Big Finish Doctor Who 110 - The Boy That Time Forgot

A lost world. A prehistoric civilization. A dark secret.

The Doctor and Nyssa find themselves transported from Victorian London back to the dawn of time, accompanied by debonair adventurer Rupert Von Thal and no-nonsense novelist Beatrice Mapp. Together these unlikely heroes must brave primitive jungles and battle ravening insects as they make their way to the city of the giant scorpions, ruled over by... The Boy That Time Forgot.

It all started so well.....then came part 2! Still stuck in the 19th Century, The Doctor and Nyssa attempt an experiment which goes drastically wrong.

They end up in a prehistoric time, which is littered with giant talking scorpions. But precisely when, where and more importantly – how, even they don’t know! Joining them is their new friends, Mrs Beatrice Mapp (played by Harriett Walker) and explorer, Rupert Von Thal (Adrian Scarborough).

Part 1 builds up quite nicely and ends spectacularly but the follow up is quite disappointing. It seems that a few childish digs are aimed at a certain character called ‘The Scorpion King’ (Andrew Sachs), which where totally unnecessary, you’ll have to give it a listen to know what I’m on about!

The characterisation of the Scorpion King totally spoiled it for me, I just couldn’t get over it! They tried to gloss over it later but it was far too late for me, I was still hurting! Turning him into a sex pest didn’t help either! I also didn’t really buy the whole ‘City of the Scorpions’ and how it came to be. What should have been an epic adventure turned into a mess. There where also some unnecessary deaths, after spending so long building up characterisations. The effect didn’t work I’m afraid.

It wasn’t as bad as last month’s release but overall, I would say it’s the biggest disappointment I’ve had with a Big Finish audio, taking into account the quality of the first part and indeed the whole of ‘The Haunting of Thomas Brewster’, which leads into this story.

2.5/5

Next Time: Hopefully the 6th Doctor and Charley can ‘stand and deliver’ us back into ‘Big Finish Heaven’ as they meet Dick Turpin in ‘The Doomwood Curse’!