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

Previous Story: The Butcher of Brisbane

I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised. I went into this story expecting it to be a bit of a slog. The 'Older Nyssa' arc has been dragging on a bit and when I saw that up next was a sequel to The Hand of Fear it didn't exactly spark any excitement within me. I mean, I really enjoyed The Hand of Fear, just not the parts with Eldrad so an entire 2 hours of what is essentially those parts should not have been this enjoyable.

Rather interestingly, Turlough is the focus of this story and that means Mark Strickson really brings his A game. This story takes on a bit of a trippy format, with Turlough imagining/hallucinating himself back on Trion or at his school while fulfilling his "mission". The way it was framed made it easy to follow luckily and it gave us some fascinating insight into Turlough. He also meets an old school-friend here which is the second time that he's encountered someone from his past only for them to betray him.

Eldrad is a surprisingly effective villain and the mystery surrounding them is built up really well at the beginning. It's also cool to see another Kastrian as I thought it was a bit ridiculous that they were all gone. Overall, I think it was an interesting to choice to write a sequel to The Hand of Fear of all stories but it's surprisingly well done and another example of the development Big Finish can give to one-off characters and civilisations.

Next Story: The Lady of Mercia