Very good story. Especially strong in the character department.

The Doctor, Steven and Sara are hit by a rogue timeship while on the run. It turns out they’ve clashed with the vessel of the first human time travellers. But when stranded on an island, can they trust their fellow ship wreckers?

This story is very split in two pieces. It’s basically 2 stories in 1. The first piece is the stranded story, where both parties try to figure each other out, while also trying to find the Tardis and escape the island.

This part is okay on its own. What shines here are the conversations between the Doctor, Sara and Steven. In a stroke of genius, we’re setting up for a romance between those last 2. With Steven being clearly interested, while Sara is a bit more withholding, since she would be allowing herself to be weak. Meanwhile the Doctor is on the sideline, but still very aware of the situation. As shown when he recommends Sara to go and sit with Steven in a moment of peace. It’s an incredible scene and it sets the dynamic perfectly.

What’s less interesting, is the need for a villain in the story. There’s this very unnecessary time ghost on the island and the human time travel crew are really not that interesting. These are all just distractions from the actual interesting stuff. I would’ve preferred some unique environmental hazards instead.

The second story/part is very different. After finding the Tardis, the human crew tries to take control. This causes mayhem in the Tardis. Steven gets knocked out, but wakes up with Sara dragging him off. They’re being shot at. It turns out the tardis has landed in Berlin, 1966. And they’ve just crossed the wall.

This is where the earlier character work pays off. We are aware of the current relationships between these two. So now we can test it and put some pressure on. Since the two of them stand out, they quickly get picked up by soldiers and interrogated. With the Tardis and Doctor at the other side of the wall, the situation seems dire. This is where Steven shows his secret bargaining chip. One that should never be used. He tries to buy his freedom with knowledge from the future.

It's a beautifully presented moment. The situation feels dire. About as dire as “Flames of Cadiz” from 2 season ago. This is Doctor Who at its darkest. So Steven does the worst thing he can do to escape it. To keep himself and Sara safe. They pay the price for this when they’re dragged and interrogated, but this also allows for them to grow closer. Until we reach the crucial moment.

Steven finds out what’s really going on. This isn’t Berlin. And he isn’t with Sara. It was all going too easy. Sara would never give up her guard so quickly. He is actually in a dream. The human time travellers captured the party and put them in a sort of dream prison. But now Steven has escaped. It’s bittersweet and very tough, since this also means the death of Dream Sara, which is obviously a shame, because their dynamic was amazing. But Steven knows it just isn’t like that (yet).

Afterwards, the human time travellers are quickly dealt with. As they’re put on the same island as the beginning of the story. And so we bring the story to a close.

And that’s “The Anachronauts”. It does a lot of things right, but some small things could be better. While doing a 2 for 1 in your stories is totally fine, the transitions between the 2 feel rough. Like the fight in the tardis. It feels like it’s written as a connection piece, rather than standing on its own.

Other than that there’s stuff like, the aforementioned monster in the first story. For the second story it can also be argued that the dream stuff comes out of nowhere. There’s no revelation moment. Steven has just figured it out and we are along for the ride. The lead-in for that could be a bit stronger. Other than that, we have the human crew which don’t stand out in any remarkable way. They’re just there.

But the good in this story definitely outweighs the bad. The connections between the cast are truly something new for the First Doctor and they connect to the existing narrative beautifully. But, much as I love what’s done on that front, there’s just too many little things to call this story perfect. So, instead, this story is just very, very good.