Doctor Who: Time Lapse

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary E-Shorts #13

by Naomi Alderman

Time Lapse was the thirteenth Puffin eshort released. Like Lights Out before it, it was released long after the original 2013 run, introducing a new Doctor. Time Lapse features the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions Ryan, Yaz and Graham.

Genres: Doctor Who, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Audiobook

40 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 7, 2019

About the author

Naomi Alderman (born 1974 in London) is a British author and novelist.

Alderman was educated at South Hampstead High School and Lincoln College, Oxford where she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics. She then went on to study creative writing at the University of East Anglia before becoming a novelist.
She was the lead writer for Perplex City, an Alternate reality game, at Mind Candy from 2004 through June, 2007.[1]
Her father is Geoffrey Alderman, an academic who has specialised in Anglo-Jewish history. She and her father were interviewed in The Sunday Times "Relative Values" feature on 11 February 2007.[2]

Her literary debut came in 2006 with Disobedience, a well-received (if controversial) novel about a rabbi's daughter from North London who becomes a lesbian, which won her the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers.
Since its publication in the United Kingdom, it has been issued in the USA, Germany, Israel, Holland, Poland and France and is due to be published in Italy, Hungary and Croatia.
She wrote the narrative for The Winter House, an online, interactive yet linear short story visualized by Jey Biddulph. The project was commissioned by Booktrust as part of the Story campaign, supported by Arts Council England. [3]

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating is 3.5 stars.

This is a short story based on the television series. This one has The Thirteenth Doctor along with Graham, Yaz, and Ryan. The "fam" is in the Tardis when The Doctor gets a message. It seems like no one can remember the year 2004. The Doctor realizes she cannot either and our heroes investigate.

This was an enjoyable read that is also a quick read. I did the audiobook for this short story and it was a little longer than an hour. When doing an audiobook a lot depends on the narrator. The narrator for this book was good. Her impression of Jodie Whitaker was terrific. I didn't think she did a great job with the other characters but she wasn't completely at fault. Each one had little time in this book which is understandable when there are four characters from the show and we are in a short story. As for the story I enjoyed it. I think I liked the message more than the story. The story was streamlined in a typical Doctor Who fashion. But also in a typical way it delivers a message about unrequited love and dealing with rejection.

I wasn't exactly expecting much from this story. I know this story was actually added on to a collection of stories for the other Doctors and it seemed like they wanted to include this incarnation of The Doctor. I was afraid that it was done quickly and it was just an add on to be complete. I have to say it wasn't and it stands on its own rather nicely and was a nice way to kill some time at work.

[Emilija · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a short story, added onto the 50th Anniversary release of short stories, one for each Doctor. While I am not a fan of the 13th Doctor, I did think this was a decent story. I have wanted to know more about the Time Agency and the Time Agents and it was quite interesting in this story.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time Lapse is a short story written by Naomi Alderman and was an additional part of the year-long celebration for the fiftieth anniversary for Doctor Who (2013). This short story is the thirteenth installment of what was supposed to be an eleven part series. However when the third edition of the anthology came out this thirteenth story was added. Time Lapse focuses on the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker).

This short story was written really well. It features the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions: Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair, and Yasmin "Yaz" Khan and takes place at the British Museum on the 28th of April 2019 and at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC in 2004. Together, they try to figure out what happened to 2004 as the year simply vanished.

The root cause of the year 2004 disappearing is because a Time Agent called Richard Somerset wanted a girl he fancied called Maria Hackett to forget the time he tried to ask her out on a date. This story also has three-headed vulture-like aliens called Corpse Gipes that must be pretty terrifying. The main hitch to this installment is that the Doctor is not center-stage in this short story, but is more of a secondary or background character to Richard Somerset and Maria Hackett.

All in all, Time Lapse was written well. It was a rather surprise that an extra story was written when a new Doctor arrived, but glad that it did as this story gives a wonderful and true to form interaction between the Doctor and her companions.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Time Lapse” easily ranks among the better stories of the “Thirteen Doctors, Thirteen Stories” collection. With a plot that makes great use of the shorter word count, a group of well-realized characters, and a pitch-perfect recreation of the 13th Doctor’s voice, Alderman delivers a delightful story from start to finish. It’s wild that Doctor Who has done so little with the idea of Time Agents - but the way Alderman uses them in this story gives the whole agency a really enticing angle. What happens when a Time Agent goes rogue and bends the Agency’s rules? Seeing the Doctor face off against other time travelers is always a fun time, and Thirteen feels like a very apt incarnation to use here. Her penchant for doing the right thing makes for a nice contrast with the rogue time agent.

As always, the story could’ve benefitted from a bit more breathing room, but on the whole it’s a very solid read from start to finish. Devilishly fun and endlessly creative.

[Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. This was very good. I loved the Doctor even though she was kind of a background character to Maria and Richard which was fine because I liked both of them a lot and their dynamic. I also thought the plot was really intriguing with Richard erasing the year 2004 from everyone’s memories and shifting everything. Very cool. I could’ve easily read more of this if it had been a full length novel. I know that Alderman does have at least one full length Doctor Who novel and I will definitely be checking out.

[Emma Dargue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was good and featured the 13th doctor and the fam sitting out a time agents mistake that could destroy time. All characterization was good but it did feel a bit like the plot was an unused script from the tv show that Naomi alderman expanded on.

[Luiz Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5