Responding to an SOS, the Doctor and Mel come to the aid of marine biologist Hebe Harrison and her colleagues…

This story from producer Jacqueline Rayner kickstarts an arc of adventures for the Sixth Doctor and Mel that has a nice link back to one of Rayner’s first contributions to Big Finish’s Doctor Who range. That in itself is nicely judged: you don’t necessarily need to know anything about the person referred to, but the Doctor’s reaction to hearing about them and the link with Hebe provides a testimonial that has weight within and outside the fiction.

The story is one that feels very much of the modern era, both in terms of its story presentation and its themes. Since this came out last year, we’ve had Prime Video’s The Rig which, for all its high tech wizardry, failed to sell its location half as well as Steve Foxon’s all-encompassing sound design does here, and there are some quite horrific deaths (as well as some quite horrific chances for the actors to go for broke when their characters are under the influence!). Rayner’s script throws a number of convoluted crowd scenes at director Helen Goldwyn, and there’s an air of controlled chaos to them that fits the story.

One of the central parts of the story is the introduction of another new companion for the Sixth Doctor, with Ruth Madeley joining the TARDIS crew as Hebe. There’s a focus within this on her character’s need for a wheelchair, and Rayner and Madeley make some very sharp points about the way in which people interact with wheelchair users and those with disabilities, giving Hebe an understandable prickliness that this mellowed version of the Sixth Doctor is able to see beyond. You might think that there’s over-exaggeration of the attitude, but having recently had to start using one myself for any sort of distance, you realise very quickly that people subconsciously rush to judgement about your abilities, and even your capacity to answer questions for yourself!

Verdict: A strong start, and an interesting new character for the Sixth Doctor and Mel to interact with. 9/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order from Big Finish