Time Works

Bigfinishbox
title=Time Works
series="Doctor Who"
number=80
featuring=Eighth Doctor
Charley Pollard
C'rizz


writer=Steve Lyons
director=Edward Salt
producer=Gary Russell
Jason Haigh-Ellery
executive_producer=
production_code=8YA
set_between="Other Lives" and
"Something Inside"
length=
date=March 2006|

"Time Works" is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

ynopsis

The Doctor, Charley and C'rizz arrive in a kingdom obsessed with productivity and clock-watching, where the slightest hint of wastefulness can raise the ire of the Clockwork Men, who move between the "tick" and the "tock" of a second. When the travelers become separated, will they become stuck in time, like flies in amber?

Plot

The TARDIS lands on an uncharted planet where time is standing still. The Doctor, Charley and C'rizz leave the TARDIS to investigate, finding hundreds of people frozen in time. The people are wearing medieval clothing yet have watches (all frozen at 8 seconds past 5) and mobile telephones, while a futuristic clocktower stands at the centre of a castle overlooking the village. The travellers find a scene of disturbance amongst the frozen figures, where a woman is in the process of fleeing from horsebound militia. The woman is clutching a bundle containing technology the Doctor recognises as a 'field generator', whereupon he panics and orders his companions back to the safety of the TARDIS. When they arrive back at the TARDIS they become separated.

The Doctor is set back into the flow of time just over an hour in the past. He becomes involved in an altercation with binman Revnon.

Charley and C'rizz remain in frozen time and find they are unable to enter the TARDIS. They head towards the castle clocktower looking for answers.

The Doctor gets talking to Revnon's sister Vannet who is feverously working at her stall, and learns about the Clockwork Men: machines that keep the populace working to their full potential, machines that exist in the gaps between time and can reprogramme or even destroy those who don't work hard enough - Vannet's husband Collis is one who has disappeared by their hands.

Charley ties a scarf around the legs of the horse chasing the fleeing woman, so that when time starts again she will be captured.

Vannet reveals to the Doctor that the Clockwork Men emerge from the clock tower, and that no-one is allowed to enter. Prince Zanith arrives along with members of the Watch and captures the Doctor, taking him to the castle.

Charley and C'rizz arrive at the castle, finding imagery of the Clockwork Men driving the workers on. They find themselves in the throne room where they find the Doctor frozen in time.

Zanith throws the Doctor into the castle dungeon while Vannet and Revnon have been brought in for questioning.

Charley and C'rizz have found the Doctor frozen in the midst of being executed, surrounded by members of the Watch, kneeling while an axman is in the process of striking to behead him, and realise he must have somehow gone back in time. As they try to think of a way to prevent his death they hear a clockwork ticking sound as something approches...----Vannet and Revnon swear loyalty to the Clockwork Men. King Kestorian is worried that the Doctor may come from another world that has beaten theirs to 'completion' and that the Clockwork Men will question their management strategy.

Charley and C'rizz keep still and avoid the attentions of a group of Clockwork Men who arrive and atomise one of the Watch. One of the Clockwork Men programmes the King before they all disappear through a door behind the throne into the clock tower.

The Doctor is questioned by King Kestorian and Prince Zanith but fails to convince them to release him. The Doctor steals Zanith's mobile telephone during the questioning and after they leave he calls Vannet. Revnon overhears Vannet talking to the Doctor and the pair argue.

Charley wraps C'rizz's jacket round the head of the Watchman executing the Doctor in the hope that by blinding him they will give the Doctor a chance when time restarts. They realise that the King had been subliminally conditioned by the Clockwork Men but before they can formulate a plan to use this information the Clockwork Men reappear and take C'rizz into the clock tower.

Prince Zanith visits the Doctor in the dungeon again and reveals that he is willing to help him escape if he will gain access to the clock tower and talk to the Clockwork Men.

Vannet reveals to Revnon that in his phone call the Doctor asked her to bring him an item from the TARDIS, and she intends to help him.

C'rizz is reunited with Charley in the clock tower when she is captured by the Clockwork Men, but it becomes clear that while it has only been minutes since C'rizz was captured Charley was free for an hour. They notice that time is moving again as it is now 1 minute past 5. They are confronted by Collis who works within the clock tower alongside a number of others.

Prince Zanith tries to convince his father that the Doctor should be killed, and leads him to where the Doctor is attempting to access the clock tower.

Vennet manages to convince Revnon to cover her stall while she goes to the TARDIS to collect the Vortex Shield Generator that the Doctor described.

Collis has Charley and C'rizz tested so that the Figurehead will know where to allocate them for work. They are prevented from leaving by the Clockwork Men, who act on threats by calculating the probability of future events.

The Watch arrive at the marketplace and Revnon desperately calls Vannet to warn her.

In the throne room Prince Zanith convinces his father that the Doctor must die, and King Kestorian orders his beheading...

----Back in the frozen time of 8 seconds past 5 Charley repeatedly talks to the King to try and subliminally programme him into trusting the Doctor. She also tells the Doctor what she and C'rizz have discovered before the Clockwork Men emerge and take her into the clock tower where she is reunited with C'rizz who was captured an hour earlier.

