The Doctor, Sarah and Harry come up with a novel way to gain entry to an exclusive resort…

It seems amazing that in twenty years of Big Finish, we’ve not had a new audio story that includes Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan, the stalwart of season 12, berated by the Doctor as imbecile, yet one of the most fundamentally decent companions the Time Lord ever had. Created to fill what turned out to be a non-existent gap – the fourth Doctor might have been cast older and needed an Ian Chesterton-type figure to handle the action sequences – Harry was brought to life by the late Ian Marter. The character’s been mentioned in 21st century Who and its spinoffs, but the part has never been recast.

Louise Jameson very sensibly doesn’t try to do an imitation of any of the three characters in Eddie Robson’s story, but uses inflections in her voice that bring to mind Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Marter’s performances and there are certain moments that you’ll believe you actually did see, notably when the plan is being put into operation and photos of Harry are required. It’s a clever script by Robson that puts the 20th century journalist –1970s or 80s really doesn’t matter at this point – amidst future tech that’s actually not a million miles away from where we are now, and Harry into a very unusual position – leaving the Doctor to deal with things in his own inimitable way.

Verdict: Let’s hope this is just the first story to feature Harry – a welcome addition to the Big Finish ranks. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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