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

Previous Story: The Edge of the War

I'm going to say it, I expected more from this story. After the absolute fever-dream that was Kinda, I expected a sequel to be just as surreal and trippy and while this story did hit some of those notes, it ultimately couldn't capture the strangeness of Kinda. That's not to say it wasn't good though, I think this story is the more effective usage of the Mara, I enjoyed it's presence here a lot more.

The reveal at the beginning that the Mara has been lurking within Tegan since her last encounter with it is definitely a terrifying one. It recontextualises a lot of the audio stories I listened to in that gap. Speaking of Tegan, Janet Fielding's performance as the possessed Tegan/the Mara was just fantastic. She puts her all into this low-budget 80s sci-fi TV show and I appreciate that a lot.

The fictional world of Manussa is very well-realised. The culture and mythology surrounding the Mara all feels like something that would naturally develop from the events of Kinda. It's something I've praised before about this era of the show, but the worldbuilding is consistently very good.

A problem I've been noticing recently, that I've been somewhat blinded to by listening to the Big Finish audios alongside the episodes, is that the Doctor and Nyssa feel very flat. Nyssa less so, as she has somewhat of a character in this story but the Doctor is especially hit hard by this. Davison is a great performer, and still brings a great energy to the role that makes him entertaining to watch but his version of the Doctor feels very one-note and boring compared to say, Tom Baker's take on the Time-Lord.

I have heard he improves in his final season, and I know for a fact he improves in the audio dramas, so this doesn't change my opinions on the 5th Doctor but it is something that I think is especially apparent in this story. Besides that though, this story has a strong cast, a mostly strong script and a great sense of worldbuilding. I can see why a lot of people like this story and may like it more than Kinda, alas I'm not one of them.

Next Story: Pursuit of the Nightjar