Adric and Tegan disappear from the TARDIS and the Doctor and Nyssa must find them…

It’s not often that the main range stories disappoint – occasionally there are moments in an episode where something doesn’t quite work as well as it should, and that’s inevitable to an extent. But for me, the whole of Zaltys just doesn’t work, with clunky dialogue in which characters constantly (and I don’t mean occasionally, but constantly) refer to past adventures and talk about themselves in a knowing way (the worst offender being the Doctor referring to his own resilient nature). There’s a scene where Tegan meets a new alien and immediately makes a reference to an Urbankan – it’s the equivalent of meeting someone with a distinctive look in a coffee shop and the first thing you say to them is that once upon a time you met someone else with a distinctive look that’s absolutely nothing like theirs.

The foreshadowing is done with the subtlety of an elephant gun – Adric’s reading Dracula, so guess sort of alien what they meet; Nyssa and the Doctor leave an ion bonder in the control room, and guess exactly what Tegan needs when she’s separated from the others. A computer that seems to work off voice recognition is fooled by Adric putting on a silly voice… I could go on.

The cast fight valiantly with what they’ve been given, but this is the first time in many, many years that I’ve come close to packing up listening to a main range story.

Verdict: A real disappointment. 3/10

Paul Simpson