In the throne room time restarts and the Doctor avoids the falling axe. King Kestorian thinks that the Clockwork Men must have wanted to save the Doctor due to the appearance of C'rizz's jacket round the executioner's head and reveals that one of the Watch was atomised as they were overstaffed. The Doctor convinces Kestorian that he is not going to waste any more time and, thinking that the Clockwork Men have programmed him between time, Kestorian cancels his execution.

The Figurehead - the controlling artificial intelligence at the centre of the clock tower - explains the history of the world to C'rizz: that the 'old worlders' were afraid of science and were unable to save themselves when an asteroid hit the planet, so their last act was to create the Figurehead to oversee the recreation of their society after its destruction. Collis explains to Charley that the people outside the tower are not given full access to the technology available inside the tower as they would misuse it.

King Kestorian appoints the Doctor as his advisor.

The Figurehead explains to C'rizz that she is concerned with making sure that the industry of the world runs as efficiently as possible: she is an accountant.

Revnon has been captured for aiding Vannet, and Prince Zanith informs him that he is to be executed in the morning.

Charley notices that Collis has been adjusting the figures to protect his wife Vannet.

The Figurehead reveals that the Doctor is immune to the Clockwork Men's programming, and they cannot take him out of time due to his standing at the nexus of timelines, so she questions C'rizz as to his nature.

The Doctor visits Revnon in his cell and persuades him to tell him where Vannet might be hiding after she escaped from the Watch (aided by the scarf that Charley tied round the leading Watchman's horses legs).

The Figurehead appoints C'rizz as a data transcript clerk and sends him to work.

The Doctor frees Revnon from his cell and leaves the castle to find Vannet at the office where her father used to work. Vannet gives the Doctor the Vortex Shield Generator.

Collis reveals that to make room for C'rizz's position another worker has been killed.

Revnon attacks Prince Zanith but the Clockwork Men atomise him before he can kill him.

The Doctor intends to use the Vortex Shield Resonator to stop the Clockwork Men from moving in the gaps between time and force them out of the tower. Before he has finished setting up the machine however the Clockwork Men programme Vannet into attacking the Doctor but he manages to break her conditioning. No sooner has he done this however than the office is broken into by a horde of workers, all of whom have been programmed to kill the Doctor...

----The Doctor and Vannet flee from the horde towards the roof of the office building.

Charley and C'rizz learn from Collis that the Doctor is under attack. Collis is horrified to discover that Revnon has been killed. The Vortex Shield Generator stops the time machinery in the clock tower from working and the Figurehead sounds the alarm authorising 'extreme measures'.

The Doctor and Vannet flee by jumping onto the roof of a neighbouring building.

King Kestorian hears the alarm and fears that he has failed in his management. While Prince Zanith flees the King gives himself up to the Clockwork Men, expecting to be killed for his failure.

The majority of the Clockwork Men leave the tower to disable the Vortex Shield Generator, and Collis learns that Vannet is the Doctor's accomplice.

The Doctor and Vannet are captured by Prince Zanith but the Doctor persuades him that the Clockwork Men can be resisted as they can't afford to cut back any more workers, and Zanith joins forces with them.

Collis realises that he can resist the Clockwork Men and leads his fellow workers in a revolution.

Prince Zanith returns to the castle to find King Kestorian has not been killed. The Doctor enters the courtroom and is protected from the Clockwork Men by Vannet and Zanith placing themselves in their way.

C'rizz and Collis start destroying machinery in the clock tower.

Workers being to emerge from the tower and Charley is briefly renited with the Doctor. Zanith leads the workers in attacking the Clockwork Men.

The Doctor enters the clock tower and confronts the Figurehead. The Doctor realises that 'completion' will never come for the workers, and that eventually the Figurehead will replace the inefficient humans with mechanised workers. The Doctor destroys the clock in the tower and the workers disassemble the Clockwork Men. The people are now free to choose their own path to 'completion'.

King Kestorian asks the Doctor, Charley and C'rizz to stay a while, and the Doctor agrees that while they have work to do it can wait till tomorrow.

Cast

*The Doctor — Paul McGann
*Charley — India Fisher
*C'rizz — Conrad Westmaas
*The Figurehead — Tracey Childs
*Collis — Phillip Edgerley
*Revnon — Merryn Owen
*Kestorian — Ronald Pickup
*Zanith — Adrian Schiller
*Vannet — Beth Vyse

Continuity

*Clockwork robots also appear in the Second Doctor story "The Mind Robber", the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel "Anachrophobia" by Jonathan Morris, the New Series Adventures novel "The Clockwise Man" by Justin Richards, and the Tenth Doctor television story "The Girl in the Fireplace" by Steven Moffat.

External links

* [http://www.bigfinish.com/80-Doctor-Who-Time-Works Big Finish Productions - "Time Works"]
*Doctor Who RG | id=who_bf80 | title=Time Works

Reviews

*OG review | id=bf-80 | title=Time Works