The Doctor and Mags respond to a request for help from an old friend…

Ace’s chronology is, to put it mildly, complicated, with her timeline intersecting with the Gallifrey audios as well as the Seventh Doctor – but, if I’ve remembered correctly, she was dropped back on Earth by Braxatiel during the Gallifrey Time War series with part of her memory wiped. That would appear to be the version of Dorothy McShane that we encounter in this story… although, to be honest, it doesn’t really matter that much.

This is something of a weird story by Alan Barnes, with homages to Australian soap operas intermingled with what feels like a more comic book feel than normal – and a musical motif in Joe Meiners’ that becomes seriously irritating by the 427th time it’s used. At one point you think we’re going to wander towards the typical werewolves vs. one of their renowned enemies conflict; instead we get an unusual take on that horror icon – which allows a number of the cast to play more than one role.

Jessica Martin and Sophie Aldred have a good aural chemistry as Mags and Ace, with McCoy’s Doctor taken into some realms that we’ve not heard in recent years. Samuel Clemens has once again introduced new voices to the Big Finish lines, and I hope we’ll hear from them in future.

This has been an interesting trilogy of stories; Martin’s (and Maggs’s) presence has brought out some different sides to the Seventh Doctor. Some of the resemblances between the first two stories that I thought might be tackled in this finale aren’t, which leaves some potential for a return.

Verdict: An unusual tale to bring this trilogy to a close. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order from Big Finish