River is incarcerated in a new prison, one that even she won’t be able to get out of – or so they say. And her captors have brought a special prisoner to join her… but not the Time Lord she’s expecting.

After multiple box sets running up and down the Doctor’s timestream, it’s about time for Dr River Song to interact with a few of her husband’s best enemies. And who better to meet first than the most recent version of the Master, aka Missy…

Jonathan Morris plays with the notion of the Bechdel Test with a play that’s often two women talking about a man… or at least a Time Lord presenting as male. As with River’s recent appearance in the Eighth of March box set, hearing her work alongside other core members of the Doctor Who family beside the Doctor himself is fascinating – the scene as River tries to work out who Missy is is laugh aloud funny at times (even if as listeners we know damn well who the new prisoner is). Missy’s psychopathic side isn’t toned down in the slightest, and whereas with Leela, River could let herself go in a way she couldn’t with the Doctor, here she’s having to be something of a restraining influence.

River and Missy know the Doctor in very different ways, and their comments both on their own relationships and on the other’s are thought-provoking, with Morris ensuring that we are kept engaged with the ongoing, suitably twisting plot as we go.

Verdict: A well-paced and produced opener. 8/10

Paul Simpson