The Mutant Phase [Fifth Doctor + Nyssa]

The Mutant Phase begins with Thals. Thals examining the wreckage of planet after planet. Then, out of the nothingness comes a swarm of somethings, travelling at tremendous speed and with not a moments interest in the Thal ship. However in its wake the Thals are dragged through space and they end up drifting above a planet. A planet they should know well : Skaro.

And so it begins.

The Mutant Phase is a story about time, about biology and about The Doctor's relationship with the Daleks.

The Doctor and Nyssa's story begins with a bump in the time vortex, a Time Corridor and their arrival in a Kansas field. It's not long before things start to get complicated. They discover a body, Nyssa gets stung by a wasp and it dawns on the Doctor that he might have turned up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their attempts to flee just drag them back into the time corridor. The Doctor, having escaped it once, tries again.

But all roads lead to Skaro where the Daleks have a tale to tell and an offer to make to the Doctor. An offer the Doctor might not be able to refuse, although being the Daleks there are plans within plans within plans. The Daleks are never more devious than in Big Finish stories, if you exclude Power of the Daleks for the sake of argument.

I enjoyed The Mutant Phase, which I thought had an interesting premise at its heart, some fine performances, particularly Christopher Blake as Professor Ptolem and Jared Morgan as Commander Ganatus, the two Thals who find themselves working with the Doctor to deal with a problem that might end everything, everywhere.

There's also a rather wierd bunker where a handful of human survivors lurk on a Earth wrecked by 'the things'. Earth is important in this story. Very important. But we meet Albert (Andrew Ryan), Delores (Sara Wakefield) and Professor Karl Hendryk (Mark Gatiss) who all seem rather nice. Odd. But nice. This being Doctor Who, of course, nothing is as simple as that. Things are complicated.

The best thing about this story is that the Doctor is teamed up with just Nyssa again, which gives them both a chance to shine. Nyssa is - alongside Turlough - the companion that best works with the Fifth Doctor - despite all the material shipped out there involving Tegan and the Fifth Doctor. In some respects her smartness reflects that of Elizabeth Shaw and you wonder if that is a reason she gets shoved to the back of stories so often. Or just because The Fifth Doctor had so many companions.

Whatever the reason Sarah Sutton does a great job with Nyssa in this story. Refusing to be fobbed off by the Doctor's attempts to explain the issue of paradoxes and how to avoid them, getting involved with Professor Ptolem in getting to the bottom of the biological issues they're dealing with and just doing the basic companion job of asking questions in a way that doesn't sound too dull. Lovely stuff.

Peter Davison's good in this too. There's something about the Fifth Doctor. He's so calm most of the time. So respectable that when he eventually realises what might be about to happen and tries to get other people to understand he almost appears to be raving like a madman. You see it brilliantly in Snakedance and there are moments here to when he's struggling to get people to understand when it seems to be a similar situation. People don't want to believe him.

I should also pause to acknowledge the wonderful Dalek work by Nicholas Briggs and Alistair Lock. There's a lovely scene involving a Dalek and a Roboman attempting to explain what they had just seen - without spoiling it - that is fantastically well-played and almost makes you feel sorry for one particular Dalek.

So I enjoyed it. Like I almost always do. But I'm not sure it'll go down as a favourite.

The Holy Terror [The Sixth Doctor + Frobisher]

The Holy Terror is an odd story. Just as The Shadow of the Scourge took non-BBC television continuity from the Virgin New Adventures so The Holy Terror takes itself from the Doctor Who Magazine's comic strip, which is why it features The Sixth Doctor accompanied by Frobisher. 

