'Doctor Who': "The Great Beyond" Review

Doctor Who’s 1982 season was one of transition. One that saw not only Peter Davison taking over from Tom Baker after the latter’s seven year run as the Time Lord, but also with a young cast of companions, and a back to basics approach for the series. It was a ratings success and one that has retained a loyal following in the Doctor Who fan community ever since. Big Finish, those prolific producers of Doctor Who audio drama, have also been tapping into that season in a number of their releases reuniting the cast decades later. The Great Beyond, released in September 2024, takes them even farther.

James Kettle’s script offers a number of things that the 1982 season (and 1980s Doctor Who in general) never had on offer. The first is a longer story, with The Great Beyond clocking in at six episodes and some three hours worth of audio drama. It’s a lot of space for a story to fill, especially given that the average story for Davison’s Doctor on TV was four parts. So this is longer than your average story (even on audio) for this Doctor.

The other thing that Kettle does is settle everyone down for awhile. The title refers to a prison, home to a number of leaders and war criminals from a great galactic war between the Universalist’s and the Scarlet Thread. And, clearly, the situation has been ongoing for some time at the start of the story. Above all else, however, this is a chance to explore the characters of the Doctor, Nyssa, Adric, and Tegan in some depth and their relationships with one another. The sense of them as a family of sorts is not only evident but tested as it never was on-screen. And, coming in as a sort of “missing adventure” of that 1982 season, it also allows Kettle to do some retroactive foreshadowing of what’s to come in their future.

But does it work as a story, especially one with this sort of length?

Indeed it does. Like the best of Doctor Who’s lengthier stories, Kettle is smart enough to create a layered plot. One that every time the listener and the characters alike think they’ve got a handle on, another veil is lifted and the mystery only deepens. Plus, by throwing listeners (and to some extent the characters) in at the deep end, the exact hows and whys of how everything has happened only becomes clear to everyone as the serial unfolds, adding both to the drama and the sense of mystery. The result, especially when listened to an episode at a time instead of all at once, is a compelling story.

One that’s also helped by a number of its ideas and characters. Kettle brings some dark ideas into play with imagery (itself an interesting thing for a story in the audio medium to have) which adds to the sense of the otherworldy and bizarre that the story has for its bread and butter, including an ever-changing wood-paneled prison with flying robot guards. Not only that, but the supporting cast of characters are interesting as well, including the three Starclair sisters (which Kettle consciously modeled on the real-life Mitford sisters) with their varying stances and ever escalating squabbling and verbal jesting. Coupled with the strengths of the TARDIS crew (including a matured Matthew Waterhouse as boy genius mathematician Adric), it’s a

Not that The Great Beyond ultimately avoids all the problems of the Doctor Who six-parter. True, there’s no wheel-spinning so the plot can essentially stop for a time to get the writer to episode six. What happens instead is that there’s a number of revelations that end up being rushed in the final episode, which leaves the logic behind what’s happening more than a little lacking in places. Not only that, but a lot is crammed into closing installment in terms of time, as well, that feels like it needed more room to breathe. Not that the ending doesn’t lack pathos (far from it), but something about the ending doesn’t quite land as it should.

Even so, The Great Beyond is a heck of a listen. Indeed, with its character development and explorations coupled with dark ideas and imagery, it’s a story that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the experimental early years of Big Finish. If this is a sign of what’s to come for Davison’s Doctor with a twelve-part story coming in 2025, listeners are in for a treat.

Doctor Who: The Fifth Doctor Adventures: The Great Beyond is exclusively available to buy from the Big Finish website until 31 October 2024, and on general sale after this date.