Charlotte Pollard and Robert Buchan are in a spot of bother.

Well… a lot of bother.

Well… seconds from death.

Plummeting into the Prolixity in a ship that’s coming apart as the closest thing they have to an ally falls alongside them, Charlotte and Robert Buchan decide now is the time to make their peace with the universe. This is it, this is the end and the end…looks a lot like Embankment Station in London in the 21st Century.

The good news is Charley and Robert aren’t dead. That’s all the good news.

Nicholas Briggs takes the unusual step of writing and directing this entire set and as a result the authorial voice here is both very strong and surprisingly freewheeling. This is one story told over four episodes and Briggs’ direction brings the best out of both his exemplary cast of actors and a very unusual script.

The biggest innovation here is how much of an ensemble piece the story is. Charley and Robert are front and centre for sure, and India Fisher and James Joyce are fantastic, especially in the final episode. However, they’re joined in the spotlight by the always excellent Dan Starkey as their Viyran ally and Ashley Kumar and Deidre Mullins as hacker Rab and reporter Naomi Davies. Davies in particular is practically the fourth lead and Mullins is fantastic as the peppery, zero-front reporter. Her sparky conversations with Kumar’s laconic hacker are especially good fun but she’s consistently great. She’s also a welcome second viewpoint that mirrors this series’ theme of Charley being thrown, somewhat reluctantly, into the role of an ersatz Doctor. Naomi is convinced Charley and Robert are the story of the century. She’s right. That may not be enough.

Because the second thing that makes this set work is just how apocalyptic it feels. Briggs combines the previous series’ ideas of time travel and the Viyran need to eradicate all disease to create a story that plays like modern day John Wyndham at times. The enemy forces at work here are terrifying, complex and not at all what they first seem. The scope of the story is far wider too and while most of it is set in contemporary London we don’t stay there. Using Rab, Naomi and Kieran Hodgson’s excellent and long-suffering spook, Woking, as anchors, the story concludes far from home in every possible direction and in the most surprising way possible. How much of that ending sticks is something we’ll have to wait for series 3 to find out. After all, as Charley herself reminds us, we can’t trust history. But for now it stands as one of the tensest, and ambitious, conclusions Big Finish have landed for a very long time. It’s bleak and tragic, hopeful and odd. An ending and absolutely a To Be Continued.

For all that the series isn’t quite a slam dunk. It works from the assumption that you’ve listened to series 1 (you really should) and pulls no punches. The new format, as a result, takes a little while to bed in and the ending is both a perfect resolution and the sort of cliffhanger that will make you yell in public.

Verdict: But these are small qualms for what is otherwise an excellent set. The scripts are top notch, especially the humour and structure and the performance, production and direction is ridiculously strong. It looks like there are plenty more pages left blank in Charley’s diary of an Edwardian Adventuress. I’m looking forward to seeing them filled in. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart