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Wednesday, 15 November 2017 - Reviewed by Ken Scheck
Time In Office (Credit: Big Finish) Big Finish Release (United Kingdom):
First Released: Saturday 30th September 2017
Running Time: 2 hours
“Time in Office” is a rather fun anthology audio from Big Finish, which explores the idea of how the Doctor would deal with actually having to take on the Presidency of the High Council of Time Lords, of which he was appointed at the end of “The Five Doctors” (before he ran away again).  Each of the four episodes is a separate little story, all taking place during the Fifth Doctor’s reign in office.  Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, and Louise Jameson star, all of whom give a fun performance within.  
 
The Doctor and Tegan are heading back to Frontios to pick up Turlough, when they are taken out of their time stream and returned to Gallifrey, as the Time Lords have decided to force the Doctor to take his place as the President.  As you'd expect, the Doctor is wholly unwilling to accept this position.When he is confronted with the chaos that could ensue due to the mess Borusa left behind, he reluctantly accepts in order to prevent anyone else abusing the powers that Borusa had put in place before his disappearance.  So the Doctor gets inaugurated and must battle his way through a variety of tedious problems and bureaucracy before he can reach Tegan and stop them wiping her memory of him and sending her back to Earth.  The anthology starts off well, with lots of humour and a breezy pace, which is surprising considering how little is actually happening in this opening episode. Eventually, he manages to keep Tegan on Gallifrey by appointing her Ambassador to Earth (which despite not having any formal relationship with Earth, works out much better for the Doctor than accepting Leela's plan of marrying her). The episode’s main focus is just to put the pieces and characters in place for the following tales of the Doctor’s reign as leader of the Time Lords. 
 
The second episode opens up with The Doctor's first real task as President. is to deal with is to clean up a mess he didn't really make.  Two warring factions on a planet both believe themselves to be truly righteous in the eyes of their God, but their God is an alien being that feeds off the worship.  The Doctor and his presidential company travel to speak with the God in a Military TARDIS (or WARDIS) and hope to attempt to clean up this mess...but when the god realizes that Leela and the Doctor killed his Brother years ago, he vows revenge.  So diplomacy isn't an easy sell.  I enjoyed the concept of the second story...godlike beings that feed off worship, the idea of diplomatic relations falling apart because of one of the many adventures the Doctor and Leela taking down a despot backfires on them.  I also liked Tegan's solution to the problem. 
 
The third episode has the Doctor visiting the Academy and dealing with protestors as well as imitators disappointed in his selling out and joining the establishment.  I found this to be the funniest instalment, some great social commentary on the Social Media Protestors that exist today, as well as the fun references and in-jokes provided by the imitator fan of the Doctor.  Davison is in fine form throughout the set but I felt he was particularly on his game here. His presence as the Doctor is always there, but with an air of frustration at his current status.  You get the sense, particularly in this instalment, that his Doctor may seem like he is settling into his role as President, but he’d rather be anywhere else.  
 
The fourth and final story has the Doctor touring the new Capitol building, fully dressed to the nines in his robes and sashes…seemingly fully committed to his role as the President. But a plot to end his reign is afoot…luckily, that seems to be just what the Doctor ordered.  Again, it is a fine addition to the anthology…a set of stories that truly entertain the longtime fans. In general, I loved the tone of the whole set of episodes, it doesn’t take itself or the threats too seriously, and feels small in scale, even the big climax of this episode doesn’t feel too grandiose.  Maybe it’s because I have been listening more and more to the big boxsets with epic storylines, and less and less to the monthly range, but the lighter tone and story felt like a good release after listening to such dark and sweeping stories in the Eighth Doctor’s Doomsday Coalition and the War Doctor boxsets.  As much as I enjoyed those storylines, I think I needed the palette cleanser, and this fun set of short stories did the trick nicely.  Mixing social satire, allegory, sci-fi concepts, and just a good old fashioned Doctor Who fan “what if?” premise…”Time in Office” is a great listen for longtime fans.  





GUIDE: Time In Office - FILTER: - Big Finish - Audio - Fifth Doctor