Wulf returns home – but his life has been altered forever.

After his experiences in the Borg cube, Jean-Luc Picard went back to his home in France, but by that point his humanity had been restored. For Wulf, who believed Benny when she told him that they both would be rescued by the Doctor, that’s not the case. He too goes home, but he’s still partially converted into a Cyberman. And that makes him a danger – not just to others, but also himself.

Aaron Lamont’s script doesn’t need to add further horrors to the situation – and yet it does. When Benny – herself coming to terms with nearly being converted (an element that seems glossed over, but which is in fact neatly dealt with in the episode’s final line) – discovers that Wulf is still alive and can still feel, we realise just how much pain the young man is in.

That’s almost not the worst horror of it all. What happens to Wulf at the end of the episode and the way he’s treated by the villagers he’s grown up with… It gives Benny and the Doctor, as well as the listener, food for thought. Kudos to Jack Forsyth-Noble and Lisa Bowerman for their work in this (and it makes me hope that Scott Handcock won’t purely be script editing in future…)

Verdict: This set is shaping up to be the darkest Big Finish release for some time. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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