The Doctor brings Liv back to Kaldor but once again the robots are causing problems…

Matt Fitton’s opener for this box set allows Nicola Walker’s Liv Chenka and Hattie Morahan’s Helen Sinclair a few minutes of peace and quiet before all hell lets loose, as Kaldor’s robots start to kill people. Again. You really think they’d learn by now! Seriously, it would be good to have a story in which they feature in the roles that they’re meant to have – i.e. serving the population – rather than finding many (admittedly clever) ways to turn them aside from their programming.

That reservation aside, this is a very well-paced tale with an overarching theme of family and what you’ll do for them, featuring incompetent villains who pay the price for not planning their scheme properly, and corporate bosses who are only interested in the bottom line. The best is saved for last – Fitton sets you up to expect one particular coda but instead seems (on the surface at least) to go in the other direction, leaving some intriguing questions in its wake. Full marks to sound designer Benji Clifford for this section – I suspect once we know more details, it will seem ever more clever in retrospect!

Verdict: A strong TARDIS team get a fine kickstart. 8/10

Paul Simpson