The 12th Doctor is exuberantly bored on Earth, working as a lecturer. Bill is happily travelling with him and enjoying her life and other Bill just wants to pop in for a chat…

Wait…

Jonathan Morris’ story is one of the most politely ambitious pieces of Who fiction in ages. The central McGuffin here is Bill; three of her. Our Bill, Older Bill and Alt Bill, one we know, one who knows too much, and one who has definitely seen too much. Morris makes one of them a focus of each of the first three parts and throws them into narrative orbit around the catastrophic crash of a Dalek saucer into the University the Doctor is teaching at.

For Bill, this is an adventure with a slightly personal twist and her combination of smarts, ethics and determination are neatly captured here. Older Bill is calmer, charming and a little sinister in that way Doctor Who characters who’ve read ahead always are. Alt Bill, Alt Bill is a tragedy. Raised in a world where Dalek supremacy crashed into British imperialism she’s a soldier fighting two wars at once and doing so with ruthless determination, compassion and a string of dead friends behind her.

All three women are different, and yet all three are Bill. The situation Morris puts them into is one of the most interesting explorations of the consequence of time travel I’ve seen in a good long time. The Imperial future is chilling and is Doctor Who at its best; two steps from now, maybe one and a half. Morris excels at this polite dystopian future, and the end result is something that can stand shoulder to shoulder with Turn Left as one of the franchise’s definitive character pieces. The ending especially is ridiculously satisfying; neat, kind, tragic, untidy. The Twelfth Doctor and Bill Potts down to its bones.

Morris’ script alone is fantastic. Morris’ script in the hands, and voices, of Nicholas Briggs and Dan Starkey is something else. Briggs’ Dalek work often gets overlooked because it’s uniformly excellent but here it’s especially great. The idea of the Daleks as living batteries, pitiful, maimed killers as the engine of the Empire, is fantastic and Briggs brings the slightest hint of pathos and a lot of glee, to the role.

Starkey’s 12th Doctor is uncanny. From the chewy depths of Capaldi’s voice to his cadences, Starkey embodies the punk rock Doctor perfectly and his Bill shines with humour and wit and kindness. A complex story like this puts a lot on the actors and they’re both more than up to the task. As is Steve Foxon’s great sound design and music.

Verdict: This one is complex, and dark and difficult. It throws you into the middle and trusts you to get to the sides. You should. You will. It’s worth it. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart

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