2 episodes: The Rising Tide, The Drowned World. Running Time: Approx. 68 minutes. Written by: Simon Guerrier. Directed by: Lisa Bowerman. Produced by: David Richardson. Performed by: Jean Marsh, Niall MacGregor.
THE PLOT:
It has been some time since Robert (Niall MacGregor) heard the story of how the consciousness of Sara Kingdom came to possess the house in Ely. Throughout that time, Robert has advocated to for "Sara" and her right to exist. He regularly returns to listen to more of Sara's stories, and he decides to record one in particular: the account of the real Sara's visit, with Steven and the Doctor, to a mining colony on a world covered in water.
A recent earthquake had shaken the mining facility, leaving the laboratory half submerged. The TARDIS materializes in the lab, only to rapidly slide from its slanted perch into the water. Above, the colonists await rescue, as their supply of oxygen dwindles.
While the Doctor sets to work on repairing the life support, Sara and Steven enlist the aid of three miners to retrieve the TARDIS. But the water turns out to be acidic, dissolving the rope they hoped to use to lift the box to dry land. Then the water begins reacting to their presence. It is alive and sentient - and it wants them dead!
CHARACTERS:
The Doctor: He doesn't hesitate to use his skills to save the colonists, setting to work repairing their life support while chuckling that he will "warm up the cold equations." When the water comes to life and begins engulfing the lab, with Sara still inside, he knows that he needs to close off the compartment separating the larger colony from the lab, but he can't bring himself to actually do so, with it ultimately falling to Sara to secure the seal.
Sara Kingdom: She continues to define herself by her oath to protect and serve. After she witnesses one miner's horrific death to the deadly water, she proclaims, "No one else is going to die!" She keeps the remaining two miners moving, focusing on the slim hope of climbing outside to a higher level and getting in through an airlock. She is a little too willing to sacrifice her life to save these strangers, her soul clearly shredded by guilt over shooting her brother.
Steven: Climbs easily up and down the tilted surfaces, his time in space having taught him to disregard the natural instinct to compensate when off balance. He leads the attempt to lift the TARDIS with rope, which seems to be working until the acidic nature of the water is revealed. He goes back to the Doctor to try to find something that won't dissolve, only to watch in horror as Sara shuts herself into the lab. The Doctor shouts down his attempts to interfere, pointing out that the rising water leaves nothing for them to do.
Robert: Like Sara, he took an oath to uphold the law, and he remains devoted to it. He genuinely believes that she might be considered an exception to laws against the supernatural, and he plans to record her voice on a phonograph so that the council of elders can hear her for themselves. When Sara acts to promote her own self-interest, he judges her harshly, though this does not stop him from turning her to help when he needs it.
THOUGHTS:
2008's Home Truths was a successful release, a fine story that found a clever conceit to allow Jean Marsh's Sara Kingdom to tell tales from her time in the TARDIS despite the character's death in her sole television story. With Marsh willing to reprise the role, Big Finish commissioned a sequel from the same writer, Simon Guerrier.
The result is another good story, though in my opinion not quite as good. Home Truths impressively weaves the Sara/Robert frame story and the narrative their scenes surrounded into a single, seamless narrative. That was always going to be a hard trick to repeat, and Guerrier wisely doesn't attempt to do so. Instead, he tries to thematically connect the past and present strands. This is effective at the end - but those connections really only become clear at the end, which makes the divide far more apparent.
By far the stronger of the two threads is the frame. Robert's world is greatly expanded from the first story, giving a greater sense both of the political structure and of the forces that threaten it. The added detail makes this world more real, with events unfolding outside the house that impact the interactions between Sara and Robert. The script creates an arc for the two characters, introducing tension into their relationship and shifting the power dynamics back and forth. All of this combines to make the frame feel larger and richer than the mining colony plot.
The past storyline, with Sara trying to rescue the miners from the deadly water, is still engaging. The planet of water makes for an inherently visual setting, and Guerrier's descriptions are concise yet vivid, helping to bring that setting to life. Pacing is also a strength. Just as the core situation, of the dwindling oxygen and the submerged TARDIS, has been established, the water itself becomes a threat. Sara's efforts are complicated and outright thwarted throughout, with her having to take additional risks to keep everyone alive.
The issue with this release is that, unlike Home Truths, the two strands don't come together to form a stronger whole. Even with the thematic parallels, I still felt like I was listening to two different stories - both of them good, but still distinctly separate.
OVERALL:
Sure, Home Truths was better. Then again, Home Truths is better than most Big Finish releases. The Drowned World is still a good story, one that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, and I eagerly await the conclusion of this trilogy (yes, I listened to it on release - but that was a long time ago, and I don't remember a thing about it).
Overall Rating: 7/10.
Set between: Episodes 7 and 8 of The Daleks' Master Plan
Previous Story: Home Truths
Next Story: The Guardian of the Solar System
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