Time Reef is the concluding part in the Thomas Brewster story arc. This story has the responsibility of tying up the story strands in a satisfactory way and that responsibility falls upon the mighty pen of Ghostlight writer Marc Platt. Marc Platt has really clocked up his Doctor Who stories recently. In the last 16 months he has released six audio plays (including this one). Valhalla was a seventh Doctor story which was a mixed play and wasn’t brilliant partly because it didn’t seem to have much of a fast enough pace to it which was a shame really. The Skull of Sobek was too complicated and was the weaker of the Eighth Doctor’s second series. I think the plot to it was quite clever it was just in the execution of the story. The next contribution was Mother Russia was a Companion Chronicles story which was a lot better and highly enjoyable. It wasn’t because it had Peter Purves as Steven Taylor but because the story was relatively simple and it was well directed. His third contribution to the Companion Chronicles series was The Doll of Death and that was another complex story that worked quite well but didn’t quite have the effect that Mother Russia had.
For the plot that Platt put into this story it was just the right length, I think four parts would have resulted in a lot more padding which would have given Platt an opportunity to include some scientific mumbo-jumbo that would have ruined it. The first half of Part One was absolutely fantastic, the dramatic scenes in the TARDIS and the relationship between the Doctor and Brewster were enjoyable. Any scene that is set inside the TARDIS is also a great one for me because not enough stories have long enough or enough scenes set there. I would love it for them to do just one story purely set inside the TARDIS. Peter Davison was great as a frustrated Doctor, it sort of mirrored his relationship with Adric which obviously ended in tragedy and that left the Doctor feeling sad. You do think that the reason that the reason the Doctor was like this to Brewster was because of his fear of Brewster turning into another Adric. I found the moment when the inhabitants thought that Brewster was the Doctor and the Davison was ‘the blonde one’ was very funny though slightly predictable.
John Picard was very good in this story, he has played Thomas Brewster well and it was good thinking of casting Picard in the role. Despite starring in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks he showed that he can diversify into Science Fiction. There was always the fear that because he is in a popular show like Hollyoaks that he may not take the role of Brewster seriously but that isn’t the case. He has always put his best effort into the stories that he has appeared in. The idea of him stealing the TARDIS and having adventures whilst the Doctor and Nyssa were taking part in the events of The Boy That Time Forgot was something that helped create this whole scenario and make it something different. Other characters in this story were all very well written and none were what you could class as wasteful. Nicholas Farrell was very good as Gammades as was Beth Chalmers who played the very seductive sounding Vuyoki. The scenes that she had with Brewster were very enjoyable and you feel that the slightly primitive Brewster would be embarrassed by such as character. Sean Connolly was also a good actor in this story as Lucor.
The Cliffhanger in this story was the best so far this year in all Doctor Who stories. In the past few stories the cliffhangers have been disappointing and have been anti-climatic before the next episode began. I don’t know why but they just didn’t really grab me and I thought that it was a real shame. The second cliffhanger was the best because it had the music and it had the actors sounding really tense. After two mediocre Marc Platt stories it was back to business for him and shows what a great author he has been to the Big Finish series. He has the tendency like Alan Barnes to write complex stories which can at times be a bit of hit and miss. Barnaby Edwards did a really good job in directing this three part story and that was because he managed to maintain interest and the pace was always consistent. Edwards is perhaps one of the best directors that Big Finish have and you know that when his name appears in the credits then you know that at least if the story is poor then its not because of the direction (well not in this case anyway!).
Now when it comes to the single stories its safe to say that they have been poor in recent months and whenever I have heard that they are doing a ‘three plus one’ release I always prepare myself for the worst because the single part stories really let a release down. In fact out of all the single parters that they have done only Urban Myths which was in Exotron (release 95) was the best one but Perfect World is now the best. This story wasn’t written by Marc Platt, it was written by James Swallow who wrote The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was the right choice to write Brewster’s exit. The idea that a simple sentence changed the whole into a nice Bunny Rabbit happy hippy world was something that could have lasted two or three episodes but worked for this 25 minute story.
