Returning to Earth, Hebe discovers an old friend isn’t quite herself…

Paul Magrs pens this first story of the second box set of adventures for the Sixth Doctor, Melanie Bush and Hebe Harrison, with a tale that has his hallmark of heightened reality – as opposed to his straight historical dramas – and provides Colin Baker with an excellent opportunity to show a fresh side to his Doctor. We’ve seen (or rather, heard) a frightened Doctor in the Lost Story Mission to Magnus, but this version is rather more credible, both in set up and in performance – Helen Goldwyn keeps it clear that it is the Doctor, albeit one who’s undergone something quite traumatic, and later revelations do nothing to diminish these scenes.

There’s a lot going on that I suspect is setting things up for the rest of this run – listen carefully to the penultimate scene – and Magrs establishes Hebe’s background well. The villain is a little over the top, quite deliberately, and there’s some classic confrontation scenes.

Andy Hardwick’s sound design is very good – the party scenes and the transitions within them particularly – but his score unfortunately feels inappropriately melodramatic at times, with a crescendo to full orchestra that doesn’t match the tension of the scenes where this occurs (I suspect they play very differently without the music). The music itself is great, but the juxtaposition on this occasion doesn’t quite work.

Verdict: Some intriguing developments in a fun tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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