Forced to kill some time, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa go to visit an old friend of the Doctor’s who lives nearby…

The Conflicts of Interest box set begins with this three-part adventure by John Dorney – a change in format that is presumably partly there to allow stories to breathe a little more, rather than forcing everything into a roughly one-hour slot per two episodes. I do wonder with this one, though, whether the discipline of bringing it in to that length might have strengthened the end result – I reached the end of the first episode, and it felt as if not a lot had happened, and what there had been had been achieved with dialogue… that had… some long… gaps between words and phrases. (That impression was magnified by the second part, where it was used to indicate that both the Doctor and Alice Krige’s Reno are very carefully measuring their words, working out what can and can’t be believed from what the other is saying.)

Dorney gives us a bickering Doctor and Tegan – to the extent that Nyssa calls them out on it – which feels like a step backwards at times (set this during season 19 rather than 20 and it would seem more at home, albeit you’d have to find a way of either including or sidetracking Adric). There’s also a deus ex machina to an extent in that we are really not aware of certain players who become involved towards the end.

Howard Carter’s sound design evokes the dust-strewn planet, but the decision to use the particular style for the score doesn’t work as well – it’s trying too hard to say, “We’re in the 1980s, folks!”.

Verdict: An unusual misstep. 5/10

Paul Simpson

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