The Bounty of Ceres

"Taste that decay in the air."

Writer: Ian Potter

Format: Audio

Released: November 2014

Series: Early Adventures 1.03

Featuring: First Doctor, Vicki, Steven

Synopsis

Ceres. A tiny, unforgiving ball of ice and rock hanging between Mars and Jupiter. It's no place to live, and it takes a special kind of person to work there.

The crew of the Cobalt Corporation mining base know exactly how deadly the world outside their complex is, but the danger isn't just outside anymore. The systems they rely on to keep them safe are failing and the planet is breaking in.

When the TARDIS strands Steven, Vicki and the Doctor on the base, they have to fight a foe they can barely comprehend to survive.

Verdict

The Bounty of Ceres was a really strong Early Adventures story! It’s quite amazing really that this is the debut for Peter Purves as the First Doctor in a full audio and he does a really good job. He certainly does justice to William Hartnell and particularly taps into that charming and lighthearted side which is often forgotten in representations of the first incarnation. It’s really nice and provides a nice dynamic, especially with Vicki who fills that granddaughter role in the TARDIS very nicely and shared a lovely relationship with the Doctor. I quite like the banter between her and Steven as well with the focus on their different times they’re from and how advanced they are. Vicki being from further in the future means she has the upper hand and she certainly doesn’t hold back in asserting her assumed superiority! It’s fun for her to be referring to our present day or times closes to it as basically the Middle Ages. I’m quite surprised the Doctor doesn’t correct her. I loved how this one started with the follow on from The Time Meddler with the Doctor fiddling with the dimensional stabiliser from the Monk’s TARDIS he took to keep him stuck in the eleventh century. That was magnificent stuff and the idea of the TARDIS interior expanding and actually having more potential to expand was excellent! I thought it was good stuff and quite fun to play with, especially when it inevitably went wrong. I liked how that brought them to Ceres which was a really strong setting as an isolated rock between Mars and Jupiter. It was good to be somewhere new in the familiar Solar System and I liked how that focused on the technological position with Vicki and Steven able to provide insight and a lack of knowledge on the creature, especially by Vicki’s time. I thought the basis of the story was decent and certainly well paced, although I do think the cliffhangers could have had a bit more impact. They seemed a little light in excitement, but that’s not to say they were bad. They just needed a bit more oomph. I really enjoyed the mystery that ensued of things going wrong and the added dimension of the oxygen going wrong thanks to the algae going rotten was very good. I liked the realism there. Moreland was a very good character and I liked how Thorn’s meddling with the computer was all down to get him killed. It was a well thought out plan but the Doctor was one step ahead of him thanks to Vicki’s reporting and graphs. I liked how she was able to be really helpful there. He was a callous man and the way things concluded with him just jumping to his own death rather than answer for his crimes was quite emphatic and a sudden conclusion. It did feel a little abrupt, but after Moreland overheard Thorn describing his actions over the years in making the voices it was a fitting end for the former to be rid of him. Qureshi was a decent character to flesh out the cast and I liked how they all blended together. The narration was good to share between Vicki and Steven and never felt like too much which is a danger in these kind of adventures. Overall though, a really great listen!

Rating: 8/10