Decades after the Doctor’s visit, King Peladon of Peladon tries to learn more about one of his subjects…

Released to mark the 50th anniversary of The Curse of Peladon, the story that introduced the planet that featured in two third Doctor stories (and that’s it for TV!) this box set from Big Finish isn’t the first time that we’ve had audios set in the Citadel – indeed, David Troughton has reprised his role as King Peladon for a Companion Chronicle – but there’s much more of a feel of the whole planet here than we’ve had before. Director Barnaby Kay and sound designer Howard Carter do a lot to give this sense of scale, even before we get into a story that sees the King travelling out incognito into parts of Peladon that we (and he) haven’t visited.

The shadow of The Curse of Peladon hangs over Jonathan Barnes and Robert Valentine’s script, with some reworkings of it (the advisor who holds sway isn’t religious, but is none the less fanatical) and some extrapolations – how would the EEC, sorry, the Galactic Federation, treat its newest member? There’s a rather different Ice Warrior from the norm (and it sounds as if Nick Briggs and Troughton had great fun in their scenes), and the Doctor’s presence is felt in more ways than you might expect and part of the scale referred to above comes as a result of a perspective in time that affords us as listeners an extra vantage point.

The only element that really doesn’t work for me is the repeated use of the “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” motif as the basis for the theme and the score – it’s a very meta decision. Yes, it’s a tune we as fans associate with Peladon because the Doctor used it to calm Aggedor, but it’s not part of their own musical environment, and I’d have hoped for something that reflected the planet’s society rather than the itinerant Time Lord who popped in one day…

Verdict: Plenty of dark hints and foreshadowing in a strong opener. 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order from Big Finish