On the trail of the persuasion machine, the Doctor encounters an old foe, who’s not exactly where he thinks he is…
Alan Barnes’ conclusion to this trilogy of Seventh Doctor tales wraps up a number of loose ends from the opening episodes, and concludes with a fun riff on the original Star Wars which is taken two or three steps further than you’d expect it to be. A lot of questions posed by the Doctor’s actions towards Klein in the past are explained – and it may take a couple of hearings before you grasp everything that’s going on – with some very blatant links between the Daleks and the Nazis.
Long term fans may recognise the name of one of the key antagonists although the context seems wrong initially; it’s part of a neat piece of legerdemain by Barnes, who shows that he can plot timey-wimey stories with the best of them. Terry Molloy shows an unusual side to Davros, one that fits neatly in the development of the character between the ranting Emperor of Remembrance of the Daleks and his reappearance in the David Tennant series.
Christian Edwards’ Will Arrowsmith is finally growing on me: although the character added a new dimension to the Klein/Doctor relationship, his irritation factor outweighed other elements in the previous stories, but here that is brought into play. Equally I hope that we don’t get a later retcon for the character, showing that he was playing some long game on behalf of Fenric/the Master/the Black Guardian (delete as appropriate), and making him out to be a lot less unsuited for TARDIS travel than he appears.
Verdict: Not quite wrapping up the Seventh Doctor’s era as originally suggested, this is a labyrinthine tale that has many intriguing elements. 8/10
Paul Simpson
IF YOU HAVE COME HERE PLEASE REDIRECT YOUR BROWSER TO WWW.SCIFIBULLETIN.COM 