Doctor Who: The Gathering

Big Finish: Monthly Range #87

by Joseph Lidster, Peter Davison (Narrator), Janet Fielding (Narrator)

On the morning of 22 September 2006, Tegan woke up. She was expecting to spend the day relaxing at home and, that evening, tolerate a party thrown to celebrate her 46th birthday. But things don't always go as expected ­ it's been over twenty years since she chose to leave the Doctor. She's got a job, mates... a life.

Meanwhile her friend, Katherine Chambers, makes a decision that could change all their lives, and Tegan discovers that you can never really escape the past.

Chronological Placement
This story takes place between the television adventures, Planet of Fire and The Caves of Androzani.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Audiobook

Audio Play

First published September 1, 2006

About the author

Joseph Lidster is an English television writer best known for his work on the Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

His debut work was the audio play The Rapture for Big Finish Productions in 2002. Numerous further audio plays and prose short stories followed for Big Finish, for their Doctor Who line, spin-offs and other series (Sapphire & Steel and The Tomorrow People).

In 2005, he started working for the BBC, writing tie-in material for the new Doctor Who television series. He made his television writing debut in 2008 on the second series of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood and subsequently wrote three two-part stories for The Sarah Jane Adventures. He has written the two-part story "Rebel Magic" for the new CBBC series Wizards vs Aliens.

Lidster wrote the content for the tie-in websites relating to the fictional world of the television series, Sherlock. Alongside co-producer James Goss, he has produced Big Finish Productions' dramatic reading range of Dark Shadows audio dramas since 2011.

In 2012, he won the 'Audience Favourite Writer' award for his first play Nice Sally in the Off Cut Theatre Festival.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this as Tegan was turning the same age I am! Her interactions with the Doctor were great but there were some odd things about this one. Firstly the sound mix sounded very strange. There was a lot of unnecessary background noise, effects and things that made it hard to listen to. I know it was an earlier release so maybe they were just playing around with stuff. And it took AGES to get back to Tegan. Some American woman whose plot took awhile to get connected, and as a story interlinked with other stories it didn't work that well as a stand alone one. But yay for Tegan being 46 and telling off the doctor!

[Kelly McCubbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this play is considered the third of a trilogy that includes "The Harvest", "The Reaping" and itself, it is really a direct sequel to "The Reaping" and only tenuously related to "The Harvest".
So let's get this out of the way... One has to stretch a bit to really make sense of this story's machinations, with elements thrown at it pretty awkwardly at times.
But that's not the point. The point is Tegan.
Tegan Jovanka, much like the actor who has portrayed her for years, Janet Fielding, has a moral center like no other in the history of the show. While occasionally NuWho has made overtures towards the companion du jour being some sort of moral compass for The Doctor, none have ever acted it out in the way that Tegan has. Tegan was the first to call The Doctor out on the amount of violence that he was regularly swimming through and she is the only one to date to actually leave him specifically because of it. We can also talk about Fielding's performance as the beginning, long overdue, of actual feminism on Doctor Who and, while I know that it never went as far as she would've liked, it made a difference that I hope she's proud of.
In other words, Tegan Jovanka pointed out that there is no moral "center" and that The Doctor's mores might not be the absolute right ones. Right and wrong now have dimension on Doctor Who due, in large part, to Tegan.
So what does this story have to say about that? A lot. At the time this was an extremely rare return to the show for Fielding who had some quite reasonable issues with how women had been written on it for years and you can tell that she had some demands. Tegan maintains her strong opinions about The Doctor and violence. Tegan saves herself, natch, and is always the toughest person in the room. And, most importantly, Tegan is dying and, even though The Doctor is in some ways responsible, she does NOT need him to help her through that either.
Fielding and Davison are brilliant in a way that fine actors often can only be when they've sat with their characters for a very long time. Tegan is fierce, but vulnerable in very human ways and The Doctor must acquiesce to her showing a fragility that is rare for the character.

I could do without the attempts to wrap this story around the previous one which come off as far too precious and thankfully the Cyberman takes a real back seat here, but, again, none of that's the point. This is about Tegan and The Doctor and looking at the world in a different way. And that is pretty beautiful.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not one of the greatest, but it certainly held my attention. On September 22, 2006, Tegan’s 46th birthday, it has been a couple of decades since she last saw The Doctor. This story feels very grounded and real, and offers closure between her and the Fifth Doctor. What’s odd though is that I never imagined Five ever saw Tegan again after her heartbreaking departure, making his life all the more tragic. This is why I think I kind of prefer how The Power of the Doctor handled things, with Tegan not having seen The Doctor since her final serial.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great seeing where Tegan ended up after leaving the Doctor. Janet Fielding was gold as always.

[Viviana · Rating 2 out of 5]

[audiobook]

[Calum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good reintroduction to Tegan and has made me feel more for her as a character than most of her TV appearances. I think this is a fantastic way to bring back an old companion. Like the Reaping this has a really good emotional core to it.
7/10

[Tabitha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice break from the regular companions, and an overall decent concept

[Nicholas Whyte]

The Gathering is a sort-of sequel, sort-of prequel to Lidster's Six/Peri/Cybermen story, The Reaping - set in 2006 rather than 1984, with Peri's schoolfriend Kathy now practicing in Brisbane, Australia, and treating a certain Ms Tegan Jovanka for brain cancer. I thought the portrayal of the Doctor/Tegan relationship, picking up after 20 years, was fantastic, and although it leans very heavily on the precedent of School Reunion, it does at least take it somewhere slightly more interesting, with us getting a much better feeling of how Tegan has tried to fit her experience of travelling with the Doctor back into her normal life in Queensland. The ending is rather bittersweet, but very plausible.[return][return]Unfortunately the bit of plot with the Cybermen is pretty dull except where it is gratuitously horrific, but I still liked it much more than The Reaping.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it also gets four stars, I'd say this is slightly better than its prequel/sequel "The Reaping", which is set later from the Doctor's perspective, but earlier from everybody else's. As such, it ties up some hanging plot threads from the end of the story, as well as explaining what it had led up to it, and also acting as a prequel to the 7th Doctor story "The Harvest", which it helps to set up.

But the real point of the story is the examination of Tegan's life since she left the Doctor, and it's here that the play nudges ahead of "The Reaping". The two work better when taken together, with complementary themes as well as the more direct plot links, but even on its own, this does respectably.

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fifth Doctor encounters an enthusiastic fan who has found traces of the Doctor's various visits to Earth in his archives. Many of the visits are accompanied by a characteristic energy signature which the Doctor does not recognise and sets off to investigate. He travels to 1984 Baltimore, but hears a police report with a search out for the Doctor and realises a future incarnation is already there, so instead decides to visit Australia in 2006.

There he is to meet Tegan, an old companion, still trying to reconcile her everyday life with the adventures she had with the Doctor, and Katherine Chambers, a woman dealing with a legacy of events in the Doctor's future…

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor lands in 2006 and ends up visiting Tegan. She dying and her doctor is running from THE DOCTOr because his future self in her past killed her dad and injured her brother. Linked to story The Reaping. LIsten to Reaping first.

[Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one a bit better than The Reaping, the Sixth Doctor adventure, which is both a sequel and a prequel to this Fifth Doctor story. The Doctor meets an old Companion of his and encounters some folks he'll meet later. Timey wimey wobbly wobbly...

[Monster X · Rating 4 out of 5]

It did not get exciting till the second act, the second act- the doctor and Teagan together again trying to deal with their difficult past together was priceless, The female doctor realizing that she had met the fifth doctor in her past which will be his future cool

[Shaun Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full review to come at www.travelingthevortex.com

Part 1 was a muddle, except for the Tegan/Doctor parts.

Part 2 relied too heavily on fixing the earlier story. BUT for all that, the Tegan Doctor parts are fantastic and what lift this above the standard fare.

[ani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this story very much though was pleased i'd already heard 'The Reaping'. Tegan's return was wonderfully told.

[Scott Haworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better than The Reaping, which couldn't deliver on its initial promise. This one is more personal and doesn't pull the rug out from under you. (But I still don't quite get 8687.)

[Joseph S · Rating 2 out of 5]

The music makes this almost unlistenable. My first review was five stars but my second listen finds it grating.

GREAT STORY.