Now if you're not aware of Frobisher - and really you should be - he's a shapeshifting private detective. Now, for reasons I can't quite remember, he's now generally 'stuck' in the shape of a penguin: a talking penguin. Obviously in the comic strip you had no idea what his accent was. And after all who knows how talking penguin mesomorph private detectives would actually speak. In The Holy Terror he's got an American accent. He's a gumshoe. It's not quite the cynical Humphrey Bogart type of gumshoe but a film noir gumshoe nonetheless. Which actually now my memory has clicked in properly is kind of how his comic strip introduction would make you think he would speak.*

Having the Doctor paired up with a large talking bird is always going to be a strange experience. Putting them into a story as strange as this makes for an interesting experience. The TARDIS, which is effectively on strike, lands inside a strange castle where a new God-King is about to take the throne. The society is bizarrely ritualistic. People have roles and they are expected to play them without question. Whether that role is God-King, High Priest, Nasty and conspiratorial hump backed brother to the God-King or Chief Guard. Things are expected of you. These are part character traits, part rituals. And the God-King's every move is written about by the Scribe. These are all titles. There are people with these titles but they're expected to follow that ritual without question. Even unto death.

It's all very strange. 

It's made even stranger by the fact that new God-King, Pepin VII doesn't want to be a God-King. He wants to abdicate. And that his brother Childeric might have gone entirely mad. 

The first two episodes in particular are quite a challenge. This isn't 'normal' Big Finish Doctor Who and it seems to be balancing precariously on the line between strange and silly but by the end this is something really dark and surprisingly moving. It's a compliment to Robert Shearman's writing that he can take it so far out there and then bring it back to being about something so human. So individual. It's hard to talk about the ending without spoiling it but I did actually find myself genuinely moved by it even as it comes at the end of horror after horror. 

I can see why you might get frustrated by it at points. The whole idea of Frobisher, the weirdness of everyone's behaviour to the point at which they're almost all like cliches and just the oddity of it makes it one of those stories I imagine illicits a marmite style reaction. I liked it a lot in the end, although I wasn't sure about it until I got to the end when the reasons for people's behaviours becomes much more clear. 

The performances are great. First and foremost Colin Baker is wonderful, especially in the final episode and the final scenes. They actually sound surprisingly Fifth Doctor-ish at points. Then Robert Jezack's Frobisher is fine. Frobisher's placed in an impossible position at points in this story and my only criticism is that he's a bit flat at points. The supporting cast is great, as usual, in Big Finish too. 

Dan Hogarth as Captain Sejanus, Helen Punt as Livilla, Stefan Atkinson as Pepin, Peter Sowerbutts as Clovis, Bruce Mann as Arnulf and various authors in small roles : Gary Russell (Guard), Jacqueline Rayner (Woman) and Mr. Shearman himself as Sculptor.

But the three standout for me. 

Peter Guinness as the mad, bad and dangerous to know Childeric. He's got the perfect voice to pitch a perfect performance for that kind of role. Then there's Roberta Taylor's Berengaria who manages to be brilliant throughout but particularly in her final scenes with her son Pepin. 

However the biggest applause go to Sam Kelly. He's got a lot to do throughout but in the final episode he manages to bring depth to a final confrontation where he's genuinely creepy and moving. If he hadn't been as good then the final scenes would not have been as emotional. 

So, for all its strangeness, I did really enjoy this. If you're listening and having doubts then stick with it until the end I think you'll find it worthwhile.

SEE BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL MASSIVELY SPOILERY BIT IF YOU'VE NOT HEARD THIS. PLEASE DON'T READ IT BEFORE LISTENING TO THE STORY AS I WOULDN'T WANT TO GIVE TOO MUCH AWAY. YOU HAVE BEEN TOLD.

The themes of free will and fiction reminded me a lot of Castrovalva. In fact, as I kind of mentioned above, this does in many respects feel like a Fifth Doctor story but that's my personal feeling. Probably. 

THERE. DONE.

Enjoy.







*I recommend getting hold of the collected Voyager Comic Strips if you want to know more about where Frobisher comes from. You should really read them anyway as they're some of the best Doctor Who Comic strips to come from DWM. 

The Shadow of the Scourge [The Seventh Doctor, Ace + Bernice Summerfield]

Well, that was rather good. The Shadow of the Scourge is a bit different to other stories I've listened to so far in that it sits in the Virgin New Adventures continuity and not the Television series continuity. If you believe the two are separate in the first place obviously, which I don't. Me, I'm a fan of everything being canon. 

