Starring Paul McGann, Hattie Morahan, Nicola Walker, Alex Kingston, John Shrapnel, Tim McMullen & Nicholas Woodeson.Written by Matt Fitton & Directed by Ken Bentley .
While River Song takes Helen on an archaeological expedition like no other, the Doctor finds himself enlisted by an alien Queen to save her people.
Trapped and alone, Liv stares death in the face as she meets the enemy who’s been dogging the TARDIS travellers’ footsteps throughout Earth’s history.
The Doomsday Chronometer has been protected for five centuries: secret cults and societies jealously guarding its mystery. But what is their real purpose? The Doctor is about to discover the truth…
After the triple-whammy cliffhanger that ended The Eighth Piece, I did wonder how Fitton was going to continue the story, bringing in more of the Doom Coalition arc as he does. And while The Doomsday Chronometer falls into some of the pitfalls that I mentioned The Eighth Piece avoided, the story does continue fairly strongly, with some stronger characterisation than in the aforementioned Eighth Piece, more sense as to what the actual story that has weaved it's way throughout these sets is about and some killer (and I mean KILLER) twists that I really didn't see coming.
Of course, this is a direct continuation of the story started in The Eighth Piece, so really it's less about what the story is (which was dealt with in my review of that particular episode) and rather about how it continues. And, I have to say, I'm afraid that The Doomsday Chronometer isn't quite as strong as The Eighth Piece, and isn't quite able to juggle the demands of the story as its predecessor. This story hops around in time a lot more than the previous instalment, and it's quite hard to get a strong sense of place or time from that. Essentially, River and Helen's hops around time basically amount to a glorified romp, basically trying to get their hands on a vital piece of the clock, and showing us the extent of the Clocksmith's influence throughout history. We didn't really need that, if I was being honest. Sure, Helen needed the final piece, but we could have cut out all of the jumping around, and just put River and Helen under the Vatican to get that final piece, with River explaining how she found the cult's secret lair. I also felt that the Doctor's escape from his predicament was much too easy (although I did like the idea that the record of the Doctor's death actually had nothing to do with the Doctor), and was symptomatic of another problem this story had: overstuffing. This episode has had to significantly move the Doom Coalition plot forward, and, while it does do that, it's full to bursting, with so much plot that it's almost hard to follow at some points. For example, we have the Solvers (the clockwork robots who appeared in the last episode), who have this whole story about how the Clocksmith manipulated them into doing his bidding, and how they're leader was broken up in order to stop her influence on them from regaining dominance, that's literally just told in about five minutes. It's barely ever brought up again, and the character of Risolva just joins the Doctor as a bit of a temporary companion for the rest of the story. It's a shame that the plot couldn't quite hold together as well as it could, because the idea that the Doomsday Chronometer is a catalyst for the end of the universe is quite a good idea, and it certainly sets up the stakes for the finale quite well. I did feel, however, that the time periods weren't built upon as I might have hoped. While I was less bothered about 16th Century England (which had been heavily built up in The Eighth Piece), neither Rome nor Prague got the development that they deserved, and the whole excersize of having three different time zones felt to me a little redundant. It certainly brought a grand scope and scale to the whole thing, but I felt that wasn't a strong enough justification for scrimping by on historical detail, especially considering the rich variety of both cities. But I suppose, in an hour, this story was always going to suffer from having to do too much all at once. One thing that really does work about the story is the revelations. After eleven hours of storytelling, it's nice that the whole plan isn't just revealed in one single moment, but we start getting a sense of what all this has been about (and we finally, FINALLY!, hear the word Coalition), and we start to see the larger picture at work. In many ways, it can be argued that The Doomsday Chronometer's only reason for existing is to set up the final five stories, but I think it was a necessary step, considering how little we had before.
