A 9th Doctor story set after the Time War, but before 'Rose'. This story is about a planet of peace (it literally makes it's inhabitants feel more peaceful/serene) where 2 warring races have come to negotiate a peace treaty. Adriana Jarsdel is a reporter on the planet, covering the peace talks. When murders begin to happen, putting these peace talks in jeopardy, so Adriana & The Doctor must work out who is killing people and why.

I'm mixed on this story. Let's get the obvious criticism(ish) out of the way. Nicholas Briggs is not Christopher Eccleston. To be fair, there are times when I could easily suspend my disbelief and I had no problem with Briggs' Ecclestone impression. Other times however I found it to be distractingly rough.

The main issue is that I weirdly didn't find the mystery very compelling. I'm not even sure why to be honest. I just couldn't get invested in the mystery. Which is weird because I actually liked the reveal. The idea of the Compassionate (a being that creates compassion, empathy, peace in others) to be a great concept for a powerful Doctor Who entity. I also really like the reveal that it wasn't the Daleks who imprisoned the Compassionate during the Time War, but instead it was Rassilon and the Time Lords who feared the Daleks could use it's power.

I think the issue is that I figured out it was some sort of mind control before the story let on, and I recognised the red herring immediately as well. So I was ahead of the story for a lot of it's runtime.

I did like Adriana as a character though. I often like stories told from an ordinary person's POV, and seeing how other people perceive the Doctor. But despite that, the ending didn't hit as hard as I'd hoped. I liked the ending, but I didn't love it and the road to get there wasn't very compelling to me.