An accident in the Time Vortex affects the Doctor’s personal history…

David K. Barnes made a strong impression with his earlier work for Big Finish, and he’s pulled off another tale that could easily have gone very badly wrong. The idea of a multi-Doctor story featuring the first two incarnations is a fascinating one, particularly given how much of the Doctors’ lives was shrouded in secrecy in those early days, and Barnes treats it with due respect, keeping the Doctors apart for much of the story, but mixing and matching companions from the two eras. We didn’t see much of Doctors One and Two together in previous stories, and Barnes gives us characters drawn from their respective eras, rather than the broad-strokes versions of the Doctors seen in other crossovers.

Peter Purves and Frazer Hines have plenty of double-duty to perform, as both their respective Doctors and their own TV characters, with Wendy Padbury strong as Zoe, and Ajjaz Awad making her proper appearance as Katarina (after a brief cameo in the Ravenous series). Awad isn’t the same position as someone like Daisy Ashworth stepping in as Liz Shaw – Katarina isn’t by any means one of the better remembered companions, and so she is able to make her mark as the character without so much baggage in this story. There’s a scene between her and Hines as the Doctor that is pitched very well, and is as powerful for what it leaves unsaid.

Barnes also uses the Dalek Masterplan era Daleks well, and Nicholas Briggs provides plenty of variety in his vocalisations of the creatures. Toby Hrycek-Robinson’s sound design and score are nicely in period – both periods, Hartnell and Troughton – and director Lisa Bowerman gives each scene the energy it needs.

Verdict: The crossover you didn’t realise you needed – poignant and powerful. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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