When the TARDIS becomes someone else’s property, the Doctor and Leela find themselves up against bureaucracy of the worst kind…

Guy Adams’ script for this opening adventure for the Fourth Doctor and Leela skirts carefully around any clashes with The Sun Makers, with a story that bounces around locations. As Louise Jameson notes in the extras, Adams follows the Robert Holmes template of keeping the Doctor and Leela separate. The former gains an ersatz companion of his own, although Sara Powell is not playing the standard “what are we doing now, Doctor?” type, while Leela has some enjoyable hunts. This pits Leela against Ramon Tikaram’s President Dunn-La – and some intriguing visuals that Jamie Robertson’s sound design helps create in your mind.

The Doctor is pitting his wits against the Director, a luscious performance from Sian Phillips, for whom greed isn’t just good, it’s God (although you can sympathise with some of her reactions to the obstacles in her way). Chris Porter has two very different roles – as HMG’s representative Jeffery Secombe, and a very cleverly named alien (a role that to begin with I thought the author had snaffled for himself!).

It’s a characteristically clever script from Adams, although it does fall into the trap of the Fourth Doctor having considerably more control over the TARDIS than he had on screen (the ending doesn’t work unless he does – and even then, I’m not convinced that it works within the story’s own rules). That’s a minor consideration, though – this is a thoroughly entertaining four-parter, deftly directed by Nick Briggs.

Verdict: The lure of greed and the exercise of power are at the heart of this story – with the odd dinosaur thrown in! 8/10

Paul Simpson

Click here to order from Big Finish