The Doctor and Nyssa encounter some old enemies…

This is something of a difficult pair of stories to review without giving away some quite major spoilers – even suggesting some similar tales will perhaps ruin the central tenet of one of the pair. The idea of a two-in-one release is a good one; in a way they’re like many of the two-parters we’ve had in the TV series since its return, where the two episodes are linked but might not be stylistically quite the same.

Steve Cole and Guy Adams’ scripts give Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton plenty to work with, and both actors really seem to enjoy the challenges. Both writers know the period well, and play off the particular quirks of the characters, with Cole giving Nyssa a foil in the shape of Eve Webster’s Sonderal who quickly picks up on one of the Trakenite’s defining characteristics and uses it to her advantage. Adams uses the distinctive nature of his tale to have some fun – although there’s an in-joke that perhaps is a spoiler in itself!

Director Ken Bentley gives each story a very different feel, even if they are definitely linked. We may have heard some of the tropes in the tales before but they’re given a new spin here.

Verdict: A strong first outing for the new format. 8/10

Paul Simpson