Hebe’s first trip in the TARDIS takes her to the Moon – but a very long time in the past…

Ever since Peter Harness upended our view of the Moon in Doctor Who with his Capaldi era story Kill the Moon, our satellite can be regarded as fair game for rewrites of its history – because after all, who knows what could have happened there on the surface of an egg? The Sixth Doctor of course doesn’t have the benefit of this (fore)knowledge in Joshua Pruett’s two-parter which is as much about Hebe getting used to the realities of TARDIS travel – and the fact that people seem to threaten your life at roughly 25-minute intervals – as it is about the society that she and her friends encounter and the double threat they face.

You may well guess at least part of what’s going on a lot earlier than the time travellers – in part because as listeners we are privy to the information that Mel and Hebe learn as well as that imparted to the Doctor – but as always the key part of any Doctor Who story is how the Time Lord and their friends deal with what’s thrown at them, even if it’s familiar. There’s a lovely scene where Bonnie Langford and Ruth Madeley’s characters basically talk over the Doctor to provide explanations and if this were a cartoon, there’d be steam coming out of his ears!

Producer Jac Rayner, director Helen Goldwyn and script editor Robert Valentine are walking a fine line with Hebe’s character – as has been noted elsewhere, there’s a certain Tegan-esque abrasiveness to the marine biologist that could easily become annoying – but we are starting to see what Evelyn Smythe saw in her…

Verdict: A good first journey for Hebe. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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