After Tegan demonstrates her natural control of the TARDIS, the crew arrive in a kingdom that’s at war with itself…

Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky’s first contribution to the Doctor Who range was one of my favourite stories of recent time, and I was looking forward to seeing what they do with the early Fifth Doctor era – and Kingdom of Lies doesn’t disappoint. It would be so easy for a story based on this conceit to collapse but between deft scripting, smart playing by all involved and very careful control from director Barnaby Edwards, it works – to the extent that by the end you really will be wondering if the Doctor is prepared to go through with what appears to be his plan.

The relationship between the Duke and the Duchess is a wafer-thin “audio à clef” of the British Royal Family (it’s so wafer-thin that were it a mint, Monty Python’s Mr Creosote could have eaten it without any risk of explosion). Anyone who’s studied the conspiracy theories regarding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (as I did a few years back) will recognise that the authors have delved a little deeper into the parallels than most people do. Luckily, by the time we get into around episode 3, they’ve established the characters sufficiently that you stop looking for further digs/homages – although I do wish they’d followed through with the Duchess’ father being something of a Prince Philip, rather than a militaristic Basil Fawlty – and they keep a number of surprises up their sleeves to ensure that the second half of the story doesn’t always twist the way you expect.

Sarah Sutton clearly has fun as Nyssa the Destroyer (yes, really!) and there’s plenty of good repartee between her and Peter Davison, as well as between Janet Fielding’s Tegan and Matthew Waterhouse’s Adric. The writers’ love of the period comes across in the credible dialogue (something that hasn’t always been the case for this team – even on TV), and they give each of the guest stars plenty to do. Martin Montague’s sound design and Andy Hardwick’s score are never obtrusive but ensure the atmosphere (and perspectives) are clear.

Verdict: A terrific start to 2018. 9/10

Paul Simpson