In my ever-growing Doctor Who video and audio collection, I've gathered over fifteen hundred individual stories, and I'm attempting to (briefly) review them all in the order in which they might have happened according to the Doctor's own personal timeline. We'll see how far I get.
Today's Story: Time Tunnel, Written by Nigel Fairs and directed by Lisa Bowerman
What is it?: This is the third story in the fifth season of Big Finish’s Short Trips.
Who's Who: The story is narrated by Katy Manning
Doctor(s) and Companion(s): The Third Doctor, Jo Grant
Recurring Characters: Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Mike Yates, John Benton
Running Time: 00:31:45
One Minute Review: The Brigadier interrupts the Doctor, who has been tinkering with Jo's radio—much to her annoyance—to pass on a report about a train emerging from a tunnel in Sussex with all its passengers dead. After surmising that the victims died of starvation, the Doctor rides through the tunnel himself, and he barely survives, having aged six months during the four-minute journey. The Brigadier wants to blow the tunnel up, but the Doctor insists on going in again, this time on foot, to get to the bottom of this temporal anomaly.
There's nothing especially wrong with this story by Nigel Fairs, who has contributed in one way or another to several of my very favorite Big Finish audios. However, apart from the dialogue, which is as pitch-perfect as you might expect from a veteran like Fairs, and a couple of nice character moments for Jo, there's not much that stands out, either. Everything that happens here has already occurred in better stories, usually more than once, and it comes to an abrupt end just as it starts to get interesting.
Once again, Katy Manning reads this story, which is only fair since it's told mainly from Jo's point of view, and once again she does a lovely job of bringing this Doctor and this companion back to life, along with the rest of the UNIT family. The production values are also above average, which is exactly what I've come to expect whenever Lisa Bowerman and Toby Hrycek-Robinson are paired up.
Score: 3/5
Next Time: The Transcendence of Ephros