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

Previous Story: Rat Trap

Well that's probably my favourite story in this 'Older Nyssa' arc so far and I find it difficult to see how it could be topped. This story starts off with so much energy. As soon as the TARDIS crew step foot in Calcutta, they rush to save a man with (presumably) rabies. In this situation they both lose the TARDIS (which had the medical supplies necessary to cure rabies) and get Nyssa bit. This forms the main tension of the story as due to Nyssa's Trakenite biology the virus is acting fast on her.

What follows is a story that honestly felt like a blockbuster movie more than a simple Doctor Who audio drama. Perhaps it helps that the setting is exotic (atleast compared to the quiet English villages that the Doctor and Co tend to frequent). There's also a great deal of action, with my favourite stunt being when the Doctor jumps out of a hot-air balloon and onto a moving train to stop it from going off a cliff.

This leads to a horrifying moment where Tegan "dies". You know Tegan isn't actually dead but Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton act their hearts out, possibly the best acting I've seen from them in these audios thus far (specifically from the latter). Tegan's fake-out death leads to a cliffhanger I knew was coming but I still couldn't help grinning as hard as I did.

I rarely speak on the sound-design and soundtrack of Big Finish stories. They're such a crucial element of every story but tend to sort of fade into the background and slip my mind. This is one story where the sound-design is impeccable. I wish I could comment specific areas where the sound-design was best but it was all genuinely phenomenal. There's a similar situation with the soundtrack which just brings this story up so much.

The supporting cast steal the show here, from the stoic tiger Dawon (played by Vineeta Rishi) to the frustratingly villainous Major Haggard (played by Neil Stacy). And who could forget the brother of the tigers Professor Narayan, later Ayyappan (played by Sam Dastor). There's a plethora of other characters that all make this story feel like the larger-than-life adventure that it is.

I can't praise this story enough. Everything is so great about it and it leaves us on an interesting moment, Nyssa has been de-aged.

Next Story: The Jupiter Conjunction