The Deadly Assassin!

A brilliant first two parts, and... a third and fourth part. It may be that the Gallifrey series has spoilt me for gallifreyan intrigue and politics, but while the first two parts set that all up really nicely (the assassination of a president, the exposition about life on Gallifrey, seeing the bureaucracy in action, the loopholes in law), when the Doctor enters the matrix near the end of part 2, it starts to somewhat fall apart.

It's not that the matrix sections are particularly bad or anything, it's just that they feel very much like standard fare for the show, and the story up until that point had managed to feel somewhat out there, even despite its 'grounding' of the Time Lords. It'd felt somewhat more unique, the bureaucratic aspect being something not often seen in the show, and here The Doctor isn't the clear smartest man in the room like he often is, we're even introduced to his old mentor.

When we get into The Matrix though, it's The Doctor running around a quarry. The show can say that The Master's controlling the environment as much as they want, but it doesn't really affect all that much, and it still ultimately comes down to, well, The Doctor fighting an enemy in a quarry, about the most standard story you can have in classic who.

It does somewhat come back after he leaves, especially with The Master's plans with faking his death to get what he wants and that, but even then, it feels like a Master story. Master stories are always good, and I of course appreciate that there hadn't been one in such a long time, but for a story that started setting itself apart from the standard action of the show, it's a little disappointing that it ends up being standard Who story.

Don't get me wrong, a good standard Who story, but still a standard Who story.