This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Terror of the Sontarans

After the brilliance that was The One Doctor I was really concerned that the next comedy wouldn't be able to live up to it. Well I was right, it didn't live up to it... it exceeded it. I'm impressed that this story seems to get such a marmite reception because it's utterly hilarious. While the last one was a direct parody of Doctor Who, this is more a parody of things like Star Trek and Space: 1999.

The Doctor and Mel arrive on a shuttle that's immediately blown up. Luckily they're beamed out of there just in time. The catch is they're believed to be the replacement Commander and shuttle pilot for the ship. This is a brilliant opening and paves the way for a fairly unique structure. It reminds me of The Curse of Peladon with the Doctor immediately being trusted as an authority figure.

Speaking of the Doctor, McCoy takes on the role of the Doctor taking on the role of the Commander brilliantly. He's a great Doctor to put in the detective role of a murder mystery and hearing him boss about a bunch of annoying aliens was fantastic. I also think the supporting characters, while sometimes grating, were great. Particularly Geri, who acted in a similar way to Alpha Centauri, also from The Curse of Peladon.

I'm a sucker for a murder mystery and I always love the scene where the detective gathers everyone into a room and reveals everything. I absolutely loved the way it was done here with all the twists and turns. Listening to this entire story was a roller coaster, normally in murder mysteries you sus out who did it pretty quickly so long as you don't fall for a red herring. I genuinely had no idea at any point. Of course, in hindsight, it makes a lot of sense.

I'm sure I could go on about this story long enough to fill out the runtime of of my own Main Range story but I think I'll put a pin in it here and say this is a fantastic story if you love something silly that doesn't take itself seriously in the slightest while still forming a really compelling and interesting story. Really great stuff.

Next Story: Flip-Flop