Even if that makes for hard work justifying how, say, The Doctor is in Pompeii on Volcano Day twice and the Tenth Doctor doesn't comment on that fact. Not that he needs to. After all he's got things on his mind. I like to think that maybe the TARDIS bought him back because 'she' felt there was unfinished business from The Fires of Vulcan. But I digress. Drastically. Basically this story has Ace in her 'warrior' phase and Bernice Summerfield. 

If you are unfamiliar with Bernice Summerfield then I suggest you become familiar with her as soon as possible. She was created by Paul Cornell, who wrote The Shadow of the Scourge, as a new companion for the Virgin New Adventures. Based personality-wise, if memory serves, on Emma Thompson's character from The Tall Guy* she was a Professor of Archaeology with a fine line in dry sarcasm and intelligence. She appears in a Big Finish series of her own, which had begun in 1999. This is - I think - her first appearance in the Doctor Who Main Range. She's played - with fine style and panache - by Lisa Bowerman. 

The Ace - Bernice pairing makes an interesting combination. The New Adventures had put a lot of history behind that relationship - see the book/Big Finish Audio of Love and War for their first meeting. None of that is really felt in this story but Ace is a much more martial figure than she was the last time we saw her on the television (or in The Fearmonger). I always liked Ace - television version - but found the more angsty and angry New Adventures Ace a bit much. Here we don't get much of the latter even though that's who she is. She's more like the television version, just with her fighting abilities improved and wearing a much more fetching outfit. If the terrible cover is any guide. 

Yes, I'm sorry Big Finish but that cover is awful. There. Said it. Sorry. 

This story is thematically not dissimilar to Remembrance of the Daleks/Silver Nemesis. The Doctor has put a cunning plan together in order to trick a set of villains into destroying themselves. In this case the villains are The Scourge. They are pan-dimensional insects with a penchant for torture. They thrive on human fear and despair. They've been hunting humans down since there have been humans. They're basically not very nice. 

The first two episodes are basically setting up the Doctor's cunning plan and then the second two are how everyone manages to survive the Doctor's plan not quite going to...er...plan. The cliffhanger for episode two is rather wonderful.

This being a Paul Cornell story there's a lot of action inside the Doctor's head. No, really. If you've read Timewyrm: Revelation you'll know what I mean. If you haven't go and read it. Probably after you've read the first three in the Timewyrm series though, which might be a while. It's alright though. I'll wait....

Excellent. That Timewyrm: Revelation stuff was good wasn't it. Bernice even mentions it in passing whilst everything is kicking off. There's also a mention of owls, which I think is the law when it comes to Paul Cornell Doctor Who Seventh Doctor stuff. 

Anyway I digress. Again.

The Scourge can make humans do whatever they're told, which leads to some rather unpleasant moments and to enter our dimension they have to take over humans. This is also an unpleasant procedure. Painful.

It definitely has the New Adventures feel to it. The Doctor's devious as hell and punished for being so silly. It takes his friends to save him from himself, basically. Sylvester's brilliant throughout. From his smart-arse chess playing Doctor through to his full of doubt, almost broken, Doctor and back again. 


The final scenes when the tables are turned on the Scourge are a victory for friendship, love, hope and faith. For humanity. 

It's all rather good. Once more too the main cast get great support from other cast members : Michael Piccarilli, Holly King, Caroline Burns-Cook, Lennox Greaves, Nigel Fairs and Peter Trapani. Special kudos to Holly King though for a fantastic performance as Annie Carpenter who I think was my favourite 'guest' character in the story.

Anyway...well worth a listen. Especially - but not only - if you've read the New Adventures stories. 


 




*An under-rated film if you ask me with. Go watch it and see if you agree with me. 

The Fires of Vulcan [The Seventh Doctor + Mel Bush]

The Fires of Vulcan is rather good, if a little frustrating. Mainly because the Doctor's in an oddly hopeless mood for the first two episodes. It's un-Doctor-ish. It's a bit similar to his mood at the beginning of The Vengeance of Varos and you want to grab hold of him and tell him to buck up his ideas.

