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

Previous Story: Prisoners of Fate

And now we're onto the final trilogy in the 'Older Nyssa' arc and it's not a great start. I'm gonna start this by saying I love Full Circle. I think everything from the soundtrack to the Alzarians to the incredible twist is great, it's probably one of my favourite stories from Season 18 so I wasn't necessarily concerned about a sequel like I was with Eldrad Must Die!. Unfortunately this one fails to capture the charm of the original and it's a real shame.

Before I start the complaints I'm going to say that I think the soundtrack here, while subtler than the original, still really manages to evoke the feeling of Full Circle. Also, I appreciate what this story is trying to do in terms of fleshing out the Alzarians and Alzarius as a whole. I especially like that it tried to humanise the Marshmen even if I don't think that idea really worked.

All that is basically all this story has going for it. The sound design is unpleasant and the story is derivative and I have very little more to say than that. Genuinely a disappointment considering Andrew Smith who wrote Full Circle has also written this. Though it gets a bonus for having Jemma Redgrave who I though was superb as Decider Merrion here even if it was tricky not imagining Kate Stewart in her place.

Next Story: Equilibrium