GARDENERS’ WORLDS

Gardeners’ Worlds is the second in the seventh series of Short Trips, a range of narrated audiobooks from Big Finish.  At 36-minutes long, Gardeners’ World lives up to the “short” part of the range title.

Set in the Third Doctor’s era and narrated by Tim Treloar, who continues his excellent portrayal of Jon Pertwee’s voice, Gardeners’ World is set in the familiar territory of something strange going on in a small quaint English village.

The Doctor’s interest is caught by the mysterious arrival of a mediaeval monument, one that shows signs of having been there since it was built.  Postboxes have disappeared, and a whole lot of flowers are growing up all over the place.

The Doctor discovers that a planetary-wide disaster is imminent, and it all has to do with the flowers and some beetles, and that someone who tended to the flowers spoke to them about her family.

Gardeners’ World is a slowly building story that incorporates a certain amount of technobabble, but also feels solidly planted in the Pertwee era of Doctor Who.  The writer, George Mann, takes us to one of those English villages and spins off familiar drama of such scale that not even the TARDIS can save them.

It’s a good way to spend 36-minutes.