It's a good job Mel is here trying to give him the boot up the backside he so richly deserves. Yes, it is Mel Bush. It is Bonnie Langford. The woman whose casting a number of people declare is the reason for the final collapse of Classic Doctor Who. Here's the thing. I think Bonnie Langford got the raw end of a particular unpleasant stick.

Now, don't get me wrong. Mel Bush is not the best or most three dimensional companion we've ever seen in Doctor Who. She's not really much of a character at all except that she's enthusiastic, theatrical and rather too fond of carrot juice.

I don't blame Bonnie Langford for any of that. I blame whoever decided that once they'd cast Bonnie Langford they weren't going to bother to give her anything like a proper character. They'd just get her to be Bonnie Langford the 'showbiz trooper'. Or at least the cliched over-the-top version of Bonnie Langford that everyone seems to accept is the real thing. Perhaps if they'd given the same level of thought to who Mel Bush was that Andrew Cartmel later gave to Ace things would have been a little better.

And to prove that point Bonnie Langford is rather good here. Yes, Mel Bush is still a similar character to the television version but she's toned down a bit, which makes a surprising difference. Indeed in the first two episodes of this story you feel more sympathetic to Mel than to The Doctor. It's rather a surprising thing, based on history.

So hurrah for Bonnie Langford I say.

Sylvester's good in this too. Even when the Doctor's being hopeless. Indeed McCoy does the melancholic Doctor rather beautifully. He'd have made a fine fist of moping about after the Time War had the need arisen.

Oh and I've just realised. I've not said a word about the story. Tut. Tut. This really isn't the best way to run a review based blog is it? But then these really aren't reviews are they. Or not proper English Literature-Critical Theory way.

So where have the Doctor and Mel found themselves. The answer is Pompeii. The day before Volcano Day. It's rather unfortunate timing. Especially as he'll do almost exactly the same thing when in The Fires of Pompeii. In fact I like the idea that on the second day there's another Doctor racing around doing all those Tenth Doctor and Donna things whilst his Seventh incarnation is struggling about already trying to deal with one kind of temporal problem, which I won't spoil. Suffice it to say that said problem is the cause of the Doctor's melancholic temperament.

The Doctor and Mel get involved with various characters throughout. The Doctor offends gladiator Murranus (Steven Wickham) and then spends time avoiding and not avoiding him. Murranus is gruff, grumpy and rather pushy. I suspect being a successful Gladiator does that to a man. He's also not the brightest spark. The Doctor does that offending in the 'bar' of Valeria Hedone (Nicky Goldie), who ends up caught up in the whole Doctor-Murranus 'feud'.

Then there's the fact that the Doctor and Mel's arrival is witnessed by a slave. The Doctor's attempt to blag his way out of it by pretending to be a messenger of the Gods, specifically of Isis aggravates the 'traditional' Roman matriarch Eumachia (Lisa Hollander) who thinks Isis is a base, foreign Goddess that no right-minded Roman should be seen dead in support of. She's determined to prove the Doctor and Mel as fakes, which isn't hard. And she then takes in out on Mel, which leads to her getting imprisoned. As well as involved with the slave girl Aglae (Gemma Bissix), whose trust in and fear of the Gods reminded me a little of Katarina (of The Myth Makers and The Dalek Master Plan fame.) Both Hollander and Bissix put in good performances. Their both examples of the faithful. And of the social set-up of the slave owning Romans.

Mel also attracts the attention of Popidus Celsinus (Andy Coleman). Partly for reasons of Isis - he is a believer in Isis - and partly because he's taken a liking to her. Popidus comes across initially as a bit of an arse, especially as Eumachia runs rings around him, but in the end turns out to be a man of some character and courage.

The Doctor - and Mel - make more of an attempt to save people in this story than the Tenth Doctor does in The Fires of Pompeii, which is nice. Admittedly he doesn't sweep them off in the TARDIS but he does try and get them out of Pompeii, which I like.

The stories ending is almost anti-climatic but actually feels just about right.

