The Black Hole, episodes 1 & 2

Early Adventures #2.3

Released: 17 November 2015

Listened: 9/29/20

This is an Early Adventure, the only one with Victoria, which means it’s a full-length story. However, it takes place with a distinct gap in the middle, from the Doctor’s point of view, so for this project, I’ll split them. The TARDIS lands on a space station, which is experiencing time dilations as a result of a gravitational anomaly. It turns out to be a black hole, and an unusual one at that. There’s another Time Lord present, a constable named Pavo. The Doctor is very nervous about meeting him, because the Doctor assumes Pavo will arrest him. But they’ve got bigger problems with the Black Hole, and they’re forced to do a sciency thing to close it, at the cost of Pavo’s TARDIS. That leaves him injured, and unable to complete his stated mission, to meet with Dastari, so the Doctor and Jamie go in his place, which leads into “The Two Doctors.” Deborah Watling, unfortunately, sounds her age, and not much like Victoria. There’s no attempt to cover it up; you just have to ignore it. The narration is provided by David Warner, and I’ll always listen to David Warner, but it’s odd that he doesn’t play a character at all. And finally, this is the first appearance of Rufus Hound in Big Finish, which is a spoiler if you’ve ever heard him before. This half of the story is mostly just setup, but it carries itself well for all that.