Written By: Chris Chapman, James McDermott, Fio Trethewey

Starring: Sylvester McCoy, Sara Griffiths

Originally released: July 2026

Listened to: July 2026

Episodes:
1. The Executor by Chris Chapman (2 parts)

2. Oil and Water by James McDermott (2 parts)

3. Much Ado About Racing by Fio Tretheway (2 parts)

Context: Seven is pretty much my Doctor so I always look forward to these 7th doctor boxsets. I am not completly sold on Ray yet to be honest, but I remain open minded. Onward.

THE REVIEW

What I thought:

1 – The Executor – I LOVED this episode. So great having Celie Imre as Peg, an old Timelord mate of the doctors, who has asked him to be the executor of her will! What a great idea, and leads to the Doctor and Ray packing up her TARDIS, and a hologram of Peg (two holograms in fact) accompanying both Ray and the Doctor separately. The adventure then moves onto the aliens, a super weapon and some dodgy south african accents (I think that is what they are supposed to be anyway). This all leads to high jinks and to some interesting reflections for the 7th Doctor, specifically on what he looses and loss in general. Peg is so wonderful I would love to have her come back at some point.

2 – Oil and Water – this one has a lovely setting, North Norfolk (digital?….if you know you know), coastal, seagulls, little boats and crab sandwiches.. So far so lovely. The mutant seal, covered in an alien oil, which has eaten our episodes compainion of the episodes wife, nice emotional hook into the tail, and I think Ray is particularly good in this one. The boat scenes are good, leading to a classic Dr Who set up, a confrontation on an oil rig. The TARDIS team against sentient fuel (great idea) ..standard type of story in many respects but says a lot of important things about the environment and environmentalism. Good story.

3 – Much Ado About Racing.- so I found this one a little annoying if I am being honest, the premise is sound I think, an intergalactic race, two former lovers in the final, a psychic creature playing with emotion, love, disappointment etc…so far so good. The issue is as we get into the race itself it all gets a bit silly/and doesn’t really feel like a race at all to me, from an audio perspective certainly. A rare fail from BF I would say. It’s not a total fail but a shame to end the boxset on this one.

Rating: 3.7 out of 5 oils: solid, first episode is standout, Celia Imre is fantastic, Ray is growing on me.

What am I left thinking?

• Still not sure about that Welsh accent Ray, layered on very very thick at times
• In a similiar vain the

Memorable bits

• McCoy continues to roll his R’s with the best of them, and I love it!

Cast

Sylvester McCoy (The Doctor)

Sara Griffiths (Ray)

Rhîan Crowley-McLean (Ivy Boil / The Fuel)

Celia Imrie (Peg / Mrs Peel)

Poppy Miller (Anne)

Anne Odeke (Boots)

Marc Silk (Racebot)

Sion Tudor Owen (Selwyn Peel / The Jyrok)

Annie Wallace (Mercury)