Now, Out of Time needs to squeeze an awful lot into its few hundred words to wrap everything up. It’s not entirely successful. Worse than that, everything we learn here seems like things that would have benefited Doom’s Day as a whole to tease out more slowly. It unveils the  identity of the villain that originally laid this trap for Doom. But the planting of a few seeds earlier in the narrative would have strengthened this reveal greatly. Certainly Big Finish’s A Date with Destiny is retrospectively crying out as a missed opportunity to make such connections.

Other questions get no answer at all, or at least none likely to satisfy. There’s no answer as to why Doom needs the First Doctor specifically, and no other incarnation will do. Any of the others Doom met along the way could really have imparted the same information and advice he gives her Similarly, the notion of the literal Grim Reaper being on Doom’s tale receives. an unsatisfying conclusion. It played a large part in the marketing but was largely undeveloped over the course of the event. Here, it’s finally hand waved away her with barely a mention.

James Goss’ characterisation of a First Doctor, somehow aware he’s in the wrong sort of story entirely, is a highlight

There are some nice turns of phrase in Out of Time, and this version of the Doctor is a delight. He has the twinkle of Hartnell’s portrayal mixed with a tetchy self-awareness that he’s wandered into entirely the wrong sort of Doctor Who story. But over all, it fails to satisfy as a climax to a 24 chapter event. Worse, it makes the whole Doom’s Day crossover feel even more scattershot and random, making it clear that there’s really been no grand plan linking the different stories at all.

Time Lord Victorious and Doom’s Day both helped fills gaps when Doctor Who itself was off air for long periods. With the Fifteenth Doctor era promising a more regular supply of television episodes for the next few years, it may be a sign to rest the epic crossover concept for a little while. Or else to up its game to make them a truly essential purchase.

Doom’s Day: Out of Time is free to read on the official Doctor Who site now