Written by Richard James and Nicholas Briggs

Starring Tim Treloar Daisy Ashford and Jon Culshaw

Originally released : February 2025

Listened to: February 2025

Context: not a lot to add here, I am bang up to date with the BF third doctor adventures so pretty much listened to this one as soon as it came out. Listened to as I was driving here, there and everywhere, took about 4/5 days to finish, so I ended up listening in quite disparate chunks, which is a bit of an issue, more on that shortly.

THE REVIEW

What I thought: I enjoyed this, can’t fault the performances or the story, a very season 7 third doctor 7 part adventure. So it’s solid, fun and a good listen…but for me way too long. I felt there was a fair bit of content that wasn’t really needed, but in fairness for me a few of the TV 7 parters are the same (for me that is). On reflection this is perhaps a reflection on the sheer volume of Big Finish I have listened to now (since the start of 2023 I have gone mad in purchasing and listening to BF Who), lots of which have been 4 or 3 one hour episode box sets, or 4 parters…I think i struggle with the very long listens as my preference is for shorter stories.

In part this is also due to the way I am often listening to these stories, be that on the commute (an hour each way) or an hours workout on the bike or rowing machine, two hour sessions pottering in the garden etc etc. So, if I don’t have a long workout session, coupled with lots of work in the garden this becomes a fragmented listen, which happened here. As a result I am not 100% I listened to all the episodes?!? So, this one got lost in my brain somewhat…not necessarily the stories fault. Defo lots of enjoyable parts, and I do love Tim Treloar as the 3rd doctor and the recast UNIT team. A definite must for early 70’s Who fans.

Rating: 3 out of 5 Daleks – looses a little with the length, not sure it’s really my cup of splosh to have these long form stories. It’s a very solid and enjoyable adventure.

What I felt:

What am I left thinking?

• Are all the third doc box sets going forwarded going to be this long?
• Be nice to hear John Culshaw as the Delgado master coming up against Tim’s third doctor

Memorable bits

• The beekeeper!
• That accent!
• Trip up north on the sleeper train was good fun and a great start to the story