The Doctor is diverted from his life in Bristol by the arrival of someone who knows far more about the TARDIS than she should…

As with the recent Eleventh Doctor Chronicles, the format for the latest box set of Capaldi era adventures has changed, and these are now full cast audios with Jacob Dudman playing the Doctor. This isn’t the spot-on impersonation that Dudman provides for the 11th Doctor, but rather more of the feel of Capaldi, emulating his accent and speech stress patterns (which perhaps is because of the age difference – there’s a gravel in the voice that sadly comes with age to all of us!). It takes a moment or two to adjust to, but, particularly once the TARDIS has arrived at Calandra, you’re in no doubt which Doctor is in charge. Or at least would like to be.

Big Finish is once again interpolating a new companion into the Doctor’s timestream, with Bhavnisha Parmar (briefly seen in this week’s Doctor Who: Flux) as the hijacking Keira, about whom we learn a lot, both good and bad across the episode. Matt Fitton has come up with an ingenious conceit at the heart of this, with ramifications clearly to be explored in Lou Morgan’s follow up pair of episodes, so I won’t go into spoilers here – suffice it to say that Keira manages to screw up on a very large scale.

Helen Goldwyn gives the scenes the necessary room to breathe – this could have easily felt rushed, but doesn’t – and Lee Adams’ sound design helps sell Fitton’s core idea.

Verdict: An intriguing start to the 12th Doctor’s latest adventures. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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