Thworping through time and space, one adventure at a time!

“WALKING TO BABYLON: ANCIENT BABYLON, SINGULARITY BOMBS, AND A VERY COMPLICATED EX”

The Time Ring Trilogy kicks off with Walking to Babylon, a sprawling, time-hopping adventure that sees Professor Bernice Summerfield dive into ancient Mesopotamia to track down her ex-husband Jason Kane, who’s been kidnapped by members of the godlike race known as the People. What begins with a seemingly cordial visit at Benny’s university quickly devolves into betrayal, as Jason pinches her Time Ring and vanishes into the past—leaving her no choice but to follow.

This setup mirrors Beyond the Sun in its structure—sudden arrivals, tense reunions, unexpected departures—and yet it's elevated by the high-stakes central premise: Babylon has been chosen as a historical “blind spot,” a place the People can hide from their own kind while their pursuers prepare to detonate a singularity bomb that will obliterate the time corridor and the city itself. It's a tense and clever fusion of high-concept sci-fi and mythic history, with real narrative bite.

A RACE AGAINST TIME, WITH WEDDING RINGS FOR TRANSPORT

The Time Rings themselves are an intriguing new time travel concept—especially since Benny and Jason’s are literally their old wedding bands, turning their messy history into the key to saving the day. The story turns into a kind of historical runaround through Babylon, although the atmosphere is slightly dulled by the minimal music and sparse sound design. Still, the plot moves with enough energy to keep things interesting.

Benny soon teams up with John Lafayette, an Edwardian time-sensitive from Oxford, whose accidental presence in Babylon proves surprisingly useful. He and Benny make a charming odd couple—her futuristic snark and his early 20th-century chivalry play off each other nicely. He’s a sensitive, guilt-prone gentleman who wants to play the dashing hero, even if his grand gestures sometimes backfire. Their developing relationship provides the emotional heart of the story, especially once Lafayette learns that Jason is still lurking around.

GUEST STARS, GODLIKE POWERS, AND GLIMPSES OF A FORGOTTEN WORLD

Big Finish flexes their Doctor Who connections again by casting Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith) in a scene-stealing role as a slave priestess. She brings gravitas and charm to the part, particularly in her incredulous disbelief that women could be anything but possessions in the future—before dramatically stepping out of her temple to intervene. It’s a small role, but Sladen makes it memorable.

Meanwhile, Stephen Fewell’s Jason remains a slippery figure, but this time we get more depth, particularly in how he interacts with the People and navigates their misunderstandings of human behaviour. He’s frustratingly selfish at times, but far from one-dimensional.

Thematically, the story explores Babylonian caste systems, intergender dynamics, and slavery with a degree of nuance, though the setting doesn’t quite come alive as richly as it could. Part Two leans into exposition-heavy sequences that explain the People’s well-meaning but potentially devastating plan, which raises the stakes effectively even if it slows the pace.

ACTION, EXPOSITION, AND A ROMANTIC DILEMMA

The climax is a bit of a mad dash—chaotic, maybe, but satisfyingly so. It’s a swirl of exposition, sudden reversals, and an explosive cliffhanger that leads straight into Birthright. Benny’s kidnapping, Lafayette’s brief moment as a leading man, and the People’s desperate manoeuvring keep things from going stale. There’s a breezy tone throughout that prevents it from feeling too heavy, despite the looming apocalypse.

Even when it stumbles—mostly in underdeveloped atmosphere and overly expository stretches—Walking to Babylon remains a solid and often entertaining tale. It balances high sci-fi ideas with emotional threads and light historical commentary, with Benny at the heart of it all, navigating everything with her usual blend of sarcasm, intellect, and occasional heartbreak.

📝VERDICT: 8/10

Walking to Babylon is an ambitious and engaging opener for the Time Ring Trilogy, blending ancient history, romantic tension, and high-stakes sci-fi. It doesn’t quite make ancient Babylon pop as a location, but the dynamic between Benny and Lafayette, plus the philosophical tension with the People, gives the story enough energy and intrigue to overcome its slower patches. With a cliffhanger ending and strong character moments, this is a promising start to a more emotionally driven Bernice arc.

Really enjoyed this one!
Not only do we have a great setting with an even greater Atmosphere to it. Not only do we have the wonderful Liz Sladen giving one of the best Guest Performances in one of those Benny Audios so far. Not only do we have the great Lisa Bowerman as Benny herself, who is as great as ever. But we have also just a super fun Story! What can I say to this Story what hasn't been said? Great Cast and just a joy to listen to!

Oh, and I especially like the Moment where Jason confronts Liz's Character on her Beliefs that Things don't always have to be the same, what a great Moment! Easily the Highlight of this Release!

07.10.2022

Procedural. A lot of awkward exposition. The setting is colorful and vibrant, but not much of substance happens here either. Moral dilemma is bare-bones this time, existing mainly due to antagonists' stubbornness rather than an interesting ideological conflict. The countdown was Chibnall countdown level of bad. The priestess's conflict can be considered interesting if you squint hard enough. 1.5/5

Walking to Babylon is the first story in the Time Ring trilogy, three of the earliest releases from Big Finish when Bernice was their only product and the possibility of Doctor Who audios was still a little way off.

Lisa Bowerman is note perfect and ably supported by Stephen Fewell as Jason and Elisabeth Sladen as the Babylonian priestess Ninan. The rest of the cast – made up of Big Finish luminaries such as Nigel Fairs and Barnaby Edwards – more than match their performances.

Jac Rayner has adapted Kate Orman’s original novel well and the script includes quite a bit of educational content: Babylon is the largest city in the world of this time; nearby cities such as Ur are mentioned, along with references to Babylon having links to Egypt and Greece. Babylonian rites, such as Ninan’s inability to leave the temple, are discussed and, aside from a slightly heavy-handed polemic from Jason about slavery, flow naturally through the script.

The only aspect of the story which doesn’t seem to quite work out of the novel’s context (and particularly the over-arching storylines of the entire Bernice Summerfield New Adventure book range) is the People. Their war with an unnamed power (clearly the Time Lords) is intriguing but as characters they seem slightly ineffectual and not really alien enough. Lafayette, the Victorian time sensitive, is far more successful and a character it is odd Big Finish never revisited.

The sounds of Babylon (bustling markets, lavish feasts, holy temples) – and the more sci-fi elements (time corridors and space ports) – are convincingly presented and the music is suitably ethnic and ancient.

It is easy to see from this audio why this series convinced the BBC that Big Finish deserved the licence to produce official Doctor Who audios. It is astonishingly professional in every aspect – scripting, acting, sound design and music.