Yeah, this was just alright. I shouldn't have expected much, given the nature of reviews around Beyond The Sun so far, but sometimes one sees something other's don't, and it isn't like this story has no fans.

So, there are aspects of this story I did like. Jason and Bernie were both pretty great. It is refreshing, not just in this franchise, but in science fiction and even just genre fiction in general, to have a focus on a divorced character. That isn't shaped up like something she should have regretted or been ashamed of, rather, it feels like a reflection of Bernie's age, maturity, and world-weariness. There's also some neat ideas of Jason being kidnapped, a mysterious cult, and a free-wheeling rule-less colony.

Unfortunately, the story struggles a lot more in the actual writing of dialogue and execution. The ideas feel a little too sprawling and all over the place to properly explore them. The story is very sexual too, but in a way that kind of reminds me more of Torchwood or the Virgin novels from what I've seen of the latter, too. These kind of stories seem to relish in their ability to cover more mature content and freedom from the more typical content associated with Doctor Who. Unfortunately, in doing so, too often these types of stories, Beyond the Sun included, all too often stumble into being the most immature stories in all of Who because they don't really grapple with these topics, like human sexuality, with the level of sophistication those ideas kind of merit. So it comes across as silly and grabbing for salacious content over something organic or to be taken seriously.

So yeah, in spite of some serious potential, Beyond the Sun kind of deserves its status as one of the lowest among this range. It just isn't all that great.