# Reef Doctors

Reef Doctors is an Australian television drama series that premiered on Network Ten on 9 June 2013.

## Premise

The show revolves around Dr. 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 Network Ten. These low figures caused 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 Ten's digital channel Eleven from 29 June 2013.

## Cast

* Lisa McCune as Dr. Sam Stewart
* Richard Brancatisano as Dr. Rick D'Alessandro
* Rohan Nichol as Toby McGrath
* Susan Hoecke as Freya Klein
* Andrew Ryan as Gus Cochrane
* Tasneem Roc as Olivia Shaw
* Rod Mullinar as Sonny Farrell
* Justin Holborow as Jack Stewart
* Chloe Bayliss as Nell Saunders
* Kristof Piechocki as Malcolm Reid
* Matt Day as Prof. Andrew Walsh
* Alexandra Davies as Gillian
* Paul Bishop as Inspector Matthew Stanton
* Sally McKenzie as Gracie
* Annabelle Stephenson as Sarah
* Michael Dorman as Scottie
* Tony Nikolakopoulos as Barry

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | Australian viewers (thousands) |
| 1 | "Venom Doc" | Colin Budds | Jutta Goetze | 9 June 2013 (2013-06-09) | 357,000 |
| 2 | "Episode Two" | Colin Budds | Fiona Wood | 21 June 2013 (2013-06-21) | 193,000 |
| 3 | "Episode Three" | Colin Budds | Mia Tolhurst | 29 June 2013 (2013-06-29) | N/A |
| 4 | "Episode Four" | Colin Budds | Sue Hore | 6 July 2013 (2013-07-06) | N/A |
| 5 | "Episode Five" | Colin Budds | John Ridley | 13 July 2013 (2013-07-13) | N/A |
| 6 | "Episode Six" | Colin Budds | Anthony Morris | 20 July 2013 (2013-07-20) | N/A |
| 7 | "Episode Seven" | Colin Budds | Deb Parsons | 27 July 2013 (2013-07-27) | N/A |
| 8 | "Episode Eight" | Grant Brown | Elizabeth Coleman | 3 August 2013 (2013-08-03) | N/A |
| 9 | "Episode Nine" | Grant Brown | Annie Beach | 10 August 2013 (2013-08-10) | N/A |
| 10 | "Episode Ten" | Grant Brown | Fiona Wood | 17 August 2013 (2013-08-17) | N/A |
| 11 | "Episode Eleven" | Grant Brown | Meaghan Rodriguez | 24 August 2013 (2013-08-24) | N/A |
| 12 | "Episode Twelve" | Grant Brown | Anthony Morris | 31 August 2013 (2013-08-31) | N/A |
| 13 | "Episode Thirteen" | Grant Brown | Jutta Goetze | 7 September 2013 (2013-09-07) | N/A |

## Home media

| Series | Series | DVD release dates | Distributor |
| Series | Series | Region 4 | Distributor |
| | 1 | 7 November 2013 (2013-11-07) (AUS) | Universal Home Entertainment |
| | 1 | 20 July 2022 (2022-07-20) (AUS) | Via Vision Entertainment |