Plus there's an appearance by UNIT's Murial Frost, previously of the DWM Comic Strip, which is also rather nice.

To conclude a review rather more rambling than usual this is good and might make you be nice about Bonnie Langford again. Or not.

Winter For The Adept [Fifth Doctor + Nyssa]

Winter For The Adept is odd. It's a tale 'told' by Alison Spears (Liz Sutherland) who found herself trapped in an Alpine finishing school with her friend Peril (India Fisher) and two teachers, Mlle Maupassant (Hannah Dickinson) and the verging on the barmy Scottish headmistress and Bible basher Miss Tremayne (Sally Faulker). There's strange things occuring at the school. 

Into which, of course, The Doctor and Nyssa stumble in. But not necessarily in that order. We find Nyssa first of all stuck in the snow having been dumped there by a gadget the Doctor was testing (and a gadget about which Nyssa has a strong dislike of as we see as the story unfolds). She's rescued by Lt Peter Sandoz (Peter Jurasik) who was on his way to check on the school for reasons that are both professional and personal.

By this point Alison and Peril have tried to escape the school so that Peril can 'elope' with her love. Who turns out to be Sandoz. Much to the shock and disgust of Miss Tremayne.

However that turns out to be the least of their worries. There's something a-hauntin' the school. A poltergeist. Furniture gets moved about. Windows shut mysteriously. Fundamentalist Christians get made mentally unbalanced. It's a creepy experience. 

Then the Doctor turns up in the TARDIS. At which point Miss Tremayne faints and we get the first of three rather odd cliffhangers. None of which actually feels like a cliffhanger. They're all slightly casual and half-baked. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not. It's certainly...different.

Being Doctor Who the poltergeist can't just be a poltergeist. There has to be more too it than that, which there is. There's is a poltergeist. He's about two steps removed from being an escapee from Rentaghost. In fact this story comes dangerously close to feeling like a very serious episode of Rentaghost at some points.

Then it turns out that the poltergeist isn't quite the end of their problems. There are aliens about. Watch out, watch out. There is a fine running joke through about involving these aliens, the Doctor's gadget and his refusal to explain to Nyssa what they are. The Doctor does however see a chance to get one over on them. 

The final episode is a bit rubbish I'm afraid. The ending is so convenient as to be utterly unbelievable. We know the Doctor's got the luck of the devil aka the luck of a central characters in a television series but this time its ridiculous. There's a stand-off, a shooting and an avalanche but somehow the Doctor wins out. Even though...well...even though...stuff. Sorry, but I don't want to utterly ruin the ending. 

Being the Davison era we get strangers invited into the TARDIS like it is a garden shed and actually there's a space there for Alison and Peril to get into a series of scraps with the Doctor should anyone feel the need to write it. But perhaps they have. Or at least Peril's adventures with the Doctor. Because Peril is nothing if not a dry run at Charlotte Pollard. Not just because she's played by the same actress, although with a degree or two less poshness, but also because Peril's personality isn't a million miles away from Charlie's. You can see why they picked India Fisher for Charlotte Pollard here. She's full of naive energy and a desire for adventure. Alison is rather dull in comparison. 

The villains aren't particularly memorable, although the end implies they've met the Doctor before or are aware of him. They're just the usual pan-dimensional murderous invaders. With a penchant for dressing up.

I'm aware, re-reading what I've written, that I might sound a little harsh. It isn't a terrible story. It's got a thickly odd atmosphere at points. Miss Tremayne has a certain Miss Jean Brodieness about her but over-dosed with religion. Sally Faulkner's accent is a tad wobbly but I don't mind that too much. Peter Davison is great. He manages to deliver a line about being chased by a piano without making it sound utterly silly. Sarah Sutton's good as Nyssa too. She's got a big more about her in this story than she sometimes does in the television series, certainly nipping at the Doctor a few times about his gadget. 

So it's not a bad story, just not the best. Which I suppose not every story can be really. But not a personal favourite.  For me it, The Sirens of Time and The Marian Conspiracy have been the Big Finish stories I've enjoyed least from the first ten. I think they did the creepy and weird building Fifth Doctor and Nyssa story better with The Land of the Dead with which this story has a certain similarity of tone. At least in the early episodes. 

