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

Previous Story: The War Games

With The War Games in Colour having come out recently, I've decided to revisit Big Finish's take on the Doctor's lost adventures in between his trial and his exile. I have listened to them before (mostly) but I didn't really give them my full attention and somewhat sped through them because I was eager to get to the first bits of Doctor Who in colour so I've gone back to give them the proper listen they deserve.

This story starts off strong, right off the heels of the Doctor's trial. The Doctor lands in some sort of snowy environment and it's very atmospheric. It really does feel like the perfect continuation if you listen to it right after that eerie trial scene in The War Games. The Doctor meets a mysterious character called Raven, who we later learn to be a Time Lord. Raven is a really intriguing character, played wonderfully by Emma Noakes. I like the way she acts as a sort of handler for the Doctor, it's a unique dynamic that I don't think we've seen before unless you count the Brigadier.

There's not much in the way of plot in the first half, we meet a few more characters also stranded on this strange snowy planet. The story really gets going when it's revealed that the planet is Skaro and the Doctor has been sent here intentionally to help retrieve a stranded Time Lord. Normally I'd find a Dalek cliffhanger a bit unoriginal but I do think it's done quite well here and given the Second Doctor's unique relationship with the Daleks I'll let them off here. After all that is resolved, there's some ominous moments with Raven and one of the side characters and the story ends.

All in all, this first story isn't much of an actual story, instead it exists to establish the status quo of this new era and introduce the format of the Doctor's adventures going forward. Like I said earlier, it's very atmospheric and sets up a good few mysteries so it's absolutely worthwhile. Michael Troughton's impression of his father's Doctor is great. I think the best impressions are where they play their own version of the character and not the actor and this is a shining example of that. It also helps that they're already quite vocally similar. Michael just sounds like an ever-so-slightly pitched up version of his dad. Ultimately, the fact that his impression is so good from the get-go is a promising sign and I'm looking forward to revisiting the rest of Season 6B.

Next Story: The Wrath of the Ice Warriors