Reunion: Poison's Reach

"All we know is lies."

Writer: Paul Sutton

Format: Audio

Released: August 2026

Series: Sixth Doctor Adventures 11.02

Featuring: Sixth Doctor, Peri, Turlough

Synopsis

The civilisation of Freefall is powered by a natural radiation stream rising from its moon. That's the official story.

Engineer Sandra Silva knows the truth. She's determined to expose the Stelta Corporation's crimes, and she has a trio of time-travelling sightseers on her side. 

Turlough is about to learn that, to achieve a worthy goal, sometimes the ultimate sacrifice has to be made...

Verdict

Poison's Reach was another good episode to continue my way through the Reunion series of Sixth Doctor Adventures! This set has been pretty run of the mill thus far with two pretty solid and consistent episodes to kick us off, but I feel like the finale will have a bit more at stake and a stronger emotional pull judging b the way things concluded here as Turlough ponders on finally returning to Trion. I'm excited to hear where that goes next but his relationship built with Sandra here really did set him on that path. She was a strong character and definitely the standout of the story, but I must say it got pretty tiresome to hear her full name spoken every time. It just didn't seem necessary and became a bit of a boring gag by the end of things. I thought there was some deep-rooted intrigue behind the Stelta Corporation and the official word surrounding the radiation stemming from the rising moon was good, but I'm not sure how much I could accept the way that truth was hidden. I love the idea of exploration misinformation but it went a little too far for me here that it wasn't entirely believable. It's a shame as the story has so much potential but this took me out of things a little bit. For a family to be convicted of the murders of over three-thousand people, the situation is obviously going to draw attention. But for that to be forgotten and basically copy and pasted over in less than a century feels like an incredible reach. Turlough rightly points out that there would be records of the trial and the court conviction, but somehow the Stelta family have not only gotten past that but they're in a position of power? I'm not having. I did appreciate Sandra's desire and efforts in wanting to expose the truth, but I just couldn't grasp that it had been buried in the first place. That just wasn't something I could accept. Priss served as a pretty strong villain as the head of the Stelta family and corporation now and finding out that he and Sandra were actually second cousins was a fun twist I didn't see coming. It made the emotional pull of her investigation all the more deeper and gave even more sympathy from Turlough. She had seen the TARDIS arrive and couldn't believe that this was actually Turlough and company's shift, but he was very serious in offering her a way out. She had accepted her fate though and despite exposing the truth despite how dark it was, she accepted her fate for her experimentation. She would serve time and somehow Priss was still on track to get reelected. People can always decide what they do with the truth and they rarely choose the right option! No matter what you tell them, the mind of society is often already made up and it's extremely difficult to change it. That felt like a good message that is prevalent in the politics of today. I enjoyed the Freefall setting but I must say I don't think the Doctor or Peri offered a great deal to proceedings. This was definitely Turlough's story from a point of interest. Disappointingly, I thought the cliffhanger was pretty naff for the second episode running and to be honest I don't really see why they are needed in these kinds of adventures/boxsets of three one-hour stories. Hopefully the finale has a special one though! Overall, some good character development for Turlough and a decent episode to continue the series. I'm excited to see where things conclude.

Rating: 7/10