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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 1 November 2006 |
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| Rating: |   7 |
Joseph Lidster has tried to do something that Jonathan Morris did so well with Flip-Flop: write a circular story where each part feeds into the other. The Reaping is a companion to The Gathering, with Peter Davison. Each relies on the other to complete full story of Kathy Chambers and what she tries to do with cyber technology. Of the two stories, The Reaping is far superior to The Gathering. Whereas The Gathering is 85 minutes of whine and moan about how the Doctor makes everyone's life miserable, The Reaping affirms the Doctor's heroic status. Peri gives an admirable speech about why she travels with the Doctor and what makes him a superior character. Because such moments are highly unusual in the Big Finish CDs and Virgin/BBC novels, that perspective alone makes The Reaping worth getting. As far as the story goes, it is standard Cyberman fair, and the time-travel twist does not really change that fact. That is alright, as far as it goes. The one big problem in the script is that while creeping around trying to be quiet, while running away from cyber-possessed policemen, while confronting a half-cyberized corpse in a graveyard, people still apparently have time discuss their personal differences. There are continual disconnections between the scenes and the dialogue. If Lidster had wanted to write a family drama, he could have chosen a different sort of story, one that would make such dialogue realistically in context.
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 | Families who would have them!! |
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Introducing Peri's family and the effects of her leaving is obviously inspired by the new TV series but injecting the elements of success from TV into audio helps to build a punchy plot which runs at great pace delivering a great story.
| By: | Doug, Pocono Summit, PA, USA |
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| Date: | Sunday 24 June 2007 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
Well, it seems that it's suddenly in vogue for the Doctor to "do domestic." The Reaping clearly draws from the new series portrayal of Rose's family, applying it here to Peri. This also exists, but to a much lesser degree, in The Gathering. The end result is that it all comes off as feeling very revisionist, and delivering what is a very lightweight story. Again, the same applies to The Gathering, but to a lesser degree. I suppose The Reaping isn't that bad, but it just doesn't really work very well. One thing it does achieve, though, is that the mysterious connection with the Fifth Doctor in The Gathering generates some intrigue that attracts the listener to that next story.
| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Sunday 2 March 2008 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The cybermen have always been a far better monster for me than the pepper pots. The daleks really are now bordering on stupid. Only the big finish stories still do them anything bordering justice these days. But I have always loved the cybermen. They ARE scary. Put it this way, they scare me even now. A future not to impossible...
Jo Lidster is an excellecnt writer. This story is more of a character study but is so not unwelcome. Nicola Bryant is brilliant in this outing. And Claudia Christian gives a realistic performance to Peri's rather nasty Mummy. Although, I suppose she is allowed to wonder where her daughter has been for so long!
Colin Baker, well he doesnt really need any more words of praise does he?! Other than the fact that he is a great Doctor, still underrated in my view.
The dialogue between the doctor and the cyberleader is really quite cool. The doctors bluff is brilliant even if it is a little predictable. But hey, this story is brilliant anyway. Nice appearance from Stuart Milligan too. In it for too short a time, thats the only problem. He's quite a good actor.
Not overlong in the slightest, more listenable than the introduction of Roses family on the tv at any rate. Far more interesting characters here. I dont not like the new series, just some aspects of it are becoming stale and recycled i feel. Big finish seems to be full of great writers with fresh and different ideas for monsters and companions and even the doctors too. Great stuff man!
