“All hail Frobisher! All hail the big talking bird!”

Robert Shearman might have to go down as one of my all time favourite Doctor Who writers after this story, this is equally hilarious and unexpectedly devastating with some really dark themes and twists I didn’t see coming.

Colin Baker is great as Sixie while I thought he was good on TV lately after listening to more of his Big Finish work I feel like I’m starting to understand this incarnation a bit more and of course Frobisher my shapeshifter penguin GOAT is absolutely brilliant here I’m really saddened that he only has one more Big Finish appearance after this because Robert Jezek delivers a really great performance here.

The side cast are all amazing too I especially have a soft spot for the evil brother guy he had a lovely voice for a villain but his sibling and mother are also brilliant as is the high priest.

It’s hard for me to completely wrap my head around all the ideas The Holy Terror presents but I think while there’s something to be said about Faith the real meat is tradition and generational trauma, as I read it the fiction represented Eugene’s story or at least parts of it spread throughout the different characters and even though he did an heinous thing there’s nuance there in the end with The Doctor begging him to not kill himself, trying to save him and he just… can’t. Not because of any powerful threat or heroic sacrifice but just because Eugene couldn’t live with himself anymore and to me it hit hard especially to hear a character like The Doctor go through that and to hear Eugene break down it’s a lot more than I was expecting.