Reef Doctors
Reef Doctors was an Australian television drama series that premiered on Network Ten on 9 June 2013.
Premise
The show revolves around Sam Stewart, the leader of a team of doctors serving the remote Hope Island Clinic. They look after residents of a small island community and neighbouring islands on the Great Barrier Reef, as well as holidaymakers and thrillseekers who visit the area. Sam is a single mother with an unusual interest in venom, hoping to extract the hidden secrets that may have the power to cure fatal diseases.Pre-production
Reef Doctors is the first non-children's show Jonathan M Shiff has produced. As well as starring in the series, Lisa McCune is a co-producer. Filming commenced on 28 November 2011 in Queensland, around the Great Barrier Reef, and finished in April 2012. The series was due to be broadcast from September 2012, but was pushed back to June 2013.Ratings and reception
The series received mixed reviews upon its long-overdue premiere.The first episode finally aired on 9 June 2013 at 6:30pm, attracting low ratings of just 357,000 for Channel Ten. These low figures caused Channel Ten to move the show into a different time-slot, on Fridays at 9:30pm, but even that proved to be too much to ask, because it then failed to attract reasonable viewing figures in its changed time-slot. As a result, the show was subsequently moved to Channel Ten's digital channel Eleven from 29 June 2013.
Cast
- Lisa McCune as Dr Sam Stewart
- Matt Day as Professor Andrew Walsh
- Rohan Nichol as Toby McGrath
- Richard Brancatisano as Dr. Rick D'Alessandro
- Tasneem Roc as Olivia Shaw
- Andrew Ryan as Gus Cochrane
- Susan Hoecke as Freya Klein
- Justin Holborow as Jack Stewart
- Rod Mullinar as Sonny Farrell
- Kristof Piechocki as Malcolm Reid
- Alexandra Davies as Gillian
- Chloe Bayliss as Nell Saunders
Episodes
Home media
| DVD name | Format | Ep # | Discs/Tapes | Region 4 | Special Features | Distributors |
| Reef Doctor | DVD | 13 | 4 | 7 November 2013 | - | Universal Home Entertainment |