Arriving in New York in the late 19th century, the time travellers face possibly their most implacable foe yet…

If you weren’t quite persuaded by the first story in this box set that this re-casting of the central quartet of the early days of Doctor Who was going to work, The Great White Hurricane should seal the deal. There was more than one occasion during this that I could “see” Hartnell, Russell, Hill and Ford in the scenes, even if the voices were not quite as I remembered them. The easiness between Ian and Barbara is spot on, while the Doctor’s concern for his granddaughter once again overrides any consideration for his own safety.

I’d heard of the historical event it’s centred around (in John R. Maxim’s Time Out of Mind, which is well worth seeking out in its own right) but Guy Adams’ script gets the inherent dangers of the situation across very quickly – after all, a bad snowstorm is something that most listeners will have experienced in (probably) a milder form than this, and we’ve had a story on TV in recent time where rivers have frozen. Adams doesn’t content himself with pitting the TARDIS team against the elements: the Doctor and Susan become embroiled in a battle between rival gangs, while Ian and Barbara find themselves aiding a young mother whose alcoholic abusive husband has taken their young son. The latter plot is closer to some of the social realism that viewers of the 1960s would have encountered in plays such as Cathy Come Home but never feels out of place here – helped by a singular lack of any other SF devices (figurative and literal).

Howard Carter’s sound design doesn’t simply conjure up the snow, but, at the relevant times, envelops you in it, and Nick Briggs’ direction ensures that we really feel that we’re in the right period, both of Earth’s history and that of Doctor Who.

Verdict: An excellent addition to the historical tales. 9/10

Paul Simpson