It kept me entertained on a long journey into work though so I really shouldn't be too churlish.

The Spectre of Lanyon Moor [Sixth Doctor + Evelyn Smythe]

The Spectre of Lanyon Moor is the Big Finish story I have probably heard the most. I bought it on cassette tape - Google it young people - a long, long time ago and must have listened to it ten or twelve times since then. And it is as fresh and entertaining now as it was the first time.

That's not because the plot is drastically original. In fact it bares a resemblance to both The Daemons and Quatermass and the Pit. There's a thing lurking on the Moors - actually that sounds like The Hound of the Baskervilles now I think about it - and it has been there for a long time. It wants out. And its appearance has a touch of the mythological about it.

We're in Cornwall. The forgotten Celtic bit of Britain. The one with the Pixies and Goblins, of tin mines and fougous.

Ah fougous, mysterious stone-age structures whose purpose has been lost in the mists of time. They're either shelters, storage units or places of religious significance. No one is quite sure. The fact they align with the prevailing winds makes me think that they weren't built for comfort. Anyway this is a Doctor Who blog, not a site for archaeological musings so let us move on.

The best thing about a fougou though is that it is central to this story and there is something immensely pleasurable about the word fougou, especially when spoken allowed. More especially when spoken by Colin Baker who gives the word all the oomph it deserves. I wish I could find an excuse to feature it more regularly in conversation. Even writing 'fougou' has a certain pleasure. Fougou. Fougou.

Which is one of the reasons I like this story so much: the performances. Colin Baker is majestic in this. Big Finish seem to 'get' the Sixth Doctor. They make you realize how good a Doctor Colin could have been. And this story you could quite easily see fitting into the 80's Doctor Who. Although the monster de jour would almost certainly have been disappointingly realized.

Colin Baker apparently had a cold when recording this story, which is referred to in passing by Evelyn in the story. You'd never know. His voice and delivery seem undiminished. It's a bravaro performance.

As is Maggie Stables's Evelyn Smythe. She and the Sixth Doctor make a fine pair and she's not slow in getting involved in the heart of the mystery. She does investigating, escaping and taunting of villains with panache. Her interactions with Sir (Archibald Flint are almost Doctoresque.

The other highlight in this story is that we get a chance to fix one of Classic Doctor Who's unfortunate lapses. The Sixth Doctor gets to meet the Brigadier. Hurrah. (And no I am not counting Dimensions in Time, which I refuse to even acknowledge the existence of. 3D or no 3D.)

Nicholas Courtney is fab. As usual. The Brigadier is retired. But old soldiers never die and it turns out he's been working undercover. This is actually a brilliant story for the Brigadier. He gets to react to a new Doctor's arrival with magnificent coolness and really it is the Brigadier that save the day here. It that respect it reminded me of Battlefield, which is nice.

So three reasons to like this story.

There a number of 'villains' in this story. Each of whom is acting out of a kind of revenge fantasy. Sir Archibald Flint (James Bolam in fine aristocratic fettle) has delusions of aristocratic grandeur fueled by a belief in his mystical destiny. Mrs Moynihan (Susan Jameson) wants revenge on all those who she perceives have slighted her stoked by her husband fleeing with his secretary. The combination of Nicholas Pegg's writing and Susan Jameson's performances makes Mrs Moynihan a Joyce Grenville creation gone poisonous. Well, gone humourless. Unjolly hockeysticks if you like.

Finally there is the creature itself : The Tregannon - which is a nicely Cornish name for an alien species - whose name is Sancreda. He's angry at his brother for abandoning him, at Sir Achibald for leeching off of his power and Mrs Moynihan for exploiting him for her petty revenge. Then he's angry at the entire planet Earth, which is a tad unnecessary. His malevolence is given life by an excellent performance by Toby Longworth who also plays grumpy Welsh archaeologist Professor Morgan. The nasty little giggle that Sancreda gives before getting up to mischief is a rather lovely touch.