Most of the characters in The Doomsday Chronometer are carried over from the previous instalment, bar Janie Dee as Risolva. I thought that her performance was subtle and interesting for rather a bog-standard alien queen type character, although I did like the idea that the Solvers were complex puzzle boxes (and not, as I mentioned in the previous review, clockwork robots - my bad). As for the other guest stars, well John Shrapnel is... well, he's there as Thomas Cromwell, and he does a good job, but the character is only in a handful of scenes and that's it. It's a bit of an ignoble end for a character we spent so much time with in the previous episode. For most of the story, it's about Nicholas Woodeson's Clocksmith and Tim McMullen's Octavian. Woodeson continues to play the part with fantastic gusto, although throughout the story he occasionally looses the 'I'm doing all this for art' angle, and becomes a little more bogged down in being evil because that's pretty much a prerequisite to get into the coalition. It's mostly in the scenes with the Doctor, and I wouldn't say it's Woodeson's, or even Fitton's fault. It just more a demand of the story, and that pretty much forces him to occasionally be evil for the sake of it. Also, I was shocked that the Clocksmith appears to die at the end of this story, mostly because he's actually been the most interesting member of the coalition so far. Sure, both Caleera and the Eleven all had potential in their introductory episodes, but that was squandered with every repeat appearance they made. The Clocksmith has a genuine menace about him, although that might have been lost with return appearances, so perhaps it is for the best. Glen McCready and Emma D'Inverno were excellent in their roles, despite their limited appearances. And the regulars are great: Hattie Morahan gets a bit more to do in this one, which she rises to the challenge for admirably, and Nicola Walker is great as always. As for Paul McGann and Alex Kingston, well, they've now got the chance to meet properly for the first time (no almost meetings like in The Eighth Piece or The Sonomancer, or talking across communicators like in The Rulers Of The Universe), and it's a hoot. The pair of them bounce off each other, Fitton giving the pair of them some great dialogue. I also really like the concept of the psychic wimple (which disguises River as anyone she chooses to be), as it means we can get around the thorny issue of River meeting the past Doctors without having some contrived reason as to why they can't actually meet. It certainly improves the interplay here, and it makes me very excited for The Crucible Of Souls, especially if they're paired together for the bulk of the story. And finally, we come to Tim McMullen. Octavian is meant to be a bit of a red herring - after all, the main villain of this episode is the Clocksmith, right? Right? Wrong! For, you see... Octavian is the Eleven! I know, it's a massive twist (and one not especially stated in the episode, but if you've been following the series up to this point, you can guess it's him from his last scene), but it does all make sense. The voices he keeps hearing in his head are his past incarnations. It's a bit of a blinder, but it all makes sense. He keeps rambling about the future, and his disguised name is Octavian. Octavian, as in Octane, as in Eight. He is, in actual fact, the Eighth incarnation of the Eleven (so the Eight? I guess.), and he's been trying to stop the Clocksmith, but do to the influence of his other selves, can't find a way to do it. Now, this is a great twist, because not only does it all make sense, but it helps to show a bit of light and shade to the character of the Eleven, as well as pay off little bits of foreshadowing from Doom Coalition 1. We knew that the Eleven had one incarnation who rejected the evil ways of his other selves, and it's nice to finally see it. The whole story makes you feel sorry for Octavian, and then, just as he's dying, Fitton reveals who he really was, and the listener's sympathies twist slightly. And, of course, he 'dies' in this episode, so is forced to regenerate. And, in a case of mistaken identity, he enters the Doctor's TARDIS, and Liv and Helen believe the newly regenerated man to be the Doctor. If that's not a cliffhanger, than I don't know what is.
Of course, the production on this story from Ken Bentley, Jamie Robertson, Tom Webster and Benji Clifford is fantastic, so there's no point in repeating myself. Overall, The Doomsday Chronometer isn't quite able to match the high standards of it's first part. However, it's still a very engaging story that starts the final phase of Doom Coalition in grand style, with an epic scope, some really clever ideas and some phenomenal twists. If the plotting and characterisation had been a lot stronger, I'd be calling this two-parter a classic. As is, The Doomsday Chronometer is still one of the stronger parts of Doom Coalition, and it does all the things it needs to. If The Crucible Of Souls can maintain this high standard, then this will, without doubt, be the strongest Doom Coalition set so far.
Rating - 7/10
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