The Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith encounter the Cybermen on a sea base…

After Trevor Baxendale’s Master tale as part of the Masterful box set, Big Finish have embarked on a series of full length original novels – this one, without extras, comes in at well over seven hours – and it’s to Simon Guerrier and Jon Culshaw’s credit that this never feels as if it outstays its welcome.

Stylistically somewhere between a Terrance Dicks novelisation and one of the BBC Past Doctor adventures (there’s an occasional harshness to it that might not have made it to screen), this is divided into six parts, as it might have been if it had been broadcast back in 1974 as part of Jon Pertwee’s final season. Coincidence of release means we had an aquatic adventure for this team set in the same season not that long ago, courtesy of Tim Foley’s The Gulf, and if we were to get a third, then I hope a suitably acerbic line from Sarah will accompany their arrival. Guerrier keeps plenty of plot for each episode, and there’s never that feel you get in some six-parters (particularly those featuring the Cybermen) that you’re treading water (so to speak!).

It’s another tour de force for Culshaw after the Master tale. There’s plenty of original characters on the sea base, all easily told apart, with his rendition of Lis Sladen’s Sarah getting the slight speeding up that she sometimes did on certain key words. (His Pertwee is, as usual, spot on – particularly when the Doctor is in difficulties). Nicholas Briggs’ Cybermen are different from those we’ve heard before, for reasons that are explained, but feel closest to The Invasion.

Special praise is due for Steve Foxon’s sound design and score – the latter cleverly evokes the feel of both the 2nd Doctor Cyber-tales as well as later incarnations – and Guerrier credits script editor Roland Moore for one of the most effective sequences, drawn from another of Earth’s conflicts.

Verdict: A carefully plotted and well presented missing Season 11 tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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