Death Comes to Time (webcast)

Death Comes to Time
Doctor:	Seventh Doctor
Companion(s):	Ace, Antimony
Featuring:	Minister of Chance, the Brigadier
Main enemy:	Tannis
Main setting:	Santiny, Gallifrey, Micen Island, Earth, Alpha Canis One, Anima Persis
Key crew
Writer:	Colin Meek
Director:	Dan Freedman
Producer:	Dan Freedman
Animator:	Lee Sullivan
Release details
Release number:	1
Premiere broadcast:	13 July 2001 - 3 May 2002
Premiere network:	BBCi
Format:	5 Episodes
Production code:	BBCI-1
BBCi animations
Next →	Real Time

Death Comes to Time was a five-episode webcast animated adventure featuring a version of the Seventh Doctor. It was available via the BBCI website in 2001 to 2002. Intended to potentially dovetail into a spin-off that would be the spiritual successor to Doctor Who, called The Minister of Chance (later realised as a non-BBC spin-off in multiple media), this would-be finale depicts the Seventh Doctor making a final sacrifice, and an implied downfall of the Time Lord society prior to the events of the story, as the few Time Lords seen in the story are stated to be the last alive. As such, it seemed to side-step the events of the 1996 TV Movie which had introduced Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor.

By the time it was released, writer Dan Freedman had abandoned his original plans, later stating that he would have ignored Death Comes to Time in his Doctor Who continuation even if he had been granted the license to make one. This, combined with the in-story peculiarities such as the Seventh Doctor's apparent deaths, left the place of the story relative to the wider Doctor Who universe ambiguous at best. However, it was subsequently referenced in such stories as Zagreus and The Gallifrey Chronicles, which suggested that the story's reality was some variety of a parallel universe or timeline relative to the reality of the mainstream Eighth Doctor.

Publisher's summary

“Even Time Lords die...”

When a dissident Time Lord group inadvertently caused the destruction of an entire civilisation through interference, its members vowed to repent by serving the Universe not as gods of Time but as mere men. Many years later, this peaceful resolve is severely tested when two of their number are killed -- and the Doctor's seventh incarnation becomes embroiled in the struggle against the apparently unstoppable General Tannis.

Plagued by ominous portents, the Doctor and his companion Antimony must race across the Universe, taking in the Santine Republic, the Great Orion Nebula and the frozen heart of the Canisian Empire. Meanwhile, the mysterious Minister of Chance battles his own inner demons, and former TARDIS traveller Ace finds herself in training for a destiny she never dreamed possible. Matters reach a terrible climax when Tannis' next target for subjugation is identified. Exactly how much is the Doctor prepared to sacrifice in order to save Earth?

Plot

At the Temple of the Fourth

to be added

Planet of Blood

to be added

The Prisoner

to be added

No Child of Earth

to be added

Death Comes to Time

to be added

Cast

• The Doctor — Sylvester McCoy
• Ace — Sophie Aldred
• Antimony — Kevin Eldon
• Golcrum/Senator Hawk/President— Jon Culshaw
• Admiral Mettna — Jacqueline Pearce
• Casmus — Leonard Fenton
• The Minister of Chance — Stephen Fry
• Senator Sala — Britta Gartner
• General Tannis — John Sessions
• St Valentine — Anthony Stewart Head
• Nessican — Dave Hill
• Dr Cain — Charlotte Palmer
• Speedwell — Stephen Brody
• Campion — Gareth Jones
• Captain Carne — Andrew McGibbon
• Lieutenant Suneel — Michael Yale
• The Kingmaker — Peggy Batchelor
• Pilot— David Evans
• Premier Bedloe — Robert Rietti
• Computer — Julienne Davis
• Magan — Emma Ferguson
• Man - Richard Garaghty
• President of Santiny — Huw Thomas
• Mission Control - David Soul
• Major Bander/Prime Minister— Nik Romero
• The Brigadier — Nicholas Courtney

Crew

• Writer - Colin Meek
• Director - Dan Freedman
• Producer - Dan Freedman
• Executive Producer - Richard Fell
• Online Producer - James Goss
• Script Editor - Nev Fountain
• Animator - Lee Sullivan
• Composer - Nik Romero
• Sound - Jon Taylor
• Online Presentation - James Goss, Rob Francis
• Technical Presentation - Wilfredo Acosta, Alec Hale Munro, Ann Kelly, Kim Plowright

Worldbuilding

• Nessican is one of the Vampires and was imprisoned inside a phantom sun.
• Saint Professor Antenor is mentioned to have been killed.
• Casmus has a companion; Midus the Cat.
• The planet Anamapercis is mentioned and seen.
• The species Annasaurus is mentioned.
• Blue's Bar was mentioned.

Notes

A preview of the story printed in DWM 306.

Art by Roger Langridge from DWM 319

• When asked about the story's timeline placement, writer Dan Freeman simply stated "I must admit I don't think I was considering where it was in terms of timeline, I just saw it as a story :)"
• Following the broadcast of Survival in 1989 and the show's subsequent placement on "indefinite hiatus" by the BBC, the idea of producing an animated series based upon Doctor Who and continuing the adventures of the Seventh Doctor and Ace was reported several times in the media; reportedly the Canadian animation house Nelvana was even interested at one point. This project never materialised, but the idea of producing animated Doctor Who adventures resurfaced with the coming of the Internet and the newly emerging format known as webcasting. Death Comes to Time was the first experiment of its kind; it would be followed soon after by Real Time (featuring the Sixth Doctor), Shada (featuring the Eighth Doctor) and culminating in Scream of the Shalka, which attempted to introduce a new incarnation of the Doctor.

