The Doctor and Benny arrive at the unearthing of a legend – the corpse of something that supposedly cannot die…

J.A. Prentice’s debut script for Big Finish – a competition winner – is a nicely plotted and characterised tale that bodes well for future contributions. Because of the nature of the entity that the Doctor and Benny are facing, it’s an opportunity to see what really makes them tick – and David Warner and Lisa Bowerman sound like they’re having great fun butting heads over it all.

The theme of communication that runs through this set is vital both to the set up and the resolution of this story – not just in what the various characters are saying to each other, but also what they’re not. There are moments when you can hear Warner’s Doctor figuratively smack himself on the forehead for not picking up on clues earlier (it’s something that isn’t peculiar to this Doctor – one such time is very reminiscent of a classic Doctor Who cliffhanger and works as effectively here as there).

Lois Chimamba, Rosie Day, Raj Ghatak and Lawry Lewin each give strong performances, and Prentice provides one of the more unusual reasons for searching for historical artefacts that I’ve heard – when it’s explained, I laughed aloud. Scott Handcock and Steve Foxon keep the spooky atmosphere up – as well as change the tone for the cliffhanger…

Verdict: A great debut, and an interesting tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson

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