The Doctor and Leela arrive on a colony world where the ghosts are haunting the inhabitants.

Although this is volume 4, this is actually the fifth of these stories created by Doctor Who producer Philip Hinchcliffe for his final TARDIS team, Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, with the most recent before this arriving back in 2017. That was a four-parter, unusually for the range, and I suspect that this new story might have benefitted from a slightly shorter running time – there was a little bit of that feeling you got at the end of the 1998 Godzilla when the creature was revived yet one more time before being destroyed.

There’s lots going on, and as ever Marc Platt brings his characterisation skills to bear in the varying groups on the planet, while there’s some intriguing twists alongside one that worked well on screen, but doesn’t necessarily bear repetition. Baker and Jameson prove the strength of their characters’ bond – particularly during the period when each has good reason to believe the other is dead – and Joe Kraemer’s score often evokes Dudley Simpson’s period music.

Verdict: An often strong, if overlong, return to the heyday of the mid-70s. 7/10

Paul Simpson

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