Outside of The Quintessence (being a single story box set gives it a significant advantage), Volume 7 of the Third Doctor Adventures is probably the strongest release of the series, featuring a great opener with The Unzal Incursion and then concludes with one of my favourite Third Doctor stories in The Gulf. That said though, the cover art, while great, never fails to depress me, all the original actors featured on that cover a long gone. But in their shoes, the cast more than do them honour, particularly the daughters of Caroline John and Elisabeth Sladen. Making her first appearance in the series we have Sadie Miller playing the role her mother made famous, Sarah Jane-Smith, a performance that at times is almost uncanny, she really nails her mother's speech pattern and inflections as Sarah.

The Gulf is one of the more horror focused stories in Big Finish one that draws heavily on Lovecraftian lore as the Doctor and Sarah land on a spin drifter in the middle of an ocean world, a world that supposedly contains no life outside of the resident artists on retreat to find inspiration. But the Doctor senses something wrong almost immediately, somewhere underneath the waves, something is stirring and it's coming to take the pain away.

It's your standard base under siege but with the twist that the base has already been infiltrated and all our heroes can do is run and buy time. The tone is very unsettling with the monster of the story and we get some chilling death scenes. One of Tim Foley's biggest strengths is world building, often taking place in the future he really goes the extra mile in making the time period so full of depth, from the ocean world, the harsh conditions the previous workers were forced to tolerate, to the ongoing war amongst the stars and how it's affected the characters we meet. It's top notch world building like this that makes me excited for Foley's upcoming Hooklight epic which according to him takes influence from The Lord of the Rings.

This story has an incredible engaging listen, from the foreboding and unsettling first half to the intense and heart pounding second half as the Doctor battles a foe that he's unable to fully understand, something that feels truly out of a nightmare. If you're a Third Doctor fan this set is highly recommended

This story is really fun defo a strong story not out right perfect but still so strong

This is absolute peak. The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane land on a lesbian hippy art commune... on an abandoned oil rig... which is floating... on a planet with nothing on it but sea... and they're menaced by eldritch horrors. What a scenario! There was such a genuinely menacing buildup in the first two parts and the characters were all really likable, which made them literally dying via crying hit all the harder. And The Gulf itself is such a good villain! I definitely headcanon it as a member of the Pantheon (God of Sadness maybe?)

If that all isn't enough to convince you to give it a shot, the Doctor quotes Jon Pertwee's "I Am The Doctor" song whilst psychically beating up the baddies. I was squealing as soon as he said "I cross the void beyond the mind". Nuff said.