Very reluctantly, the Doctor agrees to take up the role of Lord High President of Gallifrey – and does things very much his own way…

There aren’t many places where you can slip in a story to the Fifth Doctor’s timeline where it just involves him and Tegan but the trip from Frontios to get rid of the Gravis does dispense with the need to involve Turlough (although there’s an odd line in here that suggests that Turlough is on board the TARDIS with them, rather than staying behind on the planet per the TV story). This is also a good time to focus on the Doctor and Tegan’s relationship, which is about to shatter after they encounter the Daleks…

Eddie Robson’s four-stories-in-one release has separate titles for each of its episodes, which is a nice if unnecessary conceit – this is very much one discrete story, told over a surprisingly long period of time. He comes up with a clever way of allowing Tegan to stay on Gallifrey, which means that we get plenty of scenes between Janet Fielding’s Tegan and Louise Jameson’s Leela – for once appearing in a Gallifrey-set story that takes place during the TV series. There are also some nicely rounded new characters populating the hallowed halls of the Time Lord Capitol, some of whom I certainly hope we meet up with again – and director Helen Goldwyn has once again brought some strong new voices into the mix.

Peter Davison is at his best here, fiery when necessary and conciliatory at other times, while Fielding and Jameson develop a good rapport. It’s not the sort of idea that could probably support more than a single release – quite rightly, Robson has the Doctor champing at the bit to get away, and taking every opportunity to do things rather differently from the staid Gallifreyan norm – but as a one-off, it’s terrific fun, with some great ideas on display.

Verdict: This could easily have succumbed to the temptation to be as stifling as some of the other Gallifrey-set stories of the period; instead, it’s an unexpectedly humorous set of tales that show how to use continuity correctly. 9/10

Paul Simpson