Leela and Narvin receive a call for help – that they’ve apparently already answered…

We’re back to Ysalus for Lisa McMullin’s story, with the hapless inhabitants apparently pawns in Rassilon’s game. If anyone ever tries to tell you that to tell a war story, you have to go full on Alastair MacLean and emulate Where Eagles Dare or The Guns of Navarone (and before anybody objects, I thoroughly enjoy both books and films of those while still acknowledging their airbrushing of the truth), play them this or its predecessor. The CIA are effectively mounting a rearguard action against their own President, trying to do the right thing in nigh-on impossible circumstances.

We’re not getting any real redeeming features to this incarnation of Rassilon – Terrence Hardiman embodies the oh-so-reasonable attitude of dictators across the years (and there’s some nasty echoes in his rhetoric of too many events of the past two-three decades), and of course there are always the enablers around, who see a chance for their own advancement if they just conveniently forget the nag of their own conscience.

The themes at play here are treated with utter seriousness, and the fates of those caught up in it feel all too real. It can’t be too long before Romana has to make a stand… and after all, we don’t know her eventual fate…

Verdict: Bleak and powerful – one of those Big Finish series that flies under the radar but should be wider known. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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