The Harvest (2004)

The Harvest was a superb vehicle for Hex and I had hopes that his first adventure as a member of the TARDIS would be a much better one than what we got here. Dreamtime is the second story to come from Simon Forward who wrote The Sandman (2002). Unfortunately I didn’t like Sandman so its sad that I have the same opinion of this story.

The problem that I have with this story is that it seems to be a bit to pyscadelic and just didn’t grip me at any point of this story. It just seemed like they were going through the motions of getting Hex’s first adventure out of the way. Hex is given enough to do the classic companion thing of being in awe of an alien world. Forward uses Hex in a good way. Ace is also good in this story which continues to show her growing up from the backpack carrying Nitro9 explosive youngster that we saw on TV. There are some interesting moments the does standout for me in this story such as the use of Galyari who is aggressive and is a thankful saviour to the supporting characters of this story.

Take the novelty of having Hex in the TARDIS out of the equation then what we are left with is an average story that isn’t as good as it should be. I found my attention slipping several times during this story which isn’t good. A shame for Hex’s first story as an official companion.

Nocturne (2007)

You would have thought that after all his adventures on Earth that this would be the Doctor’s favourite place. With this story we learn that Nocturne is another place that the Doctor likes to visit. According to this story he has visited many times but its not clear as to in which incarnations. This story was written by Dan Abnett who previously wrote the 2004 story The Harvest.

The first thing that strikes me is how as a long term fan I feel that I am missing something by not knowing the events of the Doctor’s previous visit. Like in Timelash (1985) when we learnt that the Third Doctor had visited the planet that the Sixth Doctor finds himself. In this story the Doctor is faced with a home truth and that is something which was a common feature especially in the Seventh Doctor’s time. That is knowing about things on a planet without explaining the dangers that lay ahead. I like how the Doctor faces this truth after Ace is hurt in Episode 3.

The story is quite a simple one. Bio-Harmonies have been created on Nocturne but they have gone bad and all that has to be done is to destroy them. Dan Abnett has done a good job in creating enough interesting characters and interesting sub-plots to keep the main plot going at a gentle pace before taking centre stage towards the end of Part Four. The characters are very impressive and help create a very diverse range of character ranging from Cate Reeney who was a police officer who found everything that was strange then there was Will Aloran who I found to be a likeable character but obviously with emotional issues.

The story is a nice strong story with a curious setting and some wonderful characters. All these things work well together to make a story that I think is one of the finest stories to feature the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Hex.