The Doctor arrives on a space station where it seems he is the only one alive…

The switch to full-cast adventures for the Chronicles series means major changes to the storytelling potential of the range – not least because the producer and writers aren’t limited to Jacob Dudman plus one in the booths. As with Tim Treloar’s Third Doctor – and indeed all the recasts that Big Finish have carried out across their ranges from Doctor Who to Blake’s 7 and The Avengers – a key requisite has been whether the person playing the part can provide the range of acting that the originator of the role has, and that’s been borne out once more here. Dudman’s 11th Doctor has the verbal quirks and tics of Matt Smith’s performance, and when it’s matched with a good script such as this, it really feels as if it’s a missing episode from 2011 or 2012.

Writer Doris V. Sutherland notes in the extras that combining Doctor Who with zombies is mixing and matching periods of horror, although I’d argue that the series’ first encounter with such creatures, the Robomen in Dalek Invasion of Earth, predates George A. Romero’s Night of the Living  Dead by four years. Sutherland isn’t content to simply revivify corpses for her zombies though – there’s some mixing and matching going on there too, with a sprinkling of a certain Neil Gaiman script added to the mix.

Lee Adams’ sound design and Ioan Morris’ score are essential tools in director Nicholas Briggs’ armoury here, combined with strong performances from Ayesha Antoine, Tom Alexander and Avita Jay.

Verdict: A strong start to the set, and this new era of 11th Doctor tales. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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