Fleeing an attack by pirates, the Doctor, Anya and Mark find themselves the guests of one of the last people Anya wanted to ever see again.

Andrew Smith’s contribution to the Dalek Universe saga gives us some explanations as to the relationships in the Kingdom family – including those we saw on screen (Bret Vyon and Sara Kingdom) – linking the events of The Dalek Masterplan 56 years ago with the Nation annuals of the 1970s and Big Finish’s own Dalek mythos. And of course there’s always one member of the family who everyone takes against, usually for good reason – this time played by Kevin McNally. It’s also a nice surprise to hear Space: 1999’s Maria Teresa Creasy arrive in the Who audios, playing a very different character from Helena Russell.

Smith balances the character and plot beats well with Jane Slavin getting plenty of emotional beats to contend with as Anya, and Joe Sims’ Mark Seven and David Tennant’s Doctor for their own reasons unable to necessarily be as much support as she needs. The Mechanoids are back to their basic function here – no Davros or River Song upgrading them – but Nicholas Briggs still imbues the different ones with some personality (particularly once the Doctor has been playing with their coding).

The final scenes set the stage for the opening story of set 2 (about which details are bound to be revealed soon) – there’s clearly not going to be any peace for the Doctor and his friends any time soon, and it would be quite nice to have a bit more from the Daleks in the next set.

Verdict: A good focus on one of the Doctor’s companions. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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