Doctor Who: Eve Of The Daleks Review - 9 Ups & 4 Downs
7. DOWN - A Matter Of Time
This story is fairly airtight in the sense of following it’s own rules, but we do have one nitpick here.
Sarah, at one point, makes a point about Nick not surviving past five minutes to midnight, suggesting that if he dies before four minutes to midnight, he won’t be alive in the next loop. As a result, after spending well over a minute explaining this (he should have died in this minute), she rushes off to save him in order to ensure his survival into the next time loop. Makes sense (ish), and it’s a smart way to add some mid episode stakes, but it does open a can of worms ten minutes down the line.
In a later loop, Sarah is cornered immediately by a Dalek after it blasts the lift controls (side note, but the Dalek conveniently forgets it can do this later in the episode - so much for them learning from each loop). In this loop, Sarah is trapped in the lift and killed almost immediately, about thirty seconds into the loop, never making it to the next minute. By the episode’s own logic, this should mean she is killed outright and won’t appear in the next loop, but she does.
If you found that confusing to read, it was infinitely more confusing to write…