Written By: Alan Barnes
Directed By: Gary Russell
Featuring: Eighth Doctor & Charley
Release Date: June 2002
Big Finish Summary
The Web of Time is stretched to breaking. History is leaking like a sieve. In the Citadel of Gallifrey, the Time Lords fear the end of everything that is, everything that was… everything that will be.
The Doctor holds the Time Lords’ only hope – but exactly what lengths will the Celestial Intervention Agency go to in their efforts to retrieve something important from within his TARDIS? What has caused Imperiatrix Romanadvoratrelundar to declare war on the rest of creation? And can an old nursery rhyme about a monster called Zagreus really be coming true?
The answers can only be found outside the bounds of the universe itself, in a place that history forgot. In the wastegrounds of eternity. In the Neverland.
*Warning: This review contains spoilers*
Introduction
As the adventure that brings several of the Eighth Doctor audio arcs to a close, Neverland is admirably restrained. Its immediate predecessor, The Time of the Daleks, felt like a conveyor belt of explosions and corridor chases, whereas Neverland focuses on lore and character interactions. I love this departure from the Doctor Who formula. It makes complex concepts, such as anti-time, easier to understand, while giving the voice actors space to deliver some of their most nuanced and powerful performances.
Plot
The story begins with the Doctor (Paul McGann) and Charley (India Fisher) summoned by the Time Lords. The Doctor’s decision to prevent Charley’s death aboard the airship R101 in Storm Warning has created a tear in the Web of Time. This is allowing a theoretical substance known as anti-time into the universe. The Time Lords believe that the best hope of fixing the Web of Time is by searching for something beyond our universe, through the tear itself, into the Neverland. To get there, they must use the source of the tear: Charley Pollard herself.
Neverland is a sequel in more ways than one. As well as a conclusion to the Charley Pollard paradox arc, both Romana II (Lalla Ward) and Coordinator Vansell (Anthony Keetch) make their first appearance since The Apocalypse Element. The escalation in the damage to the Web of Time feels like a suitably important episode for these senior Time Lords to appear. This, plus references to previous adventures, including the framing device for Seasons of Fear, gives this the air of a true finale.
Anti-time itself is an interesting concept—much like anti-matter to standard matter, it acts as an opposite to ordinary time and causality. Also like anti-matter, anti-time is utterly destructive when coming into contact with time. The abstract concept of anti-time fits perfectly into a narrative with non-linear time, alternate futures and paradoxes. To credit the writers, the overarching ideas are introduced with necessary exposition, but multiple listens allow full comprehension of the chain of events.
The central mission is to search for a Gallifreyan legend who supposedly vanished while pursuing Zagreus, a villain from a Time Lord nursery rhyme. It is therefore apt that the exploration of Time Lord lore is one of Neverland‘s biggest strengths. Across the adventure, the legendary battle between good and evil, Rassilon and Zagreus, is firstly challenged, then revealed to be fabricated, before finally being possibly confirmed. The misinformation makes for interesting storytelling. The Neverpeople who live in anti-time are an exceptional example of this. I love the revelation of their true identities, as it challenges the ethical image the Time Lords have. Even the planetoid the characters arrive on, apparently a destroyed TARDIS, is suggested to be an illusion. The narrative constantly challenges both characters and listeners to question everything they perceive.
Despite its many twists and revelations, Neverland‘s cliffhanger left my jaw on the floor! I can only imagine how listeners reacted at the time, especially with over a year to wait. Neverland answers many of the questions it raises, but ending on its biggest mystery is perfect. The plot succeeds because it constantly challenges both its characters and its listeners to reconsider what they think they know. It expanded my idea of what a Doctor Who audio adventure could be.
Characters
Paul McGann, India Fisher and Lalla Ward all excel in their roles as the Doctor, Charley Pollard and Romana. The deterioration to the Web of Time challenges the relationships between characters in intelligent writing. Listeners will be able to understand the points of view of each, whether doing what they must in a dire situation, or not being willing to sacrifice. All three actors fully convey the emotions behind their characters’ opposing viewpoints. This provides Neverland with the emotional core worthy of a finale.
