Poor Big Finish - first Mary Shelley, now Ada Lovelace?!? I'll be honest - I preferred Spyfall.

I don't think this is Tom Baker's best performance - there wasn't too much of an impact upon me as I finished this story, and I've already mentioned how much I hate Jane Slavin as Ann Kelso. However, I did enjoy a few scenes where he gets to bond with Ada Lovelace.

It seems Big Finish stole something off me, with the Plague Doctors being the monsters (Even though I'm not... releasing the story... until next year... even though I wrote it... 5 years ago... Wibbly wobbly.) They sounded very creepy and reminded me of the Clockwork Droids, and their plan was very reminiscent of them, with machines going wrong and trying to sort a problem they have in the future with someone from the past. They're creepy, but the Block Transfer Wars seem very interesting, yet the story hardly focuses on it.

I got some Foe From the Future vibes when listening to this, with the church disappearing and things changing around everyone. There are some cool locations here, which add to the atmosphere of a good historical, but whilst writing this review, none come to mind.

Finty Williams as Ada Lovelace and Robert Forknall as Byron. Imagine if they were played by their TV counterparts - that would've been fun! I'm not too annoyed with the different casting due to the fact that this is in the future, Byron's dead and Lovelace is a lot older than when she met the Doctor briefly - and got her mind wiped again! I liked how the story focused on the struggle she faced as a maths genius as a product of the sexism of her time, it was handled maturely, and if Spyfall wasn't also juggling the Master plot, I could see this being dealt with in a similar way - because of this, Ada is the highlight of this story, and I'd listen to it just for her.

This is a very average story, but the performances of the side characters really boost this and make it far more interesting than it should've been.