The Gathering

Main Range #87

Released: 25 September 2006

Listened: 12/18/19

When this story was released in 2006, the big draw was that it was the first appearance of Tegan in Big Finish, and was supposed to be the only one, because Janet Fielding didn’t want to participate at the time. She’s changed her mind since then, so I’ve already seen plenty of Tegan in this project, and her departure was fairly recent. That makes this story more “sad coda after her departure” rather than “sad only appearance.” This story is a sequel to “The Reaping,” which was released immediately before, and “The Harvest,” which was released a while before. Unlike later Big Finish multi-Doctor trilogies, this one happens out of order for the Doctor, and it’s fairly confusing for the listener if you haven’t just heard “The Reaping,” so for the purposes of this project, it’s a bit of a mess. The big draw of this story is the Doctor meeting up with Tegan again after 20 years, and seeing the consequences to a companion when they leave the Doctor. However, TV’s “School Reunion” just did that with Sarah Jane a few months prior to this release, so it’s not quite as fresh as it could have been. The plot itself is nearly an afterthought, and mostly a lot of talking with little action. That allows the focus to stay on Tegan, which I think is a good choice. It has a rather melancholy ending, which has been contradicted by later TV stories and Big Finish audios.