Still shocked by recent events, the Doctor takes desperate measures…

After the high-stakes action of the recent stories in this series, it’s a good time to take something of a break and while there is still everything for the Doctor and Anya to play for in Robert Valentine’s story, it’s a much more contemplative affair. On TV, David Tennant had moments to show the reflective side to his Doctor; here self-examination (in a quite literal sense at times) affords us a chance to see how he feels about himself, and what’s he’s done over his very long life. There are some very powerful moments – not least when he points out part of what the definition of being a doctor is – and it really feels at times as if Tennant has never been away from playing the Time Lord.

Jane Slavin’s Anya Kingdom is given equally powerful material, faced with knowledge about her relationship with the Doctor that could change the equilibrium between them forever. Anya’s “cover story” from her time with the fourth Doctor is critical here in multiple ways and you definitely feel that it’s always going to be a sticking point between her and the Doctor, no matter how far in the past for him it was.

Joe Sims also has a critical role to play, which I don’t want to spoil here, but which doesn’t detract from the power of The Trojan Dalek. There’s part of me hoping that we’ve got reverses to come, but given that Dalek Universe in some ways mirrors The Daleks’ Masterplan, maybe not… Leighton Pugh’s the Lost is an intriguing character that I hope we hear more of in future – Pugh imbues the characters with the necessary ambiguity.

Verdict: Given the end of the episode (a line I anticipated given the cover of set 3 but perhaps not quite as I expected!) this may be the lull before the storm but Valentine provides some powerful character work. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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