And that's a shame, because its charge-free accessibility via the Internet means that "Real Time" has the potential to reach more Doctor Who fans than almost any other. Certainly, it's a virtual guarantee that it will be heard by a vastly greater audience than any audio previously produced by Big Finish (whose majordomo, Gary Russell, both writes and directs "Real Time"). So one might be forgiven for expecting something approaching the quality of, say, "The Ark In Space" rather than "The Sontaran Experiment".

Much of the blame for the inability of "Real Time" to distinguish itself from the Doctor Who pack lies at the feet of Russell's script. Certainly, it's a cut above many of his novels -- and manages to avoid the heavy dollop of unnecessary continuity with which his works are often laden -- but it comes across as too often slow-paced and ill-considered.

For example, the very motivation of the story's title comes from the fact that the adventure effectively transpires over exactly the same amount of time as it takes to listen to it. This is an idea which has worked well to generate suspense in other dramas and action pieces, and is an untapped gimmick in Doctor Who, so it certainly held a lot of promise. But Russell never makes significant use of the concept -- the events of "Real Time" could easily have spanned half, or three times, the recording's length, with little or no change needed to the script. This kind of plot device should be instrumental in heightening the tension as the seconds tick away, but only at the very last moment, as almost an afterthought, is "Real Time" gifted with any sense of urgency whatsoever.

Also ill-advised is Russell's use of the Cybermen. Although it's justified in story terms, his decision to have them represented almost entirely by a group of "cut-rate" Cyber-converts mostly just serves to make them look rather silly and ineffective. Sure, there's an in-story reason why the Cybermen don't realise they can't carry the TARDIS through a narrow opening, for example, but that doesn't make them look any less like hulking metal morons.

Russell tries to make up for this by offering a horrific portrayal of Cyberman ruthlessness and graphic depictions of the conversion process. And, certainly, this is effective up to a point. But it comes at the expense of making "Real Time" so gruesome that it starts to feel gratuitous after a while. When a minor character is despatched in a particularly grisly manner, I was left wondering if the story needed to go that far to make its point. In so doing, "Real Time" ironically raises the spectre of precisely those issues cited by BBC brass when the Colin Baker Era went on its infamous hiatus between Seasons Twenty-Two and Twenty-Three.

And, while I personally have no objection to adult content in Doctor Who (as exemplified by my ardent support of the more mature tenor of the Virgin and BBC novels over the years), I do wonder if "Real Time" might not quite be the appropriate venue for this kind of envelope-pushing. As mentioned earlier, this could easily be one of the most widely-experienced Doctor Who stories ever, and slapping a parental warning on half the episodes strikes me as counterproductive. I'd hate to think that there might be children out there for whom "Real Time" could have been a gateway into the world of Doctor Who, but who instead decided to give it a pass because of these content advisories.

But perhaps the most controversial aspect of "Real Time" is its conclusion, the details of which I'll refrain from elucidating here. Yet, while this may have been Russell's attempt to make "Real Time" as hot a topic of discussion as the climax of "Death Comes To Time", it sadly falls short of the mark. This is so not because the ending isn't shocking -- it is -- but because it effectively invalidates the preceding story. "Real Time" winds up feeling like a protracted teaser for some future sequel, and that inevitably leaves the listener with a bad taste in his or her mouth. The serial should stand on its own merits, but instead it feels as if we've only gotten the first half of the story.

Amongst the actors, both Colin Baker and Maggie Stables give solid performances, although Stables is hindered by the fact that Evelyn Smythe spends most of the story standing around talking to the supporting cast, and very little else. The guest artistes -- playing a generally faceless bunch -- don't stand out much, with the exception of Yee Jee Tso (who played Chang Lee in the 1996 TV movie). Tso, unfortunately, is woefully miscast here. He's unable to give Goddard any sense of fire or enigma, and instead mostly just sounds rather bemused throughout. The Cyber-voices, however, are well done, nicely blending the cold emotionlessness of the monsters' Sixties incarnations with the metallic might of their Eighties counterparts.

"Real Time" is not a bad story, and will likely content those fans just looking for a decent new Doctor Who adventure. Indeed, it rises above much of the Sixth Doctor's televised outings, and in this manner continues the audio vindication of Colin Baker's tenure on the programme. But nor is "Real Time" a particularly striking or memorable experience. Whereas "Death Comes To Time" continues to provoke debate half a year after its online broadcast, in six months "Real Time" discussion forums will probably just be gathering dust.

5/10.

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