Prisoners are going missing but the Doctor and Jo have other matters to attend to – a meeting with the Doctor’s former companion, Liz Shaw…

Recasting has been increasingly prevalent at Big Finish as time has gone by – when you’re trying to recreate an era that is now many decades in the past, many of the original key participants have sadly passed away. But it’s a tribute to the verisimilitude of the production, and the talents of the actors involved that it takes a moment to realise that in a scene featuring the 3rd Doctor, Jo Grant, Liz Shaw and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, only Katy Manning from the original cast is involved. Jon Culshaw’s Brigadier is stunningly good, and partnered with Tim Treloar’s Doctor, there’s a whole new lease of life possible for the UNIT era. Daisy Ashford captures the inflections of her mother’s performance as Liz Shaw, and it’s very easy to imagine Caroline John with Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney in the scenes.

But all that excellence would go to waste if the story didn’t live up to it, and John Dorney provides a great sequel to Inferno (the title’s a giveaway so don’t moan that’s a spoiler). How Professor Stahlman’s little side-effects come back to haunt the Doctor I won’t give away though – and again, don’t moan about that when you hear it: it’s very true to the way sequels were produced in that era. The interesting relationship between the Brigadier and Jo is present and correct – she gets away with the sort of insubordinate remark that few others would – and her increasing independence is nicely brought to life by Manning: compare her performance here with the older Jo of The Green Life, and you can hear some interesting nuances.

Director Nicholas Briggs ensures the suspense is built, and the oddly visual cliffhanger to one of the episodes works well. The music score feels like it owes more to Counter-Measures than Dudley Simpson but given the nature of the military’s role in the story, it’s effective.

Verdict: Strong performances across the board add to taut direction and sound design of a well thought through script. Highly recommended, particularly to those of us who lived through this era! 9/10

Paul Simpson