River opens the tomb of a Sun God and gets a very nasty surprise…

The Geoffrey Beevers incarnation of the Master has a very distinctive personality, particularly as expanded in his multiple appearances in the Big Finish canon over the past couple of decades, and it’s one that you know going into this story will clash with River in an enjoyable way. Alex Kingston and Beevers have a great repartee, and whereas with Missy, River’s bone of contention was that she was the person who’d killed the Doctor, here it’s the fact she’s married him that makes her opponent take notice… in particular of River’s own sociopathic traits.

Roy Gill gives us a River in Tomb Raider mode, having to keep three or four steps mentally ahead of not only what the planet(s) she’s on is throwing at her, but also of her companion/mortal enemy. You suspect that one of her tricks is actually going to be asking for trouble the minute you hear about it, but it’s the way that it’s used by both herself and the Master that makes it work well. There’s a certain Survival feel to this (I suspect it could easily have been entitled Survival of the Fittest and worked as well), and it blends well into the timelines of both protagonists.

Verdict: Another nicely thought out clash. 9/10

Paul Simpson