This story was a fitting end to the Brewster story arc. The Brewster character was sent off in a dignified way which leaves the listener thinking of Brewster in the future in a positive way. This single story shows that Big Finish seem to be getting to grips with what sort of stories can be told in 25 minutes. The November release Forty Five will compose of 25 minute single stories so I am more confident of this release than I was before I heard Time Reef. Though after a half dozen releases and only two of them being any good it not the best record to have but it can only improve.
For the plot that Platt put into this story it was just the right length, I think four parts would have resulted in a lot more padding which would have given Platt an opportunity to include some scientific mumbo-jumbo that would have ruined it. The first half of Part One was absolutely fantastic, the dramatic scenes in the TARDIS and the relationship between the Doctor and Brewster were enjoyable. Any scene that is set inside the TARDIS is also a great one for me because not enough stories have long enough or enough scenes set there. I would love it for them to do just one story purely set inside the TARDIS. Peter Davison was great as a frustrated Doctor, it sort of mirrored his relationship with Adric which obviously ended in tragedy and that left the Doctor feeling sad. You do think that the reason that the reason the Doctor was like this to Brewster was because of his fear of Brewster turning into another Adric. I found the moment when the inhabitants thought that Brewster was the Doctor and the Davison was ‘the blonde one’ was very funny though slightly predictable.
John Picard was very good in this story, he has played Thomas Brewster well and it was good thinking of casting Picard in the role. Despite starring in the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks he showed that he can diversify into Science Fiction. There was always the fear that because he is in a popular show like Hollyoaks that he may not take the role of Brewster seriously but that isn’t the case. He has always put his best effort into the stories that he has appeared in. The idea of him stealing the TARDIS and having adventures whilst the Doctor and Nyssa were taking part in the events of The Boy That Time Forgot was something that helped create this whole scenario and make it something different. Other characters in this story were all very well written and none were what you could class as wasteful. Nicholas Farrell was very good as Gammades as was Beth Chalmers who played the very seductive sounding Vuyoki. The scenes that she had with Brewster were very enjoyable and you feel that the slightly primitive Brewster would be embarrassed by such as character. Sean Connolly was also a good actor in this story as Lucor.
The Cliffhanger in this story was the best so far this year in all Doctor Who stories. In the past few stories the cliffhangers have been disappointing and have been anti-climatic before the next episode began. I don’t know why but they just didn’t really grab me and I thought that it was a real shame. The second cliffhanger was the best because it had the music and it had the actors sounding really tense. After two mediocre Marc Platt stories it was back to business for him and shows what a great author he has been to the Big Finish series. He has the tendency like Alan Barnes to write complex stories which can at times be a bit of hit and miss. Barnaby Edwards did a really good job in directing this three part story and that was because he managed to maintain interest and the pace was always consistent. Edwards is perhaps one of the best directors that Big Finish have and you know that when his name appears in the credits then you know that at least if the story is poor then its not because of the direction (well not in this case anyway!).
Now when it comes to the single stories its safe to say that they have been poor in recent months and whenever I have heard that they are doing a ‘three plus one’ release I always prepare myself for the worst because the single part stories really let a release down. In fact out of all the single parters that they have done only Urban Myths which was in Exotron (release 95) was the best one but Perfect World is now the best. This story wasn’t written by Marc Platt, it was written by James Swallow who wrote The Haunting of Thomas Brewster was the right choice to write Brewster’s exit. The idea that a simple sentence changed the whole into a nice Bunny Rabbit happy hippy world was something that could have lasted two or three episodes but worked for this 25 minute story.
This story was a fitting end to the Brewster story arc. The Brewster character was sent off in a dignified way which leaves the listener thinking of Brewster in the future in a positive way. This single story shows that Big Finish seem to be getting to grips with what sort of stories can be told in 25 minutes. The November release Forty Five will compose of 25 minute single stories so I am more confident of this release than I was before I heard Time Reef. Though after a half dozen releases and only two of them being any good it not the best record to have but it can only improve.
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