Doctor Who logo used for Death Comes to Time

• A new Doctor Who logo was introduced for this story. Although it was never used again, the basic shape of the logo would be retained for the new logo designed for the return of the series in 2005.
• It is left ambiguous as to what the Kingmaker is. However, it is implied she is a being with greater powers than even the Time Lords. This is yet to be explored on screen or in spin-off media.
• "O'Carolan's Farewell" is played in the first episode. "Allegretto: Allegretto" is played in the fourth episode. "Night on Bald Mountain" and "Pog Aon Oidhche Earraich" are played in the fifth episode.

Original website release/broadcast

• "At the Temple of the 4th" - 13 July 2001
• "Planet of Blood" (1) - 14 February 2002
• "Planet of Blood" (2) - 22 February 2002
• "Planet of Blood (3) - 1 March 2002
• "The Child" (1) - 8 March 2002
• "The Child" (2) - 15 March 2002
• "The Child" (3) - 22 March 2002
• "No Child of Earth" (1) - 29 March 2002
• "No Child of Earth" (2) - 5 April 2002
• "No Child of Earth" (3) - 12 April 2002
• "Death Comes to Time" (1) - 19 April 2002
• "Death Comes to Time" (2) - 26 April 2002
• "Death Comes to Time" (3) - 3 May 2002

Continuity

• There are several references to the UP, an interplanetary equivalent of the United Nations which had previously been used in the 1970s Dalek annuals, notably appearing in PROSE: The Doomsday Machine ^[+]Loading...["The Doomsday Machine (short story)"]. The annuals in question were set in the far future, with Earth a leading member in the UP, in contrast with the setting of Death Comes to Time, where Earth is still a little-known backwater with no involvement in the politics of the various spacefaring empires.
• The Seventh Doctor is using the TARDIS control room introduced in COMIC: The Chameleon Factor ^[+]Loading...["The Chameleon Factor (comic story)"].
• Casmus is identified by the Kingmaker as holding the rank of Castellan, introduced in TV: The Deadly Assassin ^[+]Loading...["The Deadly Assassin (TV story)"].
• Casmus describes himself and Tannis, and the wider race of Gallifreyan Time Lords, as relics of a more "chaotic time" when "the skies were unexplored, and monsters roamed". The Time of Chaos had been namedropped in TV: Silver Nemesis ^[+]Loading...["Silver Nemesis (TV story)"] as an early era of Gallifreyan history and the universe at large, treated in later sources possibly synonymous with the Dark Times or time before time before the anchoring of the thread, including in PROSE: Lungbarrow ^[+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"].
• Among other references to other media set in the Doctor Who universe which were construed as parallel universes, AUDIO: Zagreus ^[+]Loading...["Zagreus (audio story)"] saw the Eighth Doctor of Big Finish Doctor Who get a glimpse of a "universe in which the Time Lords had mysterious mind powers", ostensibly a reference to the Death Comes to Time cosmology.
• The Canisian invasion of Earth was referenced in PROSE: Trading Futures ^[+]Loading...["Trading Futures (novel)"].
• In PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles ^[+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"]:
  • a prophecy cited by Lady Larna, depicted as having been known during the Doctor's youth, mentions Tannis as one of the threats Gallifrey must encounter and survive with the Doctor's help before its final, fated end.
  • a "Santine Rift" is mentioned, presumably located on or related to the planet Santiny and its native people the Santines.
  • the recurring parable of the island of giants, cited throughout Death Comes to Time, is described as the "first myth of the Time Lords". Put to paper by Marnal, it is published on Earth as fiction under the title of The Giants.
• Also in PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles ^[+]Loading...["The Gallifrey Chronicles (novel)"], one of the four surviving elementals of the Needle is described as "a tall man with a bent nose wearing a cravat and holding a pair of dice", matching the description of the incarnation of the Minister of Chance seen in this story. The visual glimpse of the elementals in COMIC: Miranda ^[+]Loading...["Miranda (comic story)"] likewise included a man whose face was partially-obscured, clearly modeled on the likeness of Stephen Fry, though with shorter hair than seen in Death Comes to Time.
• Mount Plutarch appears again in PROSE: The Three Paths ^[+]Loading...["The Three Paths (short story)"], where it is clarified to be another name for Mount Lung from PROSE: Lungbarrow ^[+]Loading...["Lungbarrow (novel)"], identifying it as the mountain where the Doctor lived in his youth, as first mentioned in TV: The Time Monster ^[+]Loading...["The Time Monster (TV story)"], and on top of which the Hermit dwelled. "Mount Plutarch" is said to be associated with the legends of the "untimes" and "unhappened days", with one such legend telling of a Time Lord adventurer journeying to "a wise old lady in a cave in the southern mountains", an apparent reference to the Kingmaker.
• Anima Persis is mentioned in PROSE: Relative Dementias ^[+]Loading...["Relative Dementias (novel)"] and PROSE: The Tomorrow Windows ^[+]Loading...["The Tomorrow Windows (novel)"], with the former giving an explanation for the state it appears in when Ace visits it in Death Comes to Time.
• The primarily narrative of the Minister of Chance series, first told in audio dramas beginning with AUDIO: The Pointed Hand ^[+]Loading...["The Pointed Hand (audio story)"], and retold in novel form in PROSE: The Minister of Chance ^[+]Loading...["The Minister of Chance (novelisation)"], carried on from the Minister's circumstances at the end of Death Comes to Time, with the Minister forced to use the formula for doors to travel instead of his ship.

CD and other releases

CD cover

• Released on CD in October 2002.
• Released on MP3-CD in June 2004.

External links

• Death Comes to Time on the Doctor Who website (archived version)
• Death Comes to Time Webcast at the Doctor Who Reference Guide