Osgood and Josh take a trip on the wild side…

As has been pointed out recently about Star Trek’s Mirror Universe – into which the crew of Discovery has recently been pulled – you do have to wonder how people manage to get anything done there if they’re basically so nasty to each other all the time. If self-interest is the only thing dictating actions, then the chances of people cooperating sufficiently are pretty low. That’s pretty much the same problem that the inhabitants of the realm into which Josh and Osgood travel face – the contempt in which they all hold each other is palpable, with all the regular cast having fun with diametrically opposed versions of their usual selves. John Dorney does his best to avoid the clichés of the genre – although this being Doctor Who, and Nick Courtney’s character’s daughter being a key part of it, it’s inevitable that there’s a reference to the infamous eyepatch story. (Which we’ll take as the meta in-joke that it’s meant to be, and not a reference to some hidden story in which the Brigadier also went across to the Land of Inferno.)

The focus is firmly on Ingrid Oliver’s Osgood (and her counterpart, who unfortunately does get given the obvious nickname at one point) with the actress’ gifts for comedy allowed to come to the fore. She and James Joyce milk the scenes for all their inherent humour without letting this become Carry On Uniting at any stage, and while I’d hoped for a bit more resolution with regard to the Auctioneers, this is clearly something that’s going to run for some time!

Verdict: An offbeam ending to the set that works very well. 9/10

Paul Simpson