Toos takes Poul back to the last place on Kaldor that he ever wants to go…

You really need to be up to speed on the strand of The Robots involving Toos and Poul before diving into Guy Adams’ first story in this set – it’s a tale that picks up on multiple elements both of those episodes and where all this began in The Robots of Death. Adams’ time penning the Big Finish version of Adam Adamant Lives! plays into this – there’s some similarities between the ways that he mentally tortures Adam in that and the way that David Collings’ Poul is treated here, as everything finally begins to get on top of him.

Plenty of things that didn’t seem to add up previously are explained here – not least why Pamela Salem’s Toos has any sort of interest in Poul any more – and both Salem and Collings give great performances. As Adams notes in the extras, it’s not the sort of story you could necessarily do if the Doctor were directly involved, but we can be pretty certain that he’s not around. Gregory de Polnay returns as D84 for this story and let’s just say it’s intriguing to hear the take on the character; he’s certainly given more than he had in the original TV story.

Verdict: This may well send you back relistening to the earlier instalments with its changes in perspective. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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