Lady Suzanne Clare is back – pushing cleaning robots? The team are convinced there’s more to it than that…

Counter Measures has been one of my favourite series Big Finish has produced (helped, I freely admit, by one of the most pleasant days in studio I’ve had in the last few years listening to one being recorded). When it looked as if there weren’t going to be any more, I was disappointed, but then we got a one-off – and now what seems to be a final two-parter, The Movellan Manoeuvre and The Dalek Gambit. John Dorney’s script sees the team in fine fettle, with the division of labour between them working as well as ever, and good moments for each of the four lead actors. Carolyn Seymour’s Lady Suzanne is good value, and the scenes between her and Simon Williams sparkle.

We’ve had the Movellans on audio before, and there’s some nice aural continuity with the TV appearance (the cameo in The Pilot doesn’t really count in terms of advancing what we know of them) – Cyril Nri’s Commander Vallan has the same sort of slightly changed emphasis in pronunciation as Peter Straker brought to Destiny of the Daleks. It feels as if Dorney’s slightly paying homage to the Kara/Vogel relationship from a later Dalek story in how Lady Clare and Vallan interact originally, and there are nice echoes throughout of previous Earth invasions, without it ever feeling unoriginal. He also sets up some intriguing plotlines which I guess will be resolved in the sequel.

Joe Meiners’ sound design and Nick Briggs’ music give the story a certain period feel, and Ken Bentley tightens the pace as the revelations begin to give us a cracking tale.

Verdict: If this is the last Counter Measures tale, then it’s certainly starting on a high. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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