There's a lot of unfortunate and unpleasant deaths. One in particular borders of the genuinely uncomfortable to listen too.

So listen to this not for massively original plots or spectacularly nuanced characterization but revel in the performances. If there's isn't a perfect Sixth Doctor story out there then this will do in the meantime.

Give it a listen.

Go on. It's only £2.99 to download it from the Big Finish website at the moment - right here

FOUGOU

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

Red Dawn [Fifth Doctor + Peri]

Red Dawn is rather good. It take a while to heat up.* The first episode in particularly being packed full of talking and exposition a-go-go as we find ourselves following two stories: The Doctor and Peri have landed in a mysterious building and have no idea where they are. Meanwhile we are aboard the Ares, containing man's first mission to Mars.

The crew are Pilot Susan Roberts (Maureen Oakley), Commander Lee Forbes (Robert Jezek), Paul Webster (Stephen Fewell) and Tanya Webster (Georgia Moffat). Two NASA astronauts and the Websters. The Websters are the money. Or at least Paul's father is. This Mars landing is a private-public initiative. And, of course, that makes things a little complicated. Or it will do. The scenes aboard the Mars lander sound spectacularly realistic by the standards of Apollo 13 etc. It's rather well done.

Everyone meets up eventually. The Doctor and Peri from inside out and Forbes and Roberts from outside in. I hope that makes sense. Then they stumble upon the central part of the structure, which it turns out is a Tomb. An Ice Warrior tomb. The Doctor is surprisingly slow on the uptake this time as it takes almost until the Ice Warriors are standing on his feet for him to realise what's going on. Bad Doctor.

The Ice Warriors are brilliantly portrayed in this story, especially Matthew Brenher's Lord Zzaal. They're not stupid. They're clever, honourable and very, very dangerous. These are the kind of Ice Warriors I'd like to see in the television series.

This story is definitely about honour. The honour of the Ice Warriors against the honour of humanity (and the Doctor). It's about how honour isn't just an abstract code written down on stone tablets but a living, breathing way of life. It's also about how mankind might deal with first contact. There's reference to the real-life Brookings Report, which outlines how NASA missions should deal with evidence of alien existence and much talk towards the end of maturity and diplomacy.

It is quite wordy. There's a limited amount of action. Not much in the way of chases. There's an idiotic man with a plan, which in the way of all these things he continues to pursue in the face of mounting evidence that he's going to end up dead. There comes a point with these people where you have to just assume they're barking mad because there is no other explanation for their baffling refusal to face up to their inability to deal with the real world. Or the real Mars should I say. I found myself getting genuinely quite frustrated with the insane muppet. I was really, really looking forward to his comeuppance.

The fact that this comeuppance came as the result of an act of marvelous courage was even more glorious. I was actually genuinely quite moved as it became clear what was about to happen, which as I was walking along the Cricklewood Broadway at the time is a little embarrassing.

There's lots of good performances throughout but applause are particularly due to Matthew Brenher's Lord Zzaal and Hylton Collins as Sub-Commander Sstast: the teacher and the pupil as they might be called. Georgia Moffat does a fine job too with her part, which requires her to be slightly confused and annoyed by most of what's going on. She does that well.

Stephen Fewell is rather good too, especially as he gets progressively more annoying.

Peter Davison's Doctor is very much in Caves of Androzani mode here. His anger, indignation and sarcasm putting the villain's back up on a semi-regular basis. He's lucky not to get killed. Really lucky. But then that's the Doctor all over isn't it.

Nicola Bryant does Peri to perfection too, which reminds you of how short the Fifth Doctor's time with Peri was, which is a shame because they get on so well. Especially in comparison with how the Sixth Doctor and Peri were forced to behave. Ah, what could have been. It's nice to hear them working together again. Peri's brave without being too foolhardy, which is nice. There's even mention of her interest in botany here. Something which was oft forgot by the television series.

So I'd recommend this for the realism - which is an odd word to use when talking about Doctor Who - but most especially for the Ice Warriors.

Sssssssssssssssuper ssssssssssstuff.