The Gulf

"The sea screams at night."

Writer: James Goss

Format: Audio

Released: May 2021

Series: Third Doctor Adventures 7.02

Featuring: Third Doctor, Sarah Jane

Synopsis

The TARDIS lands on an ocean planet where the Doctor and Sarah find themselves stranded on a former rig, which has recently been converted into an artistic retreat.

But art is far from the residents' minds. A troubled member of their collective has disappeared, and the Doctor senses a sinister psychic presence. The waves are rising. And there's something in the water.

Verdict

The Gulf was a great story to conclude the seventh series of Third Doctor Adventures! It’s lovely to hear Sadie Miller in a full cast role alongside Tim Treloar as the Third Doctor, and whilst it is a shame that neither of the characters’ original actors survive, both do them justice here. Obviously, you can’t go far wrong in casting the original actor’s daughter to fill her mother’s shoes and Treloar just continues to absolutely shine in bringing Jon Pertwee’s iconic incarnation to life. I’m a huge fan of getting more adventures from that eleventh season as the pairing of the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane just didn’t have enough time. I liked the eery atmosphere this story had of being at sea and the natural threats that provides is always something I enjoy. The Doctor and Sarah arriving after Laurel had gone overboard put things in a tense position but they were soon on hand to help in any way they could. So when she came back the mystery began in a big way. Having the Doctor and Sarah separated from the TARDIS was great and is always good to tackle, especially with natural elements involved. The fact it was floating akin to The Underwater Menace was quite fun at the end. Speaking of the TARDIS, the subtle and clever allusion to Journey’s End with the Doctor hoping one day he’d be able to show Sarah the power it had to pull a planet. That was tremendous and a very nice inclusion. That’s the beauty of audios like this across different eras is that we can tap into the future. I enjoyed how immediately we knew there was something up with Laurel and the other characters didn’t seem to notice as much. Pen and Lynette were the other obvious standouts for the story and the female dynamic was really nice to explore and I was glad that nothing was made of it. It would be so easy to marvel at the female dominance of this cast but it just clicked and went unnoticed which I was delighted about, especially when set in the era of the 1970s, or 1980s? Less about the dating controversy! Either way, the views of women have come a long way since then thankfully. I thought the Gulf itself was a strong concept and the Doctor actually being within it at one point was great and provided a strong cliffhanger. It was good for him to liken it to being in the realm of Omega in a neat The Three Doctors reference. Focusing on the theme of art was really good and tapping into the pain of that was intriguing. Now, I’m no artist and I’m so far from it but I do understand the effort it takes to create artwork. The psychic nature of exploiting the pain associated with that combined well. Sarah being taunted about her aunt Lavinia was a deep cut and provided a nice chill in the episode. I do think the way things ended with the explosion to wipe out the Gulf was a little predictable, but I couldn’t deny it wasn’t empathic! If you’re going to defeat a psychic enemy, this is the way to do it in leaving no doubt of its survival. Overall, a really great listen!

Rating: 8/10