Two scenes perfectly represent how intelligent writing and excellent voice actors align to create powerful moments. The first sees the Doctor wishing Charley a happy birthday before trying to keep her safe by offering to drop her off at a party in a pocket universe. Charley, understanding the Doctor’s methods, instantly calls him out for it. She then proceeds to make an analogy between the Doctor and Peter Pan. Both are boys who do not grow old, not merely in physical aging, but in their mentality. Charley sees herself as Wendy Darling, the girl who travels with Peter Pan and sees a glimpse of Neverland, before ultimately deciding to leave Peter’s side to grow up. Wendy’s ending convinces Charley to face the consequences of her changing timeline and transport them into the hands of the Time Lords. The Doctor tries to counter by stating that Peter would never let Wendy face Neverland’s crocodiles alone, but it feels like an attempt to convince himself. I love India Fisher’s quiet heartbreak when Charley sees the truth of the Doctor’s motivations, and her strength through fear when forcing the TARDIS to return to the Time Lords to face her fate. Paul McGann matches his co-star’s intensity with nervous pleading, a great choice for the most human of Doctors. This moment, as well as being a link to the story’s title, feels momentous in their relationship. It was an excellent scene.
“I wanted to be Wendy. And now I am. Wendy Darling, having adventures in Fairy Land with the boy who never grew old. But you see, Wendy grew up in the end.”
Charley Pollard (India Fisher) – Neverland
The second scene which sums up the high standard of voice actors and writing in Neverland is in its climax. Time itself is in peril when a mass of destructive anti-time is en-route to the Doctor’s home world of Gallifrey. Both Charley and the Doctor decide to sacrifice themselves to save the other. Charley refers back to her debut appearance with the line “Charlotte Pollard. Edwardian adventuress.” India Fisher delivers the line excellently, conveying several of Charley’s emotions at once. On the one hand, calm in her convictions, seeing death as the next big adventure for her. On the other hand, quietly trying to talk the Doctor off the ledge of doing something reckless. Fisher has consistently been impressive throughout her run as Charlotte Pollard, standing out as a companion across these audio adventures.
Paul McGann, robbed from screen appearances as the Eighth Doctor, has also been fantastic across these audio adventures. His delivery of the Doctor differs from the other actors portraying the character. His youthfulness extends to his Doctor’s mindset – he is prone to making decisions based on his heart, rather than his head. His sacrifice feels like the emotional consequence of saving Charley from the R101. Having already rejected her predestined death, he cannot now stand by while she chooses to face it. The way he sacrifices himself feels like something a post-revival Doctor—particularly David Tennant’s—might do. McGann delivers this moment as a madman full of excitable energy as he exclaims that the TARDIS has surrounded the anti-time bomb. His Doctor’s switch to a menacing and dangerous voice after absorbing anti-time and claiming he is Zagreus is genuinely chilling. I’m glad this is not the end for either McGann or Fisher in this audio book series, as both have been exceptional across their appearances to date.
The third major character is the returning companion Romana, and Lalla Ward delivers a capable and multi-faceted performance once again. As the President of Gallifrey, Romana is the ice queen to her peers, cool and unemotional in her decision making. She leads the expedition into the Never World, keeping the Doctor in the dark about the true mission. Charley picks up on her frostiness immediately. To many, her transformation into the maniacal supreme leader seen in the possible future would not be a great leap. Only when she is paired with the Doctor in the second half does her dry humour and more familiar personality emerge. I love their dialogue when they are in the TARDIS with the villain, secretly hiding their plans. She ribs him for having dated and broken spare parts in the toolbox with sharp wit and sarcasm. But she clearly demonstrates on multiple occasions her unerring loyalty to the Doctor, and her faith in his judgement. Sadly, she does not play a direct role in the climax. She ultimately functions as the audience’s route into Rassilon’s exposition in an admittedly cool scene. But, I can see that she will also return in the next Eighth Doctor story, and I am really looking forward to seeing the part she plays in it.
“The Doctor is full of surprises, Vansell. But his one abiding characteristic, whichever body he wears, whatever gibberish he speaks, however erratically he acts, is his unerring sense for what is right. I trust him absolutely. And I always have.”
Romana (Lalla Ward) – Neverland
The other prominent characters form one of the better supporting ensembles in this series so far. Anthony Keetch’s Coordinator Vansell returns, just as snivelling and mistrustful as ever. Paul McGann’s Doctor refers to him by his unfortunate childhood nickname of “nosebung” due to his sniffy nature, which is a fun running joke. The twist of him being the secondary villain, manipulated by anti-time, is sadly telegraphed. However, he also may be responsible for the illegal execution of hundreds of Gallifreyans for ‘treason’, so his redemption doesn’t feel deserved. It was a shame that he was the sole casualty in this story, as he was a fun character for the Doctor to mock and play off. Don Warrington also returns as the spirit of the deceased President Rassilon, and is an excellent choice. His steady tone with flourishes of theatricality perfectly suit the old warrior.
