The Stockbridge trilogy just keeps on getting better and better with what might be one of my favourite Fifth Doctor audios, maybe in my top ten overall! I honestly think that, if this had been made on television, it'd be critically acclaimed as a highlight of his era. Also, what a fantastic cold open this story has, recapping the final cliffhanger of the last story.

The Doctor and Nyssa are thrown into what initially seems like a calm and normal environment, no aliens to be found - which of course makes them suspicious. Peter Davison's performance is phenomenal. His aggression, his passion and his determination throughout is so superb, this is the first time this incarnation of the Doctor is always serious, no messing about - but elements of his charm and wit still bleed through from time to time, but rarely and that makes him stand out so much. There's something so off about the Fifth Doctor, normally a warm and kind-natured soul having a go at villagers and calling them stark-raving bonkers and I love it. What I also love is, for most of the story, he's isolated from Nyssa - he's got no-one to rely on as he usually does, he's totally out of his depth and makes this shift in tone so unbelievably realistic. Speaking of Nyssa, she's really taking everything in her stride here. Confident, brave and ready to save the Doctor at every chance she gets - it's not often that we see the roles reversed, with the Doctor in danger this time and it's up to the companion to get him out of the time bubble. I often say that there's nothing of real significance to Nyssa, she's a rather generic companion, but here she's got a proper story - a young girl who, after a long time of travelling with the Doctor, has to become an independent woman and take charge of the situation as the Doctor's taught her. Despite this, she's still terrified of everything she experiences. The short time she and the Doctor spend together in the story is brilliant, they bounce off each other so marvellously and it's clear that they've been in each other's company for so long that they complete each other - I'd say Nyssa's arc is coming to a close by now; she started her time on the TARDIS as an innocent teenager, and the Doctor took on the paternal role, but as she spent more time with him, she became more accustomed to the Universe, more knowledgeable, and has grown up - and it's not really until the last few adventures that the Doctor has realised this and started to treat her like an equal rather than a daughter. To be honest, I'm a little concerned as to how much more they can do with Nyssa and if it can actually work, but I hope they think of something cos she's still in 37 more stories. I adore the cliffhanger it ends on, them sacrificing themselves to save the Earth, but being trapped in the vortex...

Goodness me, how delightful is it to hear the usually loving personalities of the Doctor and Nyssa to be twisted into a vampiric essence. Once again, exceptional performances from the pair of them, managing to pull off binary opposites of their characters. The confrontation between the Doctor and their future is so well-played, maintaining a level of power from both sides, but for once the Doctor is a little less in control and almost scared. If there's one thing I'm not overly fond of for this story, it's the inclusion of Viridios right at the end - I was satisfied with alternate versions of the Doctor and Nyssa acting as the main antagonists, but they had to have an alien in there, which I just don't like. I love the idea that, just possibly, there's a timeline where things don't result in a happy ending, and the Doctor chooses to be nice even though there's a hidden evil in him. However, they decided to go with "alien manipulating protagonists into being evil". Not a massive fan of that, but I can let that slide considering he's only in the final half of episode 4.

There's a fantastic contrast with having a perfectly ordinary English village be the setting of something so incredibly evil. The timey-wimey shenanigans really raise the stakes of this story and the tone is set so well through the constant juxtaposition of happy moments like weddings cut off immediately after with tragedies of funerals and death. The visuals of this adventure would be so brilliant to see on television, constantly switching between 60 years and watching how things adapt over time, which I think is so clever, for country villages have never really changed, and it's such an interesting idea to take advantage of. As the Doctor says, "Stockbridge never changes", and it really doesn't! What I really love is the way it shows two different perspectives of the situation in part 2 and 3, with the Doctor experiencing the temporal chaos from inside the bubble, and Nyssa at the same time witnessing the events from an external point of view, showing the effect it's having on the world.

While this might have a dark and grim feel to it, the story isn't without its quips and witty dialogue throughout, especially in the form of Max and PIG. Mark Williams is just so fantastic as Max Edison. I think that Morris did a brilliant job at introducing a character from another platform of expanded media into the audios - as someone who's never read the comics, I understood his character perfectly and he is always a delight to be around, especially once he encounters people who have similar interests to him. He's such a sweetheart, and it's so tragic for his life to go back to normal and he realises the sacrifice he's made by saving the Universe in losing his paranormal investigator friends. His chemistry with Lizzie is off the charts; it feels so realistic and human, that even in tragedy, love and friendship is still able to blossom. Despite that, there's also a really depressing story for the villagers of Stockbridge, having to relive the events of their life every day, including the disasters. Even though they know they will see their loved ones the next day, it still pains them to watch them die. There's something so tragic about that and it's just such a fantastic concept, even going so far that they don't want to experience it anymore and they beg the Doctor to kill them - that sort of reflects on the Doctor; even though he experiences death regularly, doesn't make it any easier to see it happen. The character work in these minor roles is played to perfection and it's constantly haunting that everyone gets their own arc.

The sound design is brilliant - the score is subtle but helps to set the moody atmosphere and feels incredibly authentic to the 80s, but the sounds of Nyssa absorbing the villagers' past is so gruesome, and the pathetic fallacy portrayed in the audios, there's so much contributing to this dark theme throughout.

I just want to mention how hard it was to choose a favourite line, because there's so many fantastic ones, many humorous one-liners, confrontational speeches, references to Shakespeare, but I just love this small moment the Doctor has that really sums up his personality.
Favourite Line: "A gift of immortality? Can't you see it's a curse, not a blessing?"

Outstanding. Absolutely outstanding. I love this story to bits, and it's possible that, if Plague of the Daleks matches the quality of the previous two stories, that the Stockbridge Trilogy could be one of the strongest trilogies in the range! I was not expecting this going in, but it's just so marvellous, and I know this will probably be a story I'll be revisiting time and time again.