Harvest of Time (AudioGo)

Amongst the greatest by-products of Doctor Who’s revived success since 2005 has been the re-emergence of the ‘Classic Novels’ range, with recent literary instalments such as The Wheel of Ice and Shada proving qualified hits for fans new and old alike. With Harvest of Time, author Alistair Reynolds returns to the Third Doctor era in the midst of the show’s 50th Anniversary for a nostalgic, intergalactic adventure. It’s a shame, then, that Harvest is a somewhat inadequate endeavour in audio form, only likely to inspire fans to return to Jon Pertwee’s televised adventures in order to reassure themselves of their superior quality.

That Reynolds’ characterisations of those firm fan favourite constructs from the Pertwee days aren’t wholly consistent with what we remember certainly doesn’t build a strong foundation for the piece. Much as recent entries in the Eleventh Doctor’s New Series Adventures novel range have appeared to struggle with clearly defining their portrayal of Matt’s take on the Time Lord as opposed to Chris’ or David’s incarnations, so too do some of the colloquialisms and speech mannerisms of Reynolds’ Third Doctor seem more befitting of more recent incarnations than the temporarily Earth-bound 1970s take on the alien hero.

Such notable representational inaccuracies are made all the more striking when we consider that Harvest is set in conditions purely indicative of the aforementioned era of the programme. Still working with UNIT and Jo Grant, the Doctor’s encounters with the Master and the sinister extraterrestrial Sild feel as if they have been ripped out of a ‘lost’ adventure at the time. Given that Harvest is coming to retail in audiobook form during the 50th Anniversary year, one can assert it to be only natural that Reynolds reprises the most memorable elements of the Pertwee era, yet his dedication to producing a tale accurate to its dramatic context is arguably the undoing of the piece in terms of the lingering sense that there’s a general lack of narrative innovation on offer here.

To its credit, one notable factor of the audiobook version of Harvest lends it an air of superiority over its published source material. Geoffrey Beevers does a sterling job as the narrator of this particular release, his relish at the opportunity of portraying both a classic Doctor and another version of the Master clear from the outset. At the very least, Beevers ensures that the interest of the listener is rarely lost in the midst of the rather predictable and linear narrative thanks to accomplished differentiation between his various character portrayals in terms of dialect and speech patterns, as well as plenty of confident and varied levels of emphasis even in the more mundane moments of description and depiction.

If only Beevers was able to be afforded more engaging content on a regular basis by this ever-so-slightly abridged aural rendition of Reynolds’ latest Who text, the resulting impact of the product as a whole would not likely be as dissatisfying. Instead, he’s simply offered a storyline which rarely has any highlight moments, the most notable sequences ultimately being those where the book’s scribe manages to effectively capture the intricate relationships between Pertwee’s Doctor with the likes of the Brigadier and Jo. Certainly, the seamless manner in which the plot segues between the situations on Earth, in the realms of the Red Queen and elsewhere keeps things fresh from time to time, but it’s hardly enough to compensate for the general lack of momentum present as the audiobook progresses over the course of five discs.

What we’re left with overall, then, is a mixed bag to say the least. Without a charismatic and engaging narrator such as Beevers on hand to carry the weight of its in-depth science-fiction narrative, Harvest of Time would likely suffer far worse as a result of its lacklustre storyline and unfulfilling characterisations. Thankfully, with the dedicated ex-Master lending his vocal talents to this production, Harvest is presented to listeners in a digestible form that makes for a far more compulsive experience than it has any right to be.