The Seventh Doctor and Mel find themselves in a frontier town hiding a deadly secret…

The era of the Seventh Doctor on TV drew from the pages of 2000AD, and Dan Starkey’s two-parter for Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford – together again after a four year gap caused in part by COVID – definitely feels as if it’s used those hallowed pages as inspiration. In particular, both in tone and characterisation, this reminds me a great deal of the Future Shocks that have run periodically – short (two to five pages) stories, usually with a twist in the tail (unsurprising, given many early ones came from Alan Moore) that inspired an often overlooked sequence of audios a few months back. The visiting civil servant whose role turns out to be critical has that over the top feel of the strips, and indeed the set up of the frontier town with its saloon, gunslingers and less than munificent mayor could have been pulled from the pages. The two-part format also suits it: Starkey sets up the situation, escalates the problems with a twist, and resolves it well – trying to drag three or four parts from this could have left it feeling stodgy.

Samuel Clemens’ direction plays it absolutely straight, even as what you’re imagining in your head gets increasingly wild, although the use of the Troughton era Cyber-voice is, to me, something of a speedbump for audio (and certainly given the backstory of this tale, it seems an unnecessary addition – wouldn’t a Nightmare in Silver type rendition be more in keeping?). Steve Foxon’s sound design and score move things on as needed, and there’s enjoyable performances from all the cast.

Verdict: A punchy tale that fits the Season 24 vibe nicely. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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