Arriving on an asteroid penal colony turned mine, the Doctor and Sarah Jane are thrown headlong into political unrest, revolution and the plans of something impossibly old…

Jonathan Morris’ script could be taught as a textbook example of how to do six part stories.

Every scene drives the story, every episode adds a new wrinkle and every one of the elements is tied together in an ending which rounds the story off and places it in the exact thematic space you’d expect. It’s a remarkable piece of writing, unblinkingly political in a manner that’s very modern at the same time as feeling very much of it’s time. Or perhaps time really is a flat circle. Regardless, it’s a fiercely angry story that manages to make everyone an individual without ever resorting to anything resembling bothsidesism.

Barry Aird and Harry Myers are great as Rellak and Carver, two of the miners at the forefront of the revolt along with David Dobson’s reluctant figurehead, Tribune Foyle. On the other side of the aisle, Richard James’ Governor Rogan is subtle and oddly pitiable in spots where he could so easily have been a sketch of one of our most recent PMs. Robert Whitelock’s Operator Goole is also a surprisingly deep character as is Ann Crichlow’s Officer Miro, who becomes a de facto companion at one point. Even Tom Alexander’s Mullins, initially sketched in as a Renfield-a-like is a clever, nuanced character performed with wit and menace and like many of the cast makes some surprising turns. Charlie Norfolk’s Doctor Gottfried is a dutiful and principled scientist who ends up somewhere very different to where you expect and at the centre of it all, Juliet Aubrey is polite, refined and terrifying. It’s a great cast and it feels less like one story and more like a half dozen stories intersecting and feeding into and off one another.

Nicholas Briggs’ direction is as clear eyed as ever and there’s always a sense of pace even as the characters bed in. This is a big story in a small space full of big personalities and Briggs and Morris give them all room to work. That includes Tim Treloar and Sadie Miller, both of whom get a lot to do here. Treloar’s Third Doctor is on top form, a scientific swashbuckler who sees the long game but plays his cards close to his chest. The ending here is brilliantly handled, and a lot of that falls on Treloar and Miller. The former as the alien architect and observer of events. The latter as the relentless, determined and profoundly principled human face of historic events. Both, like every other element of the story, at the top of their game.

Verdict: Complicated, confident, ambitious, angry and epic in every sense this is the strongest Third Doctor story in this format yet. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart

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