Decades after they last went through the Time Barrier, Liz Skinner and Simon Randall meet two youngsters who seem to have had similar experiences…

In some ways it seems a little odd that Big Finish hasn’t revived Timeslip earlier – it ticks so many of the boxes that seem to govern their choice of franchises, and has the added bonus that both original stars, Spencer Banks and Cheryl Burfield, are still around. Even if you’re not of the generation that recalls the show on TV, you may well have read about in magazines or online, or caught up with the various releases from Network. It’s a show with a neat “elevator pitch”, and you really don’t need any details of the original whatsoever to enjoy this.

Andrew Smith pens the first six-parter, and from the moment the rather ominous fanfare heralds the opener to the cliffhanger into the second story, you’re gripped. Banks and Burfield are very much front and centre throughout this, and you can almost hear their comfort as they relax back into roles they last played nearly fifty years ago. They’re partnered by Orlando Gibbs’ Neil and Amanda Shodeko’s Jade, with Smith very sensibly mixing and matching the time travellers as the story goes on.

They’re not the only key characters – there’s also Sarah Sutton’s Charlotte Trent, who we encounter both as a contemporary of Liz and Simon’s in 2020, and as the distinctly unpleasant Minister in 2042. There’s a certain amount of fun to be had as Sutton has a chance to be discombobulated by time travel, but she makes each version of Charlotte distinct, and the inevitable confrontation between the two aspects works really well – as do the resultant actions and behaviour of one of them.

Smith creates a horribly realistic society, with echoes of Star Trek’s A Taste of Armageddon and some of the nastier dystopian fiction of recent years, and presents us with characters who face some harsh but necessary choices. Jamie Robertson’s music and sound design are suitably deployed, never overshadowing the human drama, but presenting the sense of scale. Helen Goldwyn’s direction likewise emphasises the humanity (or lack thereof in some cases), and ensures things never drift into melodrama.

Verdict: Don’t worry if you’ve no knowledge of Timeslip’s past – this is definitely its future, and unlike the one it presents, it’s a positive one. 9/10

Paul Simpson

 

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And click here for our interview with script editor John Dorney and writer Marc Platt.