The Doctor, Ace and Mel arrive at a shipyard on Merseyside in 1991 – and Mel gets offered a job…

It’s not very often, after hundreds of hours spent watching, reading and listening to Doctor Who, that a story can constantly surprise me, so hats off to Eddie Robson and the team for this new adventure for the Seventh Doctor and his reunited TARDIS team. Although there’s much of the same gritty depiction of period that Paul Magrs brought a few months back to the Peterloo riots story for Davison’s Doctor, you’re never in any doubt of the sci-fi element to this, and the two are meshed well, with at least two characters’ motivations drawn from the concerns of the era.

Julie Graham relishes the chance to play an out and out baddy (as a wonderful moment in the extras indicates very clearly), and director Ken Bentley has pulled together a good cast of old and new names to Big Finish, who I hope we hear from again in the near future. While it’s lovely to hear some familiar voices, newcomers always bring a slightly different energy to proceedings. Bentley’s directorial style is slightly different in this too – the cutting between scenes is far sharper in particular, with some clever overlap from sound designer Martin Montague – which also sets this apart.

Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Bonnie Langford are a much stronger team together than I’d anticipated, even if Aldred’s Ace does seem to have gone back emotionally from the character that appeared with Hex (unless I’ve missed something and these stories are set earlier?), with some nice backstory filling in for Melanie Bush that Langford sells well.

Verdict: A constantly surprising, and enjoyable tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson