Lara Croft’s favourite school friend (Indiana Jones was a visiting history professor, Nathan Drake an exchange student and yes I have figured all this out) returns in this first collection of solo adventures.

Christina is on the French Riviera but so, it seems, are some individuals with darker motives. Like the Interpol inspector who wants her in cuffs. And the murderer stealing alien artefacts…

John Dorney’s It Takes a Thief starts the season off with a bang and sets the aesthetic very successfully. Christina’s adventures are the Steed and Peel Avengers by way of James Bond and all the fun stuff you can imagine is here. Car chases, cliff dives, double dealings. Front and centre in all this is Michelle Ryan’s Christina who remains far and away the strongest element of all these scripts. She’s playful without being corny, wry without being smug and her natural authority and charm is the core of the show and of this script. Although Matt Barber’s Ivo Fraser-Cannon is equally great. Imagine Giles Wembley-Hogg on holiday in Doctor Who and you’ve got an idea of how much fun he is.

Rounded off by a welcome cameo appearance from Warren Brown as Sam Bishop, this sets up an excellent premise for the show and a tone that carries through into the second story.

Skin Deep by James Goss is one of the five best individual stories Big Finish have released this year. It really is that good. Christina befriends Sylvia Noble who is still dealing with the aftereffects of Donna’s… problem. But both Christina and Sylvia aren’t quite at home anywhere and as the two women are drawn into high society it becomes clear that neither of them can escape that.

The story works for three reasons. Sylvia and Christina have entirely different approaches to the same arc and their struggle for acceptance, and struggle to accept that acceptance is what they’re looking for, makes for compelling listening. We get some welcome, but not over-used background for Christina, we get some very welcome evolution of Sylvia into something more than the generic shouting machine the show sometimes used her as and we get to see both women make bad mistakes for good reasons. Much like Guy Adams’ recent Torchwood work focusing on Gwen and Rhys, this is a show where the alien element happens in the background and is, if anything, more compelling for that. The Doctor’s absence is keenly felt, vital to the story and completes the circuit made by the two women’s arcs. This is a story about what happens when the Doctor isn’t there and what happens when you realise it’s on you, regardless of how you feel about yourself. Compelling, honest, compassionate and ugly in the best way it’s a highlight of the year.

Portrait of a Lady by Tim Dawson continues the high quality and brings Christina and Sam Bishop to the same place at the same time.

Warren Brown is an asset to any script and he has great fun here, with Sam indulging in a little deep cover work. There’s some smart work done as well with the supporting cast and the overall world building. Much like Torchwood, the approach taken to alien artefacts here is that they’re objects of immense potential power and desire. The reality is something closer to the Strugatsky brothers classic, Roadside Picnic. No one knows what these things do, all they know is they want them. The exact nature of the artefact, and the arcs of those around it, make this another personal, subtle entry with some welcome extra action.

Death on the Mile by Donald McLeary tries to balance both these elements and in a lot of ways, succeeds. It’s a heist story, which is always fun, and there’s a great setting.

The issue here is much less to do with the script and much more to do with the nature of the villains. This is a return to the Slitheen and the Slitheen of their early appearances at that. The gloating, sociopathic overweight villains were the weakest element of the Christopher Eccleston season and they’re the weakest element here, damaging the story. It plays broad when it should play wry and the end result feels forced in a manner none of the rest of the season does.

Verdict: That aside, there’s still a lot to enjoy here. Ryan is a great lead, Christina is one of the great untapped resources of the show and pairing Ryan with Brown is inspired.  Plus the season is to be applauded for choosing its era so clearly and definitively. This is a very good start, but not a great one but that’s okay. I suspect this particular flying bus has plenty of stops to make yet. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart