‘THE GATHERING’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Tegan reunites with the Fifth Doctor and faces the Cybermen
For Timelord007
I enjoyed ‘The Gathering’, starring Peter Davison as the Doctor and Janet Fielding as Tegan!
It’s a great sequel to a fantastic story. It’s not as good as ‘The Reaping’, but I found this very enjoyable. It’s well constructed and brilliantly written by Joseph Lidster, who carries on from ‘The Reaping’ in this.
N.B: If you want to understand what’s going on in this story, listen to ‘The Reaping’ first. I know this is a Fifth Doctor story before the Sixth Doctor. But trust me! It is best if you hear ‘The Reaping’ first.
This is a 2 by 60 minute story on two discs (120 minutes in total), shorter than the previous story.
For me, the highlight of this story is the return of Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka. Janet vowed once that she would never return to ‘Doctor Who’. But since then she’s had a change of heart and has returned to play Tegan for her final meeting with the Doctor. It’s a great performance by Janet here.
As I mentioned in my review for ‘The Reaping’, I met Joe Lidster for the first time at the ‘Project Motor Mouth 2’ convention (run by Janet Fielding) in Slough, August 2013. I enjoyed chatting to Joe about ‘The Reaping’ and ‘The Gathering’. I’m pleased I was able to talk to him about the two stories.
‘The Gathering’ opens as before like ‘The Reaping’ with various news reports from various time periods overlapping with each other. The atmosphere is different though in this sequence, as the build up’s subtler and there isn’t any background music to add to the tense atmosphere for Tegan.
Again there’s a semi-prologue sequence where Tegan wakes up in the morning and gets a phone call from her mum. It’s been a long while since Tegan left the Doctor in ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ and her life hasn’t been that easy. Tegan is now she’s 46 years old as it’s her birthday today in the story.
I found ‘The Gathering’ a rather convoluted story, especially with the first episode. I’ll try my best to explain the plot in this review. The Fifth Doctor visits the Gogglebox inside Earth’s moon. The Doctor learns of some energy spikes occurring in different time periods on Earth and decides to investigate.
The Doctor soon ends up in Brisbane in 2006 where he meets Dr Katherine Chambers (Peri’s best friend from ‘The Reaping’). He also reunites with Tegan Jovanka. Tegan is shocked and uncomfortable to see the Doctor again. He was the last person she expected to see on her birthday.
‘The Gathering’ resembles another new series story of ‘Doctor Who’ called ‘School Reunion’. In that story, Sarah Jane Smith reunited with the Tenth Doctor. The same principle applies to Tegan in this one, but it’s not a happy reunion as she knows the Doctor hasn’t come to wish her a happy birthday.
Janet Fielding finds her feet as Tegan in this adventure. I’ve first met Janet at ‘Project Motor Mouth 2’ in Slough, August 2013. It was a treasure to meet Janet. Tegan is still the rather bossy; bitchy person, but there’s a lot more substance to her as her life after travelling with the Doctor gets touched upon.
In this story, it was shock for me when it turns out that Tegan is dying from a brain tumour inside her head. I couldn’t help feel horrified by that. This story presents an interesting side to Tegan, as we find out how her life has become depressing since she left the Doctor and it’s rather sad to listen to.
Peter Davison is great as the Doctor in this adventure. I’ve also met Peter at ‘Doctor Who’ conventions. Peter’s Doctor gets concerned about the energy spikes that are happening on Earth and he wants to know more about them. He tries to get to Kathy Chambers who keeps avoiding him.
The Doctor shows concern for Tegan in this story and is disparaged when he finds her being nasty to someone and he gets her to sit down and talk to him about what’s going on. I loved how despite the Doctor’s being uneasy with Tegan, he’s able to show concern for her when she tells him she’s dying.
Jane Perry returns as Kathy Chambers from ‘The Reaping’ in this adventure. Kathy is now older and goes on a hard journey in this story. Kathy has moved to Brisbane and has this new pharmacy to help the sick. When she meets the Doctor again, memories from ‘The Reaping’ flood back and haunt her.
The guest cast also includes Janie Booth as Eve Morris, a secretary working at Kathy Chambers’ pharmacy. There’s also Richard Grieve as James Clarke, who work with Kathy at her pharmacy; and Dait Abuchi as Michael Tanaka, who was once Tegan’s boyfriend before she suddenly dumped him.
This seems to be a Cybermen story following ‘The Reaping’, but it hasn’t got any Cybermen in it. There is a partially-converted Cyberman who happens to be Kathy’s brother Nate and is kept within her pharmacy. Nate is paralysed and can’t speak clearly through his distorted electronic cyber voice.
‘Eight six eight seven’ from ‘The Reaping’ gets revealed here. It’s the name of a bar and is a word that Peter’s Doctor uses to tap into the ‘System’ at Kathy pharmacy so that he can remember her in his future. This idea isn’t well-executed. Colin Baker’s Doctor doesn’t remember Kathy in ‘The Reaping’.
The music and sound effects are quite fast, especially with the modern 2006 setting and the grimy atmosphere of Brisbane where Tegan’s home is. ‘The Gathering’ is a pacey story compared to ‘The Reaping’. The music and sound effects add to that quality of the summery atmosphere throughout.
By the time we come to the end of the story, the Doctor and Tegan manage to stop Kathy’s ambitious plans by blowing up her pharmacy with Nate inside. Tegan’s reconciles and reunites with Michael, as they’re now both back together. All seems well, apart from one person who has escaped.
Tegan gets to have one last farewell with the Doctor before he leaves in the TARDIS. She’s able to reconcile her differences with him. I really liked that sequence where the Doctor and Tegan make up. The ending is a great and is played by two good actors who know their characters inside and out.
The end credits music rolls on and it’s the end. But wait! It’s not. Phillip Olivier as Hex narrates over the end credits, as he talks about how he first met the Doctor. There’s a trailer for ‘The Harvest’, a story where Hex meets the Doctor and Ace and where certain things follow on from ‘The Gathering’.
The other CD extras are as follows. On Disc 1, there’s a trailer for ‘Memory Lane’ with Paul McGann; India Fisher and Conrad Westmaas. At the end of Disc 2, there are trailers for some Cybermen stories including ‘The Reaping’, ‘Spare Parts’ (one of my favourite audio stories) and ‘Sword of Orion’.
‘The Gathering’ is another great character-driven drama with the Fifth Doctor reuniting with an older Tegan. This story also has elements of a soap-opera drama thrown into it and is a great character piece for Tegan in how she deals with reuniting with the Doctor again and resolving her differences.
‘The Gathering’ rating – 9/10
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Bradley's Basement 
I mistakenly listened to this before The Reaping & hadn’t a clue what was going on lol.
But when i re-listened to it with The Reaping it all fits together brilliantly, I remember Janet being quite vocal about this being a one off as she had no interest reprising the role of Tegan in future adventures so I’m so glad Janet finally had a change of heart & she admits she was wrong & is enjoying her time at Big Finish.
Brilliant review Tim, you nailed the tone of this audio drama which does have a soap opera feel to it, i was upset that Tegan didn’t want to be cured & rejected the Doctors help but the scene was strongly written & gave a good explanation to Tegans reasoning.
Thanks for the dedication Tim, I’m chuffed to bits about that, much appreciated my friend.
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I’m glad I listened to ‘The Reaping’ first before listening to ‘The Gathering’, as I would have got completely confused listening to the two audios vice versa.
Yes I’m pleased Janet has changed her mind recently about doing the Big Finish audios with Peter and Sarah lately, since she clearly enjoys them and they do enhance Tegan’s character better compared to the TV series.
Many thanks for your comments, Simon. Glad you enjoyed my thoughts on ‘The Gathering’. It was shocking and upsetting when Tegan had this tumour in this story. But hopefully Tegan has been cured lately according to ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ by Sarah Jane in ‘Death of the Doctor’.
Glad you liked my dedications to you for both ‘The Reaping’ and ‘The Gathering’, Simon! I really appreciate your support on my reviews; my stories and my blog. Tim. 🙂
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Hi Tim,
I apologise that this comment will be overly negative, but it’s nothing to do with your review, it’s only to do with the story itself.
I’ve read the spoilers for this story in reviews, and I’m actually a little relieved that I did. I feel like if I had bought it without reading ahead anyway, I would have regretted listening to it.
This is what I’ve read. It seems that Tegan’s tumour came about because of her travels with the Doctor and that she claims she’s happy with her life back home, when that doesn’t appear to be the case. She also apparently doesn’t play that much of a role in the story anyway. I actually think that Tegan was better written in ‘Farewell, Sarah Jane’. At least she didn’t have a terminal illness in that story.
I’m not 100% sure if Joseph Lidster intended to make Tegan an abused character in this story, but that’s how it resonated with me. You’re more than welcome to debunk any of what I’ve seen from reviews of this story. As for ‘The Reaping’ I might actually give that story a listen someday.
I hope I’ve justified myself enough in this comment.
Kind regards,
Xavier
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Hi Xavier,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I must admit, it’s been a while since I’ve heard ‘The Reaping’ and ‘The Gathering’ and whilst I prefer the first story over the latter, I can’t say my enjoyment of the stories has been tainted in any way. I know Joseph Lidster has been critcised in terms of his writing over the years, even when he started with a story like ‘The Rapture’, but I’ve found his stories fascinating and engaging to listen to.
I wouldn’t judge this story solely from reading other people’s reviews of them, including mine. There’s no rush, but I recommend checking out ‘The Reaping’ first and then ‘The Gathering’ to find out whether these stories are worthwhile or not. I found them worth my time when I heard them and Joe Lidster has gone to write episodes of ‘Torchwood’ and ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’. I know recent stories like ‘Death of the Doctor’, ‘Farewell, Sarah Jane’ and ‘The Power of the Doctor’ tend to ignore ‘The Gathering’, especially considering the ill fate Tegan seemed to have, but I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely and I’m content with the theory that the Doctor didn’t give up on her and gave her the cure for her tumour anyway, which in turn possibly and partially wiped her memory of this story.
Again, it’s up to you whether you want to listen to ‘The Gathering’ or not, but I wouldn’t dismiss it entirely based on what you’ve read in other reviews, as it’s best to form your own opinion from seeing and hearing a story than take it from the word of others, including mine. I’d definitely listen to ‘The Reaping’ first, as the events in that story are very significant in the lead-in to ‘The Gathering’.
Best wishes,
Tim 🙂
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Hi Tim,
That’s fair enough. I apologise if I sounded harsh on the story in my comment. I suppose I’d had suspicions from the premise saying that Tegan had a terminal illness and suggestions of how she acts in the story would make me find it too depressing, and the reviews that I read seemed to support. But maybe one day I’ll have a change of heart and check the story out, not before ‘The Reaping’ though. 😄
I do usually try to avoid reading reviews before checking media out, but I guess I made this an exception.
Xavier
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Hi Xavier,
No worries. I hope you’ll get to enjoy ‘The Reaping’ and ‘The Gathering’ at some point, even if it’s in a strange manner whether you like Joseph Lidster’s style of storytelling or not. I admit, I sometimes check out other people’s reviews to give me an idea of what to expect in a story, but I don’t often rely on those reviews until I’ve seen or heard a story myself to form my own opinion of it before putting together a review.
Many thanks,
Tim 🙂
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