Reunited with his friends, the Doctor intends to head to Gallifrey so they can iron out their differences. Instead they land at the Soresia…

A.K. Benedict’s opener for this box set – which has the feel and pace of a former main range adventure – is in part a meditation on the nature of grief and loss, and part a look at the desire to live forever, and all the pitfalls involved with that. The loss of Adric has been a fundamental underpinning of this set of adventures for the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa, with the presence of the Roman Marc at times exacerbating the situation, and – no spoiler, as he’s on the cover! – Matthew Waterhouse makes an appearance here. The nature of that would seem to suggest this is overwriting Paul Magrs’ The Boy That Time Forgot, although bearing in mind the chronology of the 5th Doctor’s adventures, it’d be interesting to relisten to that in light of what happens at the Silesia.

As Peter Davison notes in the extras, this script does give him a chance to do some more emotional acting in between the running up and down corridors, ladders etc. and there’s some sparky scenes between Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, and George Watkins’ Marc. Benedict always creates intriguing characters in her work, and we have some prime examples here, including multiple parts for Julia Sandford, Glen McReady getting a chance to argue with himself as the Viscount, and Anna Barry returning to Doctor Who after nearly 50 years as Aether Beauregarde.

Verdict: An intriguing tale for this expanded TARDIS crew. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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