Finally, India Fisher also gets to voice the lead villain, a Neverperson called Centris, and I can tell she had a lot of fun in this role. Centris isn’t especially complex as a villain. I do like that she was once a Time Lord who removed herself from time out of guilt for doing the same to others. But, generally, Centris functions more as a personification of anti-time’s destructive nature than as a fully developed character in her own right.
In a story with high stakes but little traditional action, the characters and their voice actors are responsible for delivering much of the tension. Part of the reason why Neverland succeeds is the strength of its performances: the combination of strong writing and excellent voice acting takes listeners through a wide range of emotions.
Listening Experience
A strong sense of foreboding is present from the opening seconds of the story. The opening scene sees recorders of time glitching out due to the paradoxes and then screaming that they “can’t remember”. Whether computers or living beings, the distorted screaming is a disturbing and unsettling effect. It immediately makes listeners feel uncomfortable, distinguishing this story from the usual cosiness of Doctor Who.
The Neverland, a warped time machine in the anti-time universe, is equally unsettling. It is a world of metal and decay, with forests of large metal spikes and acid rain falling without warning. The soundscape makes the setting feel suitably apocalyptic and hostile. There is an eerie quietness from the lack of natural sound design, which conveys how removed the Neverland is from our universal experience. Even though the object is from our universe, it distinguishes the anti-time universe in its bleakness. It helps to give listeners the stakes of the story, as the rest of our universe would become just as warped and desolate as that time machine.
Listeners also get a glimpse of a possible future for Gallifrey if anti-time were to infect the rest of our universe. It is a fascist society, where Imperiatrix Romana declares war on the rest of creation. It is chilling to hear the Emperor of the Daleks ask Romana for mercy. The use of background voices calling for the execution of the visiting Doctor makes the scene even more sinister. It is ultimately a shame that we only spend one scene within this potential future. However, the writing of this story, along with The Time of the Daleks, is very good at creating impactful alternate histories.
At 144 minutes, Neverland is one of the longer Big Finish audio adventures. However, due to its status as a season finale for the Eighth Doctor, it was released as a two-part adventure, with each part running for almost the length of a feature film. This greatly improves the flow of the story from scene to scene, and also avoids the need to artificially create cliff-hangers to conclude parts. The end of the first part contains a major revelation that acts as a turning point for the story and the characters. The only downside was finding my place again when I stopped listening partway through an episode. However, that is more a criticism of the Big Finish app than of the story itself.
The sound design successfully conveyed the unsettling nature of Neverland, with disturbing sound bites standing out against an eerily quiet setting. It left me slightly on edge in the best possible way, pulling me into a world where nothing was as it seemed.
Final Thoughts
Neverland had a lot to live up to. As a conclusion to the first big arc in the Doctor Who audio adventures series, it needed to match or exceed its predecessors. For many writers, this would have been attempted through an explosive, loud and action-packed story. What I admire most about Neverland is how it acts as a worthy conclusion, whilst focusing on character dynamics and growth. This enables some of the most nuanced and powerful voice acting from the series’ lead performers to date. I also love that this story challenged established lore. As I’m reviewing these stories in release order, it will be a long wait for the follow-up, Zagreus. If the writing is as good as in Neverland, it will be well worth the wait.
Ratings
Plot: 4.5/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Listening Experience: 4/5
Overall: 4.5/5
Next Time: Doctor Who: Spare Parts
On a dark frozen planet where no planet should be, in a doomed city with a sky of stone, the last denizens of Earth’s long-lost twin will pay any price to survive, even if the laser scalpels cost them their love and hate and humanity.
And in the mat-infested streets, around tea-time, the Doctor and Nyssa unearth a black market in second-hand body parts and run the gauntlet of augmented police and their augmented horses.
And just between the tramstop and the picturehouse, their worst suspicions are confirmed: the Cybermen have only just begun, and the Doctor will be, just as he always has been, their saviour…
Thank you for taking the time to read my review of Doctor Who: Neverland.
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Was Neverland a satisfying conclusion to this run of Eight and Charley audio adventures?
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Thank you again, and I’ll see you next time for Doctor Who: Spare Parts.
