Just a brilliant character piece for Abslom.

When you sit down and think about it, there really are a lot of parallels between a post-Time War Doctor and Abslom Daak, and this story does a great job of showing that. The Doctor sees in Abslom who he could have been and can empathise with his current situation, but also knows that Abslom absolutely won't listen to him if he tries to talk, so talks about that obsession to Alice while letting Abslom listen in.

The emotion you can see on his face when he finds his wife, and the contrast between that and the facade he puts back on when he comes back pretending he hadn't, it's just great.

This story does more to make me like Abslom as a character than the full previous volume, and with this level of writing for him I can't wait to see more.