If there’s an emergency, the person you need in your hospital, beyond a doubt, is the good Doctor Keller…

Janine H. Jones’ story for this series focusing on Derek Jacobi’s Time War version of the Master demonstrates a good handle on the particular foibles of this incarnation – his ability to be sweetness and light, and eminently reasonable when things are going his way… and an utter coldhearted bastard, quick to anger, when they’re not. As we realise during the story, he’s ruthless in achieving his aims, although he only resorts to his “I am the Master and you will obey me” when he absolutely has to. Jacobi turns on a dime as required, and makes his Master a much more insidious foe as a result.

Jonny Green is a strong addition to the cast – although it’s slightly disconcerting going straight from listening to Torchwood’s Herald of the Dawn to this! – and his character’s relationship with the Master is intriguing, as is Hannah Barker’s Phila, and it’s almost a shame that inevitably one of them falls foul of the Master’s machinations.

Jones makes good use of the series mythology with regard to fixed points and establishes how they interact with the ever-changing face of the universe in the Time War. Hopefully this will reappear in other stories down the road.

Verdict: Plenty of twists and turns in a strong tale. 9/10

Paul Simpson