Dreamland was the 67th release in Big Finish’s Main Range of original Doctor Who audio dramas. It was released in March 2005, which means it came out the same month that the revived series of Doctor Who kicked off on TV. It was written by Simon A. Forward, and stars Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor, alongside Sophie Alfred as Ace and Philip Olivier as original-to-audio companion Hex.
Dreamtime is, I think, a funny story. It’s full of all sorts of classic Doctor Who-ish sort of stuff, like big science fiction concepts and some creepy mysteries, but it also features the reveal that Uluru–the giant monolithic rock that sits at the heart of Australia, and is one of the country’s most iconic features–will one day take off into space, carrying a bunch of followers, to avoid the end of the world. It’s all tied into ancient local mysticism and the threat of the “Dreamtime”, a nebulous dark underworld that pulls you out of reality. Nobody references Aboriginal people at any point in the story, but the story obviously takes a bunch of Australian indigenous culture’s ideas and fictionalises them into a creepy (though ultimately not malevolent) Doctor Who-type threats. The results just feel a little iffy from my 2024 perspective.
Given all that, the adventure itself is fine. The story involves the Doctor meeting up with Uluru and the city that has built up around it many years after its exodus from earth. Strange monsters are emerging from the Dreamtime and sucking the inhabitants away, but the Doctor is able to do use this to travel back in time to before Uluru launched out into space and helps to push things in a more positive direction. Meanwhile, Ace and Hex worth with various guest stars to try to resolve the problems happening in the future.
It’s all generally fun and engaging, although not outstanding. Sylvester McCoy’s performance is full of conviction, but sometimes feels a little more affected than I’d like. Both Ace and relative newcomer Hex fill all the roles that one wants from the show’s companions, but the story doesn’t exactly take us anywhere new with the characters (well, maybe with Hex, but is that’s because it’s only his second story). And there are times times when the pacing of the script feels a little off, and things drag slightly. The worst moment is the cliffhanger to episode 2–for some reason, the whole scene is also used as a cold open to the entire adventure, which makes the end of episode 2 feel annoying rather than interesting.
But generally speaking, Dreamtime is satisfactory and enjoyable, and I had a good time listening to it.
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