Doctor Who: The Bounty of Ceres

The Early Adventures #1.3

by Ian Potter

Ceres. A tiny, unforgiving ball of ice and rock hanging between Mars and Jupiter. It’s no place to live, and it takes a special kind of person to work there.

The crew of the Cobalt Corporation mining base know exactly how deadly the world outside their complex is, but the danger isn’t just outside anymore. The systems they rely on to keep them safe are failing and the planet is breaking in.

When the TARDIS strands Steven, Vicki and the Doctor on the base, they have to fight a foe they can barely comprehend to survive.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook

Audio CD

First published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor, Vicki and Stephen land on a mining colony on a rock in-between Mars and Jupiter. Turns out a lot of it is frozen and they have to go into cryo sleep for a computer keeping them alive. Or is it. Can the Doctor find out who has reprogram the computers to kill.

[Edward Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now I don't know who does a better impression of William Hartnell's Doctor, William Russell or Peter Purves! Very entertaining.

[Janelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Three stars for the storyline, but the sound effects distracted me and drowned out the voices of the characters. I couldn’t understand the robots at all they were so distorted. So I dropped off one star. I’m starting to wonder if the Big Finish audiobooks just aren’t for me.

[Paulo "paper books only" · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring running around a space station. Didn't enjoy it because it felt boring.

[Richard Harrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun stuff, excellent sci-fi base under siege type story that Doctor Who does so well. Plenty to do for the companions.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third in this series of partly narrated retro stories moves on to the show's third season, and so replaces William Russell with Peter Purves (Steven) as Maureen O'Brien (Vicki)'s co-narrator.

Here, the Doctor and his companions arrive at a mining base on the asteroid Ceres as its automated systems are slowly succumbing to failure. This echoes some of the attempts by the '60s series to do relatively hard sci-fi (more noticeable, perhaps, in the 2nd Doctor's run than the 1st). That's helped by the near future setting, with technology that both Steven and Vicki actually find primitive - most obviously, the 'magic' artificial gravity we normally see in such stories hasn't been invented yet, and most of this tale therefore takes place in 0.03g.

The story itself is a base-under-siege, with the slow buildup so typical of the Hartnell era, detailing the setting before we even get a hint as to what the real foe might be. Having only two companions proves an advantage over the previous two releases, with there no longer being any need to sideline the one who doesn't have a narrator. As a result, both Steven and Vicki have plenty to do and have a significant part to play in the final resolution. An interesting touch is that the setting is historical for them, yet futuristic for us, with Vicki at times forgetting how "low tech" the late 21st century is.

The action only really builds up in the last 30 minutes, although there is peril before that, caused by both the dangerous setting of a failing base on an airless asteroid and the apparently unhinged nature of some of the base crew. I found this worked well, evoking the pacing of the stories it is imitating, although the maintenance robots would have been tricky on a '60s budget (and the gravity hard even on a modern TV one). I also liked the explanation for what was causing the problems, which seemed very fitting for what else we saw of the setting.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bounty of Ceres is the closest to hard science fiction of any Doctor Who offering I have encountered. I have long thought that Doctor Who could have some hard science stories and that it would work well. The Bounty of Ceres justifies that opinion. Here we have Doctor One, Vicki, and Steven accidentally arriving on a base located on the planetoid Ceres. The Doctor has tried repairing the TARDIS, and the TARDIS has now broken down in a way that prevents the travellers from getting back inside. So, they go in search of help. The base is a mining installation, corporate owned, run by three people and a set of maintenance robots. Some things have been going wrong on the station, and one of the crew is more than a little paranoid. What follows, then, is classic Doctor Who of the 1960s, with the travellers at first being the subjects of suspicion, then winning trust, and finally helping to find a solution. Writer Ian Potter has done a very good job of plot misdirection, so that a listener thinks that one thing is happening, when in fact something else is going on. Peter Purves and Maureen O'Brien fall right back into their roles as if they had never left them, and Purves does a marvellous William Hartnell impression. He does not sound exactly like Hartnell, but he does have the rhythm and speech patterns of Hartnell down perfectly. I found this one quite well done.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun twists and turns in this one. Things seem to be playing out one way, then it’s not. Lovely. I’ve got to say that these Early Adventures are just wonderful. Like the Lost Stories line, these are far superior to the Companion Chronicles or the Short Trips ranges. Both of those can be quite good, and there are some truly excellent offerings, but I really am enjoying these Early Adventures enormously. This one, like many in this range, really do feel like they were written during those early seasons of Doctor Who, they capture the feel and texture of the same sort of claustrophobic sets and rushed sequences. And the slight narration is a perfect touch to give the listener the same sense of imagery that you get in the audio recordings of the “Lost Episodes” that have some narration overlaid to provide context since the visual elements are gone. Really enjoyed this one.

[TheTimeScales · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard space adventure with decent show front-and-center with Steven and Vicki. For atmosphere, music and setting a notch up over a good average. Future Earth space crew meets farther future Earth Doctor companions, which does not play any significant part of the story (but could have!) is still superficially intriguing and in a minor way enhances the story event and characters. In the throes of average..

Steven and Vicki are a highly appreciated team (a release for the collection) and I hope for more space adventures with them..

I have to mention that O’Brien sounds great and her presence alone is a major highlight with Purves.
This was 3/5 solid.

Director: Lisa Bowerman
Writer: Ian Potter

[Danny Welch · Rating 4 out of 5]

A heavy but good sc-fi story with robots, artifical intelligences, ideas of a living planet, etc. But it's also a very nice character drama with interesting twists and turns, even though it is a good listen it does feel like a filler story but it's very good filler at that. 8/10

[Derelict Space Sheep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Potter captures the feel and pace of a First Doctor adventure but affords companions Steven and Vicki some much-needed depth, elevating them from plot-driven stand-ins to genuine characters. Peter Purves is excellent as Steven (and channels William Hartnell also in well-pitched homage).

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an entry in Big Finish's Early Adventures range. Peter Purves does double duty as the First Doctor and Steven. It is a very basic, but fun story. By the way, the robot voices remind me of old school Cyclons from the original version of Battlestar Galactica.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm just not enjoying these as much as I thought I would.

[Rob Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

A base under siege story more typical of the Second Doctor, this adventure features a great impression of William Hartnell by Peter Purves. The interview afterwards was a delight to listen to.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great DW adventure and one I would love to see as an episode.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well acted but the plot was slow and the resolution a bit unsatisfactory. The worst of the Early Adventure series so far. As with all stories in this series, there is an extended music track in the center of the story and post-story interviews. This one is only for completists; casual fans of Doctor Who can skip this one.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

An early Dr. Who adventure that never was ...