Continuing to make my way through the latest 5^th Doctor Adventures boxset, the second instalment takes the adventure into the far future. Set on a theme park planet, the team are quickly beset by disaster, forced to live the same moments over and over again. The catch? Only Tegan knows it’s happening.  

When a bio-engineered planet and amusement park undergoes a critical malfunction, the entire planet tears itself apart – and the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are thrown back to their arrival, trapped in a repeating time loop.

But for some reason, only Tegan can see the loop, not the Doctor – it has been hidden from him somehow. So why can Tegan see it, and how is she going to fix it?

Big Finish Synopsis

The second story of the set, Helter Skelter, is an improvement in every possible measure; in fact, you might be able to call it an instant classic.

While time loops and variations on Groundhog Day are practically a sci-fi staple at this point, none of that really matters in this story because the writer, James Moran, has picked the perfect set of scenarios to make it feel fresh and fun. His time loop pitch is pretty simple: a planet mysteriously explodes, killing everyone, including the TARDIS trio. Every time they die, the team are brought back to the moment they land on the theme park planet, completely unaware that anything is wrong, except for Tegan.

Choosing Tegan for this time loop experience is genius. Why? Well, for those less familiar with her character from the show, Tegan is a companion who has never had the time for or gotten on particularly well with the high-concept sci-fi ideas that are brought by her adventures with The Doctor. Instead, she much prefers to cut through the bs and solve her problems using more direct methods. So, placing her specifically in a scenario where she has no choice but to face the difficult, timey-wimey sci-fi nonsense head-on was only ever going to lead to a place of comedic and character genius. As a result of this decision, there is never a dull moment throughout the adventure, and it is a joy to listen to as Tegan becomes ever more exasperated having to explain the same situation to The Doctor and Turlough over and over again.

As these loops progress, however, these comedic moments turn into some real moments for Tegan’s character to shine as well. Despite disparate circumstances, Tegan’s headstrong personality allows her to eventually take control of the situation and lead The Doctor and Turlough towards a solution to ending the time loop. By the time the climax rolls around, and we learn about how the time loop came about, it is nice that Moran gives a proper in-universe reason for why only Tegan could’ve solved their terrible situation.

Alongside its strong story, Moran has written a great script that innately understands Tegan’s dynamics with The Doctor and Turlough. Coming quite late into their adventures together, they’ve all become comfortable with each other by this point, something which Moran makes clear throughout. Consequently, there’s plenty of banter floating about, especially between Tegan and Turlough, who share some great moments in the park at the start of the story. Moreover, knowing them so well by this point makes it easier for Tegan to convince them of the time loop situation.