Big Finish Doctor Who 113 - Time Reef

A curse on this damned reef - and curse the Doctor who brought us here!

Drawn by the siren call of a distress beacon, the TARDIS crash-lands on an uncharted time reef. However, the Doctor, Nyssa and Brewster are not the only mariners marooned on this barren rock. Commander Gammades and his crew of returning war heroes have been similarly shipwrecked, as has the beautiful but mysterious Lady Vuyoki.

But there's something else here, too. A thing of darkness which crawls blindly across the surface of the reef hunting for prey: the Ruhk.

Big Finish just keep pulling rabbits out of hats with their audios! We’ve been treated to some great stories in the last couple of months and ‘Time Reef’ is no different.

Following on from the events of ‘The Boy That Time Forgot’, we are in the TARDIS as The Doctor and Nyssa try to find items that have mysteriously disappeared, and they believe that Brewster is behind it.

They learn that the dimensions of the TARDIS are closing in and with time running out, before it's destroyed, they land at the last journey the TARDIS made – a reef, in space, which is stuck in a ‘time bubble’! They are not the only ones stuck there, the rock is populated by the ship’s crew who are on constant guard against killer birds called ‘The Ruck’. And there’s even a sinister lady nearby, who seems to have wrapped the ship’s captain around her little finger.

It’s quite a bizarre concept but it makes sense when you listen to it! It’s brilliantly written by Marc Platt, even with a lot of Ancient Greece references (for more info on that – listen to the extras!)

Our usual team are joined by Nicholas Farrell, Sean ‘Harry Potter’ Biggerstaff, Beth Chalmers and Sean Connolly. As usual the supporting cast do a wonderful job!

The three-part ‘Time Reef’ is accompanied by the one-parter – ‘A Perfect World’. This is another truly wonderful story, which sees one of the TARDIS crew making a big decision as they have caused the whole earth to be perfect, which is a bad thing! It just puts the icing on the cake and it’s rather different from the one-parters that we are used to.

4.5/5

Next Time – Colin Baker and India Fisher